Last Sunday, I was away from the parish because I was attending a very special celebration. A young lady from my first parish assignment, along with another young woman, made her profession of vows as a Franciscan Sister down in the diocese of Steubenville. Her religious order’s full name is the Franciscan Sisters, Third Order Regular of Penance of the Sorrowful Mother. Now, with a name like that, you’d think, that’s a spirituality from another age, that’s a way of life that is mostly unappealing in the modern day, here in the western world, or it’s a way of life that no one in their right mind would freely embrace. And yet, dozens of happy, healthy, and holy young women over the last few years have joined this religious order.
And I have to tell you, it was a truly joyful event, when these two young women took their vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience: Sister Chiara Joan, named after our own Saint Clare and Saint Joan of Arc, two very heroic women, and Sister Mary Michelina, named after Our Blessed Mother and the Warrior Prince Archangel Michael of God’s Celestial Army.
There is a beautiful moment in the profession ceremony where the newly professed sister is given the Franciscan habit, the plain grey, somewhat uncomfortable looking garb. They then go off to dress into their new habit. And coming back into the chapel, walking down the aisle, these two religious, embracing a life of simplicity, poverty, and penance beamed with more joy than I’ve seen most brides exhibit on their wedding day, and I’ve seen a lot of brides.
There is also a point where the sisters are presented with a crucifix which they will wear over their habit. The Reverend Mother Superior holds the crucifix before the sister and says: “Behold him to whom you are espoused”. And as they each gazed upon that crucifix there was such a sweet love for the Lord, that you could tell, had been cultivated over years through prayer, penance, and charitable service to Christ’s poor. And it’s rather enviable, in a good way, a good reminder of what could be, if I took the prayer life a little bit more seriously. A reminder that the greatest joy in life comes from belonging entirely to Christ.
Friday, August 11, was the Feast Day of our Parish Patron Saint, St. Clare, who herself entered the convent in order to fall in love with Christ.
Clare was from an aristocratic family, and at 15, a common age to marry in those days, she refused a number of suitors, particularly one, very wealthy fellow. Instead, she was drawn to the dynamic preaching of local holy man, named Francesco of Assisi. He dressed in rags, probably didn’t smell too good, but preached the Gospel of Christ, with a conviction Clare had never witnessed. Francis and Clare became lifelong friends, and like a true friend, Francis encouraged Clare to seek that which makes us truly happy: radical love of Jesus Christ.
Clare discerned to dedicate her life to God by entering the convent. On Palm Sunday in the year 1212, she traded her rich clothing for the rough brown woolen habit of the Franciscans; she exchanged her jeweled belt for a common rope with three knots to symbolize her poverty, chastity, and obedience, and caught off her long golden tresses. Thus she became espoused to Christ. Her sister Agnes, 14 years old, soon joined her, as did several other women, in the following weeks.
The idea of entering a monastery in order to pursue a life of prayer and joyful communion with the Lord, like St. Clare, is not even on the radar of many of our young people. Our modern culture tells our young girls, particularly, that they cannot be happy unless they, like a Disney princess, marry prince charming and live in a castle filled with all the luxuries money can buy, or acquire the sort of job where she can buy her own castle and live life according to her own whims and fancies.
But, St. Clare, and the rest of the saints, teach us a different way.
St. Clare lived a very quiet life, and yet, she was full of joy. She learned to listen, to attune her heart to the voice of God. She like Elijah learned that God is not necessarily in the big booming spectacles of the world, but in the quiet whisper of the silent chapel.
Many of us are like the apostles in the Gospel today. We hear the Lord calling, but are too afraid to get out of the boat. Or perhaps we even have moments, where like St. Peter, we begin to walk on water towards the Lord, we trust him, but also like Peter, we let the fears and anxieties and opinions of our culture replace that trust, and we begin to sink. How often have you made a commitment to pray daily, or read the scripture daily, with such fervor, you know it’s the right thing to do…and then the distractions take us away from that holy conviction, we begin to sink.
Thanks be to God we have a loving Savior who raises us up when we begin to sink. Particularly in the Sacrament of Confession, the Lord forgives us those times when we reject Him. But the Lord also wants to teach us to walk on water, to do things with his help that we couldn’t do on our own, things we would be too afraid to do, like St. Clare: to turn away from your family’s wealth and protection, when all the other girls are getting married. To choose a different way is terrifying. But we don’t know the names of those other girls. But we know the name of Clare, of Joan, of Magdalene, of Theresa of Calcutta, because they trusted the Lord and did amazing things for Him, they walked on water, in their own way, and became the people God made them to be, Saints.
The Lord calls out to each of us: Get out of the boat, get out of the familiar routine of spiritual mediocrity. He calls us to walk on water through a faith life of radical trust, prayer and charity.
Mothers, fathers, single people, teens, widows and children can become saints, when we quiet down our lives to listen to the whisper of God, who calls ordinary people to extraordinary sanctity. What is he calling you to, what is he calling you to give, what is he calling you to give up, so that you can walk on water? If you think the answer is “nothing”, you are listening to wrong voice.
May we learn to trust the Lord enough to follow his whispered call, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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