We share with you the homily preached by Fr Anthony McMullan OP on the occasion of our community celebration of Sr Margaret's Diamond Jubilee on the 10th June 2014
When I was preparing this homily for the
celebration of Sr Margaret’s Diamond Jubilee I very soon realised why she had
chosen the first reading – the beginning of St Paul
In this passage Paul tells us that God had a
secret plan from the beginning of creation and that plan has now been
revealed. It is a plan for all things to
be united under Christ who shed His Blood that we might be saved. How wonderful that is? Paul gives God praise for bringing about our
Redemption in Christ. Further on in the
letter to the Ephesians Paul talks about his own prayer – kneeling before the
Father being a prayer of petition – that all will know the love of God which is
beyond all knowledge – that through His Spirit our hidden selves might grow strong,
so that Christ may live in our hearts through faith and then planted in love
and built on love, we will have strength to grasp the breadth and length, the
height and the depth until knowing the love of Christ we are filled with the
utter fullness of God.
I know that Paul’s prayer of praise and
thanksgiving, and also his prayer of petition, in the letter to the Ephesians
is also the prayer of Sr Margaret. It is
not just her prayer for today as she celebrates her Jubilee but I believe that
it has been the prayer and synopsis of her whole religious life here in Siena
When I checked the readings for the feast of St
Margaret Mary (Sr Margaret’s patron) I found that the first reading for the
feast was Ephesians 3: 14-19 - Paul’s prayer of petition – the desire that all
may know the love of Christ – symbolised by the image of the Most Sacred Heart
of Jesus as revealed to Sr Margaret Mary.
So something inspired me to use the Gospel from
the feast of St Margaret Mary for this Jubilee Mass.
Every religion in the world requires their
followers to humble themselves before their god, but ours is the only religion
in which the Divine Son of God has humbled Himself before His people. God the Father lives with His Son in the
eternal embrace of the Holy Spirit.
Theirs is the life of Glory and perfection and yet in the fullness of
time God sent His Son to be our Saviour, human like us in all things but
sin. The Incarnation was a great act of
humility.
Some people say that if we could see Jesus in
the Blessed Sacrament in all the splendour of His Divinity we would fall down
in worship, afraid even to life our eyes to look upon His countenance. But that is not the relationship Jesus wants
us to have with Him. Jesus offers us a
warm invitation to embrace Him in trust and love without fear. He could not be more explicit, he says ‘I am
gentle and humble of heart.’
Since we are not to fear Jesus but to embrace
Him, we need never hesitate to bring to Him our burdens so that He may lift
them. Jesus spoke of His yoke. A yoke was a heavy beam which was fixed
across the necks of a pair of oxen to harness them together. Perhaps as a youth Jesus had seen Joseph
fashioning such yokes and struggling with their massiveness of weight. Jesus resolved to teach that His religion is
not like those heavy, restricting beams of wood. That is why He said His ‘yoke is easy and His
burden light.’
The prophet Zechariah, inspired by the Holy
Spirit, saw an image of the Messiah to come.
He declared “See your King comes to you riding on a donkey”. Jesus fulfilled this image by His entry into Jerusalem
Only God’s revelation to us makes the thought
possible and His love for us makes that thought a reality in our lives. And this is the reason for our prayer of
praise and thanksgiving.
Sr Margaret, I believe it is a reality in your
life – you have given over sixty years humble service to this community and may
you today and every day experience that unconditional love that the heart of
Jesus has for you and for all those you hold dear.
.JPG)
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