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From Archbishop Donoghue|
Mass for the Missionaries of Charity |
Tuesday of the 15th Week of the Year, Year II Dear Sisters in Christ, This morning we learn a very interesting lesson from the Old Testament and from the Gospel, and the lesson concerns something that we don’t often think about - something that is so much a part of our lives, that we seldom notice it on purpose. And that is the fact that we live in a city - we live in a habitat that is crowded and noisy - where there are too many cars, and the air is often unhealthy - and where we are often exposed, as a matter of course, to the extremes of human life - from the worst poverty to the most vulgar wealth. The country is out there - one only has to take an hour’s drive to be in the midst of fields or forests, to be where there is very little noise and the air is sweet to breathe, and if you go just a little further, it is even still possible to find a quiet and shady country lane. But here we are - in the middle of a city - perhaps our dreams are in the country, but, for all the fault we may find with it, our lives are here, here in the city. Cities are not popular in today’s readings from Scripture either. From the Old Testament we hear just how much trouble cities could cause - being the source of political and economic jealousies, and as a consequence, the reasons for terrible wars being fought over who would control the cities. And from the Gospel, we hear our Lord Himself speaking in ominous language about the evil that is found in cities - and we recall also, that one of the few times we see our Lord in the Gospel actually weeping, is when He mourns over the fate of Jerusalem, the splendid City of the New and Old Covenants, the truest symbol of heaven - and yet, within just a few years from our Lord’s speaking His lament, all that remained of Jerusalem, was a pile of rubble, a city flattened and destroyed by the armies of Rome, and abandoned of her people. But our Lord did not flee the cities, except occasionally, as we do, to get a breath of fresh air, or to take a short break. Our Lord, even though He saw the evil that exists where so many men and women exist under desperate circumstances - our Lord sought out the cities - He went to Tyre and Sidon and Caesarea and Jericho - and He entered and died in the greatest and worst of cities, the fate of which He had prophesied - Jerusalem, the Golden - Jerusalem, the Holy City of David, the City of God’s Temple on earth. And when He went up to the cities, Christ did not hide from the evil that men do - He sought it out, in order to expose it to the light of His truth - the truth He came to teach - the truth of what love can do, of what miracles faith can perform, even where mankind exists at its worst. No wonder then, really, that we find ourselves here in this city, instead of idling away our time out in the country. For we are servants of the Lord - we act as He acted, we do as He did, and we go where He went. And if the discomforts and annoyances sometimes get us down, then we have but to spend a little time remembering the good that Jesus Christ did, and the still-living grace of His love, which enables us to do the same as He did - to work miracles in His name - to work miracles as a cooperation, a sharing - of our love for Him and His for us. Dear Sisters, as we continue this Mass then, let us pray for the courage to be brave, and to understand with no pretending otherwise, that in the cities where men dwell, evil will be found, evil which we must face down - and also, let us pray with thanksgiving to the Father, as our Lord did, for bringing us to this holy work, the work of sharing Christ’s love with those who suffer - with those who have had their encounter with the city’s evil, and who have now come to us for care, for peace, for the relief that is found only, in a house where the Lord dwells, and dwells at its heart. + |