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From Archbishop Donoghue
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AACCW recognition day |
Dear Friends in Christ, It would be impossible, if I were to stand here and try to thank you, as representatives of Catholic women everywhere, for every service and good work that you do, for your families, for the Church, and for the culture and the society of this country that is our home. There are too many areas - education, the health profession, care-giving, volunteer services, the law, government, and on and on - and these are just the beginnings of a list of public activities. When we count in the many services that women provide their churches and their families, then we are faced with a universe of particular acts - and array of human activity that I am sure reaches far wider a spectrum of service than most men are ever able to accomplish. I do not say this to make a currently popular statement. I say it from the experience of watching the Church and human society for many years, from a position that has enabled me to observe much, and I hope, learn more than just a little. But among the most precious of the few things I definitely have learned, is to depend on good women, and to appreciate the depth of their work. But I would still like to single out one thing - something that links the myriad professions of women, domestic and public - and something that touches, even if slightly, some single characteristic, that God has given women - something that will sum up the nature of this celebration, this thanksgiving Mass, offered in the presence of our Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women, and the young people they have gathered to honor. And I think this one thing can be found in today's Gospel, in the account of the Wedding Feast at Cana, the story, according to St. John, of the first public miracle ever worked by our Lord and Master Jesus Christ. We know the story well - and feel, most of us, that Mary in effect, coaxed her Son that day - perhaps out of deep thought, perhaps out of boredom, or who knows what - that she persuaded Him, to come to the rescue of their host, to save the bride and groom from embarrassment, and to solve that annoying problem of the bar going dry, of not having enough good wine, to refresh and invigorate the spirits of the invited guests. Our Lord bows to the urgings of His Mother, and takes care of the problem. And for the first time, people are able to see just how powerful this Jesus Christ is - that it is within His ability to rule over even the forces of nature, to make that which is one thing, something, not just different, but better - to make that which but slakes the dryness of the body, into something which assuages the thirst of the spirit - to make water into wine. We can go on and on about this miracle, of what it means to our Faith, and describe it in an infinite variety of ways. But that is not our point today. Our point to day is to notice, that it is the urging and the counsel of a woman, of Mary His Mother, which begins - we might even say propels - Jesus Christ upon the road to His public ministry, the ministry by which He would become known to history - the ministry through which, then, and now, the Holy Spirit moves, to draws mankind away from sin, and into holiness and salvation. The tap of the mercy of God was opened that day at Cana to its widest flow, and grace has been abundant ever since, and freely available at the local fountain, the local church. In this story of Mary and Christ, of the Mother and her Son, we see a lesson that is written in the make-up of human beings, by the distinguished hand of their Creator - that women have the power to move us, that women have the power to bring out the best in us, that women can often get things done, when others have given up, and decided to settle for water instead of wine. Mothers do this for their children - what is the giving of honors we perform today, but a symbol of the great maternal generosity between women and the young of our race? - mothers do it for children, wives do it for husbands - women everywhere, and especially in our Church, do it every day, for the old and young, for the poor, for the sick, the lame, the helpless - and for anyone, who through suffering or need, touches the chord of compassion that rings so sweetly, in the heart and the soul of every good woman. For this gift to the human beings He created and then loved, a gift protected and preserved in the very depths of human nature, a gift that defies all social engineering or legislative reduction, or any attempt to make it less than what it is - for this gift of what women can make us do, let us express solemnly at this Mass, as we celebrate The Atlanta Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women's Recognition Day, our gratitude to the Father in Heaven. And finally, dear friends, let us take to heart and adopt as our great rule for life, the most important lesson of today's Gospel, the words of the woman, of Mary, our Mother in Faith, as she looked with total confidence upon the face of her Son and our Lord, saying: "Do, whatever he tells you." In the name of the Father. . . + |