July 17, 2024 Editor’s note: The following is Bishop Terry R. LaValley’s homily for the Sisters of St Joseph Jubilee Mass celebrated July 13 at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church in Watertown. St. Paul told the Corinthians: “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you…” Then he goes on to report about that Upper Room event when Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist. Dear Sisters, each of your lives has been about handing on what you have received, more precisely, the handing on of Whom you have received. 75 YEARS We’re talking over 455 years of “handing on who you have received.” Have we been blessed or have we’ve been blessed! Thank you, Sisters, thank you jubilarians! In this sacred space, at this graced moment, I feel so humbled and inspired as I reflect on the generations of folks who have called the North Country home, who have been handed your Eucharistic faith – so many – whether it was in our Catholic schools, among our Native American sisters and brothers, to the scouts, those in deacon & lay Faith Formation, Special Religious Education programs, in parish pastoral ministry, campus ministry, music ministry, service to your sisters in the community’s administrative tasks. As St. Pope John Paul II, noted, “The consecrated life may experience further changes in its historical forms, but there will be no change in the substance of a choice which finds expression in a radical gift of self for love of the Lord Jesus and, in Him, of every member of the human family.” Sisters of St. Joseph, no one, no one, can lessen the powerful impact of your handing down of the Eucharistic faith that you have lived for generations. For that, we praise God and thank you for such sacrifice and joy-filled ministry. In our first reading from Exodus, the people responded to Moses’ sharing of the Lord’s revelation to him: “We will do everything that the Lord has told us…all that the Lord has said, we will hear and do.” Although the chosen people stumbled and fell in carrying out their part of the covenant of love, God remained faithful. Yes, Sisters of St. Joseph, you join your voices with that of the Psalmist: “All that the Lord has said, we will hear and do.” You have committed your entire lives to living out the evangelical counsels of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience. By professing these counsels, not only have you made Christ the whole meaning of your lives, but you continue to strive to reproduce in yourselves, as far as possible, that form of life which He, as the Son of God, accepted in entering this world. The consecrated life truly constitutes a living memorial of Jesus’ way of living and acting as the incarnate Word in relation to the Father and in relation to neighbor. Yours is a living tradition of the Savior’s life and message. Your way of life is the passing on of our Savior’s life and Good News. You continue to hand on who You have received because you know that you continue to receive, indeed, are nourished by the Lord. The Body and Blood of Christ offered to us in the Eucharist is not something. It is Someone. It is Christ Himself present to us just as He was present to people in His day. This encounter with God in the personal presence of Jesus Christ makes all the difference in the world. We know that it made all the difference to the people Jesus invited to table throughout His ministry. It makes a difference to you, Sisters of St. Joseph. Soul of Christ, sanctify me. Good St. Joseph pray for us. Sisters, God bless you for your faithfulness. We are Christ-led, Christ-fed, and so Hope-filled. Through it all-- May God be praised… forever may God be praised! |
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