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FRIARS OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS MASS OF THE JULY 23
Memorial of St. Bridget of Sweden Today, as we read about the destroying forces of Pharaoh’s army, we celebrate the memory of St. Bridget of Sweden, wife, mother, and foundress. John Paul II proclaimed St. Bridget, along with St. Catherine of Siena and Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta) patroness of Europe. He referred to them as “Three great Saints, three women who at different times—two in the very heart of the Middle Ages and one in our own century—were outstanding for their fruitful love of Christ's Church and their witness to his Cross.” Perhaps we could say that these three women in their own way, faced with great faith the destroying forces of Pharaoh’s armies. The mystery of Christ’s death revealed to them that the smallest amount of love is already more powerful than the greatest power of destruction. This mystery—the sign of Jonah given to the person of faith—was evident in the lives of these three women. This Power of God’s love was already revealed in the OT period when He chose the Hebrew slaves out of love—and NOT because they were the greatest or most advanced of peoples. He could have chosen the Hittites, the Egyptians, or the great Greeks with their glorious material cultures and philosophical wisdom. But instead He preferred the unwanted slaves that Pharaoh sought to destroy. As the prophet Ezekiel makes clear, God chose them because they were unwanted. Because of this, the Hebrew people were the only people in the ancient world to forbid the killing of children. Even the great Aristotle favored the exposing of unwanted infants. And whom did God chose as His spouse? According to the prophet Ezekiel (16:3f), an exposed unwanted infant girl, symbolic of the Hebrew people. This theme of God’s love for the unwanted is carried on throughout salvation history. For example, take the women of the three “female” books of the OT, so to speak—Judith, Ruth, and Esther. These women stand for something greater than themselves. They represent three of the oppressed members of ancient society:
With God’s power, they, too, triumphed over the destructive forces of Pharaoh (using Pharaoh as our metaphor). John Paul in proclaiming St. Bridget, St. Catherine, and St. Teresa Benedicta as co-patronesses of Europe did so in the context the dechristianization of the West. The West has forgotten the origin of the great blessings it enjoys. I met a young atheist recently who spoke quite arrogantly against religion. I simply asked him why we had no leper colonies in the US anymore? Why are there none any longer in Europe? Was it because atheist missionaries were sent to bring the good news to the poor? Was it because there were “Little Atheist Sisters of the Poor” to feed the hungry and clothe the naked? Why do the poor get to go to school in our country? Who opened these schools for the poor? I read a few years back about a woman in Pakistan who received what might be called “Asia’s Nobel Prize.” She was a Daughter of the Heart of Mary, a missionary who has spent her whole life serving the lepers of Pakistan. It was Fr. Damian who came to care for the lepers of America. Then Sisters of Charity came from Belgium and cared for the lepers of America. St. Angela Merci saw poor orphans in the streets and began a community of women to care for and teach them, as did St. John Bosco for his times. There certainly are good Buddhists, good Hindus, good Moslems, and good Atheists (my father was one of them). And these people in their own goodness have a role in God’s plan. But none of these are missionary. The Christian is a missionary, sent by Christ to bring the good news to the poor—poor understand in its wider, Biblical, sense: the blind, the lame, the widow, the orphan, and especially for the Dominican, the intellectually poor (St. Dominic’s innkeeper and our young atheist). It is sad to see how many people in the West have lost the understanding of the origin of the blessings they enjoy. Without the Christian missionary effort to preach the Good News to the world, Pharaoh’s forces would have had the victory. Yet we know in faith that the ultimate victory will be Christ’s. In speaking of St. Bridget, John Paul remarked that it was her profound union with Christ that led her to speak “unabashedly to princes and pontiffs…” She was not afraid,” the Pope explains, “to deliver stern admonitions about moral reform of the Christian people and the clergy…” (cf. Revelations, IV, 49; cf. also IV, 5). Our vocation as Dominicans does not depend on our intellects as such, nor on our sophistication, but on conforming our lives to the Gospel, because, as St. Bridget taught, as Gospel living deepens, our love of God deepens, and as our love of God depends, our love of the poor deepens. Preachers without authentic Gospel living become noisy gongs. The world will always need the Dominican vocation. Why? Because Jesus said, “The poor you always have with you…” (Matthew 26:11). Or as the Bishops of Latin America put it, there will always be “new faces of the poor” (Aparecida document). We pray for a strengthening and increase in our Dominican vocation so that the poor will always have the Good News preached to them. |
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Capítulo General 2007 - ORDEN DE PREDICADORES |
