(The following homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde during the Mass for the Sisters' Jubilee at Marymount University in Arlington on Thursday, May 12.)
“I am the servant of the Lord”: this is the theme printed on the front of our prayer-booklet. Depicted with this theme is Mary, Our Blessed Lady, at the Annunciation with the Holy Spirit overshadowing her.
“The servant of the Lord” is not a person who grovels or lives in fear, but rather, a person who is open to listening to the Lord's Word, docile to following His Will and eager in doing what is right and good " all this with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and with the prayerful assistance of Mary, the first disciple and the best of disciples.
Although every disciple can rightly be called “the servant of the Lord,” those who profess the evangelical counsels in religious institutions or in their equivalent are “servants of the Lord” in a unique sense. They have heard the Lord's invitation to be espoused to Him. “I will allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart " . I will espouse you to me forever " .” These “servants of the Lord” are among those for whom Jesus prayed at the Last Supper. The Lord Jesus has given them the glory which the Father gave Him, namely, the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus has prayed that the love with which the Father loved Him may be in them " again, the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit is in them, so too is Jesus with His Father.
Why does Jesus pray that the Holy Spirit be given to them and be in them? So that guided and strengthened by this additional Advocate, those living the consecrated life may live the evangelical counsels more completely, as each religious seeks to grow into deeper intimacy with the Lord and to serve God's people according to the charism of the institute.
Jubilarians are the living signs of all that the Lord does when He chooses people to be His servants living the consecrated life. Long ago, He invited each one of our jubilarians to be espoused to Him and they said “yes, here I am " the servant of the Lord.” Indeed, He has espoused all of you women religious in a similar fashion.
For 60, 50 and 25 years, this dialogue of divine invitation and human response has been repeated over and over: in daily prayer and meditation, in sacramental celebrations, in sacrificial living by putting to death one's own will through obedient faith, in service to God's people through the various assignments received and accepted. For 60, 50 and 25 years, the Holy Spirit has been leading our jubilarians to ever-deepening intimacy with Jesus and to ever-growing self-sacrificing service of the Lord's people.
Dear Jubilarians, we thank God for inviting you to live the consecrated life as a vowed religious and we thank you for saying “yes” and for repeating that “yes” in good times and in bad. We rejoice with you today and we pledge to you our ongoing prayer-filled support as we continue to walk with you on pilgrimage toward our final goal of life on high with Christ Jesus.
I close as I began " with Our Blessed Lady, I echo part of Pope John Paul II's closing prayer in Vita Consecrata. “To you, our Mother, " we address our confident prayer. You who did the will of the Father, ever ready in obedience, courageous in poverty and receptive in fruitful virginity, obtain from your divine Son that all who have received the gift of following him in the consecrated life may be enabled to bear witness to that gift by their transfigured lives, as they joyfully make their way with all their brothers and sisters toward our heavenly homeland and the light which will never dim " .” (No. 112). Amen!
