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2004 Alumnae Reunion

Reflection at Eucharistic Celebration

By Sister Mary Dominic Frederick (Principal from 1967–1993)

As I begin to speak, I have the greatest urge to say, “May I have your attention, please.” After all, that is the way I began most Academy gatherings for 26 years. It seems, however, that this is Jesus’ line as we begin our reflection on the Word at this Eucharistic celebration. 

The readings which we just heard and will ponder upon blend beautifully with your coming back to “the hill” today to recall milestones in your lives and in the lives of us sisters. As many of you have returned to celebrate graduation anniversaries and attendance at the Academy, traveling has been required, and traveling is a basic theme of today’s liturgy. The Scripture passages are about journeying, journeying through life, and about those aspects of faith and choice which mark our way to God: discipleship, slavery and freedom, service, strength and weakness, pain and suffering, sadness and joy, justice, peace, and love. 

In today’s Gospel, we read about the beginning of a journey — Jesus’ journey up to Jerusalem, which is a movement toward suffering, death, and resurrection, the fulfillment of God’s salvation plan. We join Jesus on this journey. But the march to glory, as Jesus has already warned, is a path through suffering. As followers of Jesus, we must expect to be treated no better than Jesus. Often, commitment to our call to follow Jesus and Gospel values, even leaving family behind, defies ordinary reasoning and becomes very hard. We live in a society in which responsibilities to family, friends, and country are most important. Yet, we are presented with the example of Elijah and Elisha who left home and parents to serve God.

We do have choices, not so much regarding the circumstances of our lives and the pain and suffering, the joys and happiness which we will experience, but regarding the ways in which we respond to these circumstances. We must remember, at every moment of our lives, that we have opportunities to choose good over evil and love over hatred, accepting both the Old Testament and New Testament’s command to love our neighbors as ourselves. Love, inclusive love, is the very framework of our faith. As Paul indicates in today’s second reading, love transforms slavery into freedom, disunity into trust, selfishness into service, and proud self-reliance into a humble pursuit of the Spirit.

St. Paul specifically provides us with some direction for living our discipleship. He exhorts the early Christians: “Stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Elijah and the followers of Jesus in today’s Gospel were directed to put discipleship above even the most cherished values of their cultures; following Christ directs us to do the same. Who of us have not been enslaved by our political and social views, by blinded patriotism, by advertising which often perpetuates avaricious consumerism, by technology, by biased religious views? How should we as followers of Jesus be affected by these things? What choices do we make?

Love for our neighbors means that we make peace in our families, at our workplaces, in our country, and in our world. It implies a true belief in reconciliation as a means to peace. As women in today’s society, we are faced with stupendous challenges concerning non-violence, justice, and peace. Elizabeth Johnson, a foremost Christian writer, states that women must sense themselves as active agents of history. Why? Bare facts provide the answer.

According to United Nations statistics, while forming more than one-half the world’s population, women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours, own one-tenth of the world’s wealth and one-hundredth of the world’s land, and form two third’s of the world’s illiterate people. Over three-fourths of starving people are women with their dependent children. To make matters worse, women are bodily and sexually exploited, physically abused, raped, battered, and murdered. 

Henry Nouwen, another well-known Catholic writer, challenges us to action, stating:  “We are not what we do; we are not what others say about us, and we are not what we have. We are not what the world makes us, but we are children of God, made to God’s image and likeness, called by love to serve others.” It is our mandate as women to confront issues like sexism, racism, aggressive militarism, and extreme consumerism. We must dream and work for the non-violent transformation of the world of which Dr. Martin Luther King dreamed. We must love all our neighbors as ourselves. We must believe that an inclusive global community in which every human being is respected is possible.

While we call to mind the past, live the present, and look to the future, we might ask ourselves, “Will the Christian journey always be difficult?” Christina Rosetti, a Victorian poet, answers this question very gently in her poem “Uphill”:

Does the road wind uphill all the way?

Yes, to the very end.

Will the day’s journey take the whole long day?

From morn to night, my friend.

We sisters hope that throughout your life journeys that you will be touched with love and that love will enfold you in peace. There is a saying, “Distance does not really matter. Being close to someone is an affair of the heart.” We have journeyed together during some of the most important days of our lives. Relationships were formed, friendships were established, and commitments with their attending responsibilities were assumed. These have endured and will endure as we all continue our climb with Jesus as our companion.