Homily: Palm Sunday 2013 - Still much dying to do

During my seminary formation, I was able to study in Rome, Italy for about six months.  I attended classes at the wonderful Dominican School, the Angelicum.  Only in Rome would you never complain about having to walk 40 minutes to class because every day would take us passed the Trevi Fountain and the famous Spanish steps, passed the most beautiful churches in the world, down the same streets that saints had walked.

In addition to our academic work, my seminary formation involved some sort of apostolic work.  I had the honor and pleasure of working alongside the Missionary Sisters of Charity, at a homeless shelter, in their care for the homeless men and women of Rome.  So, every Friday morning, I and two other seminarians would walk past the Coliseum to the Sister’s homeless shelter: we would serve breakfast to homeless men, clean up after breakfast, then help the sisters do the laundry.

Now Blessed Mother Theresa didn’t believe in modern conveniences, so the clothing and the soiled sheets and towels were washed by hand on old fashioned scrub boards.  Mother Theresa wanted the sisters to learn how to do small tasks with great love—which included doing laundry with the love of Christ in your heart.  While we scrubbed the sheets, we would often pray the rosary.

On the Friday before holy week, one of the seminarians asked one of the sisters, “sister, are you ready for Easter?”  In a very serious tone, yet without losing the spark of joy in her eyes, she said, “No, I still have much dying to do.”

Here was a woman.  She never took vacations.  She owned nothing, not even her religious habit was really hers.  She spent her life washing soiled sheets, after waking up before sunrise, celebrating Mass and spending an hour in adoration, bathing the grime of the streets of Rome off of the homeless.  Here was a woman, that if you gave her a present, she would give it away to the poor in order to bring a little bit of joy into another person’s life.  Who knows the special penances that she had undertaken for Lent, but you can be sure it was more than not eating potato chips or starbucks coffee!

 

But, “sister, are you ready for easter?” “No, I still have much dying to do.”

We begin Holy Week with the dramatic proclamation of the Passion.  But when we celebrate Holy Week, we aren’t simply recounting events that took place 2000 years ago: “Jesus died on the cross for us, isn’t that nice.” Jesus humbled Himself unto death, He totally abandoned himself to the Will of the Father, as Saint Paul wrote, “Jesus emptied himself and became a slave”.  In doing so, he showed us the path that every Christian must walk.  The path of detachment, of dying to self, as sister would say.

I think that wonderful Sister and so many of the saints remind us that the greatest joy in life is found in giving one’s life away.  The saints are constantly examining their lives for ways in which they need to die to themselves, they are examining their attitudes and their consciences constantly to detect even the smallest ounce of selfishness that needs to be converted into generosity.  The saints actively pursue ways in which they can abandon themselves to God.  They actively look for opportunities for humble service.

Each of us still has much dying to do.  I encourage you to intensify your Lenten penances this week, especially on Good Friday.  May the remaining days of Lent and Holy Week help us in radical self-emptying and detachment from the things of the world, so we can witness to joy found in clinging to Christ and the things of heaven for the glory of God and salvation of souls.