Homily - Mons. Munilla
Anniversary of the first apparition to Saint Catherine Laboure
July 18th, 2014 at the Rue de Bac
[This homily was given during the First International Gathering of the Advisors for the Vincentian Marian Youth Association (Paris, July 15-20, 2014)]
Dear sons and daughters of the Miraculous Virgin!
I believe those are appropriate words to define our proper identity (children of the Miraculous Virgin). Life is a miracle; the church is a great miracle, our vocation as evangelizers is a miracle … As occurred at the wedding in Cana where it was clear that Mary was given the task “of introducing” the miracles of her Son, so today Mary continues her role as ambassador, as the one who introduces the miracles of her Son. She is the Miraculous Virgin and we are her children, the children of the Miraculous Virgin. The duty of our Miraculous Mother is none other than to prepare us to accept the miracles of God, none other than to educate us so that we can glorify God for the many gifts that we have received.
On this day, July 18th, we celebrate the anniversary of the first apparition of the Miraculous Virgin to Saint Catherine Laboure who heard the promise: Come to the foot of the altar. Here grace will be spread over all those who ask for them with confidence and fervor.
The Miraculous Virgin reminds us that our presence here today is part of that prophecy. Our presence here today in this holy place, in this encounter of brothers and sisters, is indeed a gift from heaven. Her son, Jesus Christ, willed this from all eternity and we have to know how to recognize this, how to be grateful for this and how to take advantage of this. Like the disciples on Mount Tabor we also acclaim: how good it is to be here!
Let us draw near to the Word of God that we have just listened to in the readings that correspond to Friday of the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time. The first reading from the prophet Isaiah narrates a surprising event. God, through the mouth of the prophet, proclaims to Hezekiah that his death is imminent: you are about to die and will not recover. But Hezekiah does not surrender and in tears he begs God for the gift of healing. To everyone’s surprise, God changes his mind and communicates to Hezekiah that he will be healed and given fifteen more years of life: I have heard your prayer and seen you tears … I will heal you!
Speculative theology finds it difficult to explain this passage and others that are similar to it. Is not the will of God eternal? How is it possible that after a solemn revelation of God’s decision in which Hezekiah was told that he would die almost immediately, then a short time later the tears and prayers of Hezekiah make God change his opinion? Is God subject to doubt and is he unclear about his intentions? Is the will of God, like ours, changeable?
There is no doubt that the will of God is eternal and didactic and pedagogical … in fact, God is a good Father who educates his children and utilizes an effective pedagogy. Therefore, even though at times it might appear that God has to be asked twice when he delays in giving us what we ask for or when it seems that God is not listening … nevertheless, it is important that we open ourselves to the educational methodology that the Miraculous Virgin, through the commission of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, utilizes with regard to her children. Here I am referring to a process of purification and enlightenment which leads to holiness.
How many millions of prayers have been lifted up to God in this shrine on the Rue du Bac! Only God knows --- and God knows exactly how many prayers because in God’s eyes each one of us is unique and irreplaceable.
We can suppose that God’s response, through his Miraculous Mother, to so many countless prayers that have been offered during the past two centuries in this shrine --- God’s response has been perceived in many different ways. Some people have felt that they were heard and they felt comforted; others have felt that their visit to this shrine was unproductive and therefore a waste of time. Nevertheless, we know through faith that God always bestows his grace on those who draw near to him. Therefore, it is important that we deepen our understanding of God’s action on our behalf. As stated before, we are dealing with a process that is at one and the same time a process of purification and enlightenment. The task of the Virgin, as mediator and intercessor, can be summed up in the following three points: [1] to help us to conform to God’s time; [2] to help us conform to God’s ways; [3] to help us to conform to God’s desires.
[1] To help us to conform to God’s time: Sacred Scripture affirms the fact that God always listens to those persons who, with faith, lift up their voices to him. At the same time Sacred Scripture also highlights the importance of perseverance in our prayer that is addressed to God. This apparent contradiction can create doubts for some people: why does God want us to repeat our prayer? Do we have to repeat things so that God does not forget them? Perhaps we have to convince God so that he bends his will to ours? It is clear that such interpretations are ridiculous!
In order to understand this mystery let us listen to the words of Saint Augustine that are cited in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Do not be troubled if you do not immediately receive from God what you ask him; for he desires to do something even greater for you, while you cling to him in prayer (#2737).
In reality, when God’s gifts are given immediately there is always the risk that people will not appreciate those gifts. Something similar occurred when the ten lepers were cleansed by the Lord and only one of them returned to express gratitude to the Lord (cf., Luke 17:12ff.).
We should deepen our understanding of the key reality, namely, the primary gift that we obtain as a result of our prayer is not something material but rather the grace of being united with God. The primary focus of prayer is not the gifts that God can give us but the opportunity to share our life with the One who is “the giver of all gifts”, the Lord Jesus. One of the essential elements of prayer is to understand that God is our inheritance. It would be a paradox if the gifts were to distract us from God.
As Saint Augustine stated in the text that we cited, namely, the most important reality is to be with God. We want the words of the father of the prodigal son to find echo in ourselves: son, you are here with me always; everything that I have is yours. The problem of the elder son in that parable was precisely his inability to enjoy being with his father; he had focused only on the material goods that his father could offer.
[2] To help us to conform to God’s ways --- to say this in another way, God’s gifts cannot be separated from the cross but the cross must be included as a part of our journey to glory. Because of our lack of faith we run the risk of aspiring simply to the gifts that God can offer and so eliminate the cross from our horizon. This would be the same as asking the Father to make us Christians without the cross … we would thus deny the holy cross which is the sign of Christians.
A good example of this is found in the words that the Virgin spoke to Saint Catherine Laboure during the night of July 18th, 1830. It is interesting to note that before proclaiming the fact that in that place God would grant many graces she first stated: My child, God wants to give you a mission. You will encounter many difficulties but you will be able to overcome them if you do everything for God’s glory.
In other words the mystery of the cross is wholly integrated into God’s promise to bestow grace on men and women. To believe that we can separate those two realities is the same as believing that we can somehow forsake the redeeming cross of Jesus Christ. There is no glory without the cross and there is no cross without the glory! We need only recall the messianic temptations that Jesus experienced, one of which included messianic triumphalism which was a temptation to seek a detour around the road of humiliation and the cross (cf., Matthew 4).
The disciples and the apostles were continually tempted to deny the cross as part of following Jesus. We recall the words that Jesus spoke to Peter when he thought he had found a way to avoid the cross: Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do (Matthew 16:23).
It would be good to reflect on the influence that Mary had on her son’s journey to the cross. Logically, from the perspective of maternal love, Mary would have made every effort to lead her son away from the path that led to the cross. Nevertheless, it was Mary who encouraged Jesus and helped him to commit himself to the faithful fulfillment of the Father’s will.
In a similar manner, Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal exercises her maternal mediation on our behalf. This includes, on the one hand, her attentiveness to our supplications and on the other hand, she teaches us to embrace our cross on which we find the cross of Christ incarnated. In this way we are able to understand the logic of the saints who should not be viewed as so very different from ourselves. For example, recall the recent canonization of Saint John XXIII who previously served as Papal Nuncio in Paris and who frequently visited this shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. In his personal diary he wrote the following words during the time of his final illness: I bore with my pain and gave thanks to God that is was bearable … Not even when I am sick do I have a right to be sad.
[3] To help us to conform to God’s desires --- In our prayer of petition it is most important to seek that which God desires, in other words, to place God’s will before our own will. For example, when a small fishing vessel arrives at some port, one of the men on board will throw a rope to another person on the docks so that it might be tied up as the boat approaches the pier. It is not the dock that approaches the boat, but rather it is the boat that approaches the dock. Something similar occurs with our prayer of petition. We can say that normally the point of reference for our request arises from our own need and our particular situation. This is not some attempt to make God conform to our will but rather we are attempting to unite ourselves to the will of God.
In order to understand this we need to begin with a key principle, namely, that in light of our eternal salvation, we do not always know what is best for us. Saint Paul states this explicitly: The Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought (Romans 8:26). That is another reason why we ought to be insistent when we direct our petitions to God, petitions that we know with some degree certainty are in accord with God’s desires: the gift of faith, hope, and charity; the gift of eternal salvation; the gift of holiness, etc.
What I have just stated does not mean that we should not or that we ought not present God with our daily needs (the gospels urge us to do this). But we must understand that in all of this our objective is to discover the will of God and the grace to accept God’s will.
Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal engages in the task of purifying of enlightening all of those who come to God through her intercession. Mothers know how to care for their children in a most adequate manner. A good mother does not satisfy all the desires and requests that her children present to her. Such a woman will provide for the needs of her children and those needs very often will not coincide with what her children request.
The conclusion is the following: the Miraculous Virgin is our intercessor before God and we are able to present her with our supplications. At the same time Our Blessed Mother has been chosen as God’s intercessor on our behalf. In other words, it is she who leads us to a fuller understanding of God’s desires; it is she who helps us to trust in the ways of God and to accept the fact that things are done in accord with God’s time.
Today’s second reading which is taken from the gospel of Saint Matthew, offers us a final insight into our reflection on the Miraculous Virgin: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. The key to all of this is mercy. Indeed, the depth of every prayer that is directed to God is reflected in the well-known words of the sinner: God, have mercy on me a sinner! Putting this in the form of a litany we could say: Jesus, be merciful to us … and giving a maternal aspect to this same petition, we could say: Queen and Mother of Mercy, pray for us!
Jesus is mercy and Mary is Jesus’ mother, that is, Mary is the Mother of Mercy. Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal has been entrusted with the task of revealing to the world this mystery of selfless love: mercy. In other words, Mary reveals the mystery of God’s love to those who least deserve it but who most need it. Miraculous Virgin, grant us this gift of mercy! Translated: Charles T. Plock, CM
