 - Kathy McGrath and Janine Siegel, First Vows
- Carol Bialock and Pat Shaffer, Golden Jubilee
Isaiah 43:1-4, 18-21; Rom 8:35-39; John 15:9-17
Kathy McGrath and Janine Siegel – First Vows
Carol Bialock and Pat Shaffer – Golden Jubilee
Introduction
Kathy McGrath and Janine Siegel
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At the opening of the second half of the Gospel of John, just as Jesus
has washed the feet of his disciples and has challenged especially the
reluctant Peter to accept this powerful sign of love, Jesus asks an all
important question: “Do you understand what I have done to you?” The
deeper meaning of his action is not readily apparent on the surface. By
washing the feet of his disciples and by commanding them to do the same
with one another, Jesus has invited them into a new relationship of
love with God and also with each other. But Jesus’ action must be
slowly, carefully pondered in order to reveal its profound clarity, and
to know its challenge posed both to the disciples, and also to us.
The same could be said for what we do in this chapel today.
And the same question might be put to us: “Do we understand what we are
doing here today?” Are we able to see beneath the obvious, outward
meaning of this important event to the deeper revelation of God’s love
in our midst? How does what we do here today affect the larger world
around us, for we know it must? How will it touch this city? How will
it affect this Church of ours? And how, too, will its impact be felt
even for the whole world? These are questions we must ponder slowly and
carefully today.
Elements of the Gathering
Jubilarians Pat Shaffer (left) and Carol Bialock
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What is it about this gathering that makes it so special? First, we
gather together in this place today as one people of faith. We have
come because, for each of us, Kathy and Janine, Carol and Pat are our
family, whether in the literal sense, or as part of that larger
extended family of friends or fellow Religious of the Sacred Heart. We
have come from different parts of the country to be here today. We have
come to witness their vows. We have come to support and love them. We
have come to give thanks for their lives. And we have come to rejoice
with these women as they mark a decisive moment on their life journeys.
And, indeed, it is very good for us to be here.
We gather, moreover, in the specific context of Eucharist –
that great act of thanksgiving in which we join our simple offering of
ourselves (all that we are and all that we have) to the one offering of
Jesus, the laying down of his life for other s – the mystery of our
redemption. For Janine and Kathy, today will mark their first, public
pronouncement of the religious vows that will anchor each of them for
the rest of their life’s journey. For Carol and Pat, today marks 50
years, a whole lifetime of fidelity to the mystery of God’s call in
their lives. Whether for the first time or as the crown of a full
life-time, it is no small thing to take one’s life in one’s hands and
offer it – holding nothing back. And we know that their offering, their
gift of self enriches us all.
Though a very personal
choice, what they do here today is by no means a private act. Their
offering has a very public and a decidedly ecclesial character. It
builds up the body of Christ. It provides hope in a Church weary with
the weight of present crises. It reminds the world today that fidelity
in love is possible and that a generous gift of self for others is the
most freeing, the most life-giving and the most satisfying thing one
could ever do. “Do we understand what we are doing here today?” Yes, I
think we do.
The Scripture Readings
But
if we are to ponder more deeply the meaning of this moment, we have to
turn to the Scripture texts chosen so carefully for today by Kathy and
Janine. Taken together, they seem to have a common theme. They speak
powerfully of hope and of promise. They remind us of God’s essential,
irrevocable faithfulness to us. And they summon us to a radical love in
return. In the first reading, the anonymous prophet of the Exile, who
we call “Second Isaiah,” speaks to a people in bondage in Babylon, a
people far from their homeland, severed from all that defined them as a
people – the Temple, the Davidic dynasty, the Land itself. In the text
we have just heard, Isaiah speaks God’s words of hope to this weary
people. “Fear not, you belong to me…I have called you by name. Nothing
can touch you. Neither flood nor fire can harm you, I am with you.”
These words to the Exiles in Babylon echo for us today with the same
consolation and the same hope. When Janine and Kathy pronounce their
vows in a moment, they will be saying Yes to this prophetic word that
they will promise to live their lives rooted in this same certainty,
offering this same hope to others weighed down in despair. Even
OBEDIENT to the God who saves and leads them, they will strive to
radiate hope wherever they are.
In the reading from Romans,
the apostle Paul reminds us that, no matter which particular path we
follow, the journey of each one’s life will no doubt entail hardships
of every kind. Paul is a realist and we must be, too. His own
experiences of hardship marked his apostolic ministry at every point.
Despite these realities of life, however, Paul stands firm in his
confidence that “nothing – nothing can ever separate us from the love
of God in Christ Jesus.” In words reminiscent of the prophet Isaiah, he
too affirms a radical hope rooted in God’s love revealed to us in
Jesus. Given the troubling realities of our broken world today, this is
the kind of “hope against hope” that our Superior General, Clare Pratt,
called us to recently in her letter to the Society for the Feast of the
Sacred Heart. It is a kind of hope that searches “for signs of life in
places where only death is apparent, because we trust, (together with
Paul), that Love will triumph in the end.” There is a real POVERTY
implicit in such a trust, a willingness to leave self and possessions
behind and to rely only on God’s power, as Isaiah says, to “make all
things new.”
Finally, in the gospel reading from John, we
hear again that summons to a life anchored and grounded in love:
“remain in love, abide in love” – only then will your joy be complete.
Make no mistake, the kind of love that Jesus speaks of is no easy task.
It demands nothing less than all that we are and all that we have. It
is a love that proves itself day by day in compassion, in generous,
humble service of others. It is footwashing love. It is laying down
one’s life for one’s friends – love. It is love as Jesus taught us. Our
foundress, Sophie Barat, defined this kind of love enfleshed in the
Heart of Christ by borrowing the words she loved so well from the Song
of Songs: “Set me as a seal on your heart. Set me as a seal on your
arm. For love is strong as death… Its flashes are flashes of fire… Many
waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it” (Cant 8:6). Our
vow of CHASTITY invites us into this mystery of love. And it is for
each of us Religious of the Sacred Heart, the work of a lifetime to
grow into its height and depths.
And so, we rejoice with you today,
Kathy and Janine, Pat and Carol, as you offer your lives in love. We
promise you our prayer, our support and our love. And we know that the
God who has called us is faithful, and God will not disappoint you.
Barbara E. Bowe,rscj
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