LET US GLORY ONLY
IN THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST!
The following is
the homily delivered by Bishop Rhoades at the 150th Anniversary Mass
of the Sisters of Saint Francis of Perpetual Adoration on September 17th.
On this day, September 17th, your holy foundress Mother Maria
Theresia Bonzel was born in the year 1830.
It is wonderful to celebrate this 150th Anniversary Mass of
the Sisters of Saint Francis of Perpetual Adoration on Mother Maria Theresia’s
birthday. And not only is this Mother
Maria Theresia’s birthday: it is also
the feast of the Stigmata of Saint Francis (on the Franciscan calendar). This fact always had deep significance for
Mother Maria Theresia. She referred to
her birth on the feast of the Stigmata in terms of her life proceeding or
coming forth from the wounds of Saint Francis.
Throughout her life, her heart, like that of Saint Francis, overflowed
with love of the Crucified Jesus and with love for all suffering humanity. She embraced much suffering in her own life,
and like Saint Francis, with great faith she shared in the suffering of Jesus
for the salvation of the world.
The principal reason the Sisters of Saint Francis of Perpetual Adoration
were founded as a separate congregation in 1853 was because Mother Maria
Theresia felt so deeply the call to live the Franciscan rule, rather than the
Augustinian rule of the congregation that was begun three years earlier. The saintly bishop of Paderborn, Conrad
Martin, saw God’s hand in Mother Maria Theresia’s vision and thus proclaimed
the Sisters of Saint Francis of Olpe, Germany an independent community. He appointed Mother Maria Theresia the
superior. The rest is history.
For 150 years, the Sisters of Saint Francis of Perpetual Adoration have
striven to be faithful to the charism of their holy foundress as spiritual
daughters of Saint Francis according to his Third Rule, uniting the active and
contemplative life, and living the vows of poverty, chastity, and
obedience. The specific charism is that
of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament along with the service of
charity. In the beginning, this involved
the education and care of poor orphaned children and the care of the sick in
their homes. In the very first words of
the original Constitution of the Congregation, Mother Maria Theresia wrote:
“After the example of Holy Father Francis, the Sisters shall endeavor to
combine the contemplative with the active.”
And this is what this congregation has been doing, with the help of
God’s grace, for 150 years.
The contemplative mission of this congregation has its center in the
Most Holy Eucharist: in Holy Mass and
adoration. Following Saint Francis,
Mother Maria Theresia understood that the active apostolate would only bear
fruit if the sisters were steeped in a life of prayer. Therefore, she organized the community life
so that the sisters would pray before the Holy Eucharist in hourly rotations,
day and night. The chapel was also open
to the people of Olpe, thus fostering the Eucharistic devotion of the local
community. I think of how this continues
here in Mishawaka today. We cannot count
or calculate the many graces bestowed upon this congregation and upon the world
through the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament by so many sisters these
past 150 years. The soul of the
spiritual life of Saint Francis of Assisi and of Saint Clare was devotion to
the Holy Eucharist. It was also the soul
of Mother Maria Theresia’s spiritual life.
Whenever she opened a new convent, her first priority was the chapel and
the enthronement of the Blessed Sacrament.
Her Eucharistic devotion naturally led her, as it did Saint Francis, to
have special respect for priests. I have
personally experienced this community’s beautiful support, love, and prayers
for priests. On behalf of all our
priests, I thank you for your outstanding support of our priestly vocation. And I thank you for your loyalty and love for
the Church, another characteristic of your congregation that also reflects the
spirit of Saint Francis and Mother Maria Theresia. Your community continues to attract vocations
because you believe, pray, live, work, think, and feel with the Church. This
was fundamental for Saint Francis and for your holy foundress. Loving attachment to the Eucharistic Body of
Christ is connected always to loving attachment to the Mystical Body of Christ,
the Church.
With prayer at the center of daily life, Mother Maria Theresia then
devoted this congregation to the active apostolate of charity. In the beginning, this work was principally
the education and formation of youth, especially poor, neglected, and orphaned
children. The care of the sick soon
followed. Though time does not allow me
to recount the amazing accomplishments of the Sisters of Saint Francis in the
active apostolate these past 150 years, I wish to mention the providential
expansion of the Sisters here to the United States because of the Kulturkampf
in Germany. At the invitation of the
second Bishop of Fort Wayne, Joseph Dwenger, Mother Maria Theresia sent the
first sisters to America, to our diocese.
Their mission began with the care of the sick in Lafayette, at that time
part of the Diocese of Fort Wayne.
Though poor and with little knowledge of English, those first missionary
sisters trusted deeply in divine providence and began immediately their active
apostolate of charity: educating
children and caring for the sick. Rather
quickly, they attracted American vocations.
With a great pioneer spirit, the sisters, anchored always in prayer and
Eucharistic adoration, engaged in the active apostolate, beginning in Lafayette
teaching in the German Saint Boniface School and opening their first hospital,
named in honor of the Franciscan saint, Elizabeth of Hungary. The apostolic labors of the Sisters of Saint
Francis expanded quite rapidly here in the United States. These labors have been a great contribution
to the building up of the Church in this diocese and in our country. With true Christ-like charity, the Sisters of
Saint Francis have accomplished so much in the past 150 years in their care of
the sick and the education of youth.
With steadfast love for the poor and the suffering and with great
self-sacrifice, the Sisters of Saint Francis have served and continue to serve
the Church and her charitable mission with the humility and courage of Saint
Francis and Mother Maria Theresia Bonzel.
We thank the Lord today for the many blessings bestowed upon the Church
these past 150 years through the witness and work of Christian charity of the
Sisters of Saint Francis.
On this feast of the Stigmata of Saint Francis, it is good to reflect on
that amazing event that took place on Mount Alverno two years before Saint
Francis died. It was an amazing miracle
of God’s grace. Saint Francis had a deep
devotion to the Passion of Jesus and, for years, he had prayed to share in that
Passion. As his earthly life was drawing
to a close, God answered his prayers in a way Francis never would have
imagined. The wounds of Jesus appeared
on his body. Saint Bonaventure described
this event as follows:
As he was drawn aloft
through ardent longing for God one morning near the feast of the Exaltation of
the Cross, and was praying on the mountainside, he saw what appeared as a
seraph with six bright wings gleaming like a fire descending from the heights
of heaven. As this figure approached in
swift flight and came near the man of God it appeared not only winged but also
crucified. The sight of it amazed
Francis and his soul experienced joy mingled with pain. He was delighted with the sight of Christ
appearing to him so graciously and intimately and yet the awe-inspiring vision
of Christ nailed to the cross aroused in his soul a joy of compassionate love.
When the vision vanished
after a mysterious and intimate conversation it left Francis aglow with
seraphic love in his soul. Externally,
however, it left marks on his body like those of the Crucified as if the
impression of a seal had been left on heated wag. The figures of the nails appeared immediately
on his hands and feet. The heads of the
nails were inside his hands but on top of his feet with their points extending
through to the opposite side. His right
side too showed a blood-red wound as if it had been pierced by a lance, and
blood flowed frequently from it. Because
of this new and astounding miracle unheard of in times past, Francis came down
from the mountain a new man adorned with the sacred stigmata, bearing in his
body the image of the Crucified not made by a craftsman in wood or stone, but
fashioned in his members by the hand of the living God.
What can we learn from this extraordinary event? It is the lesson that Mother Maria Theresia
learned: the importance of heeding the
words of Jesus in the Gospel: “If anyone
wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and
follow me.” To do so means we renounce
self-centeredness. Like Mother Maria
Theresia, we must not be afraid of the cross.
Trusting in Christ’s love and entrusting ourselves to Him, we embrace
his cross, whatever that might be each day.
This involves first and foremost love, true love, sacrificial
love. With God’s grace, we strive to
love one another as Christ has loved us.
When we do, it will involve the cross.
Like Saint Paul, the cross must be our glory. “Far be it from me,” he says, “to glory
except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been
crucified to me, and I to the world.”
Saint Paul was thus able to say that he was bearing in his body the
marks of Jesus. He belonged to Jesus. Saint Francis and Mother Maria Theresia
belonged to Jesus. So do we.
Jesus teaches us that “whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but
whoever loses his life for (his) sake will save it.” Sisters of Saint Francis, your life as women
religious is to be a witness to this truth.
Like your holy foundress, you lose your life for the sake of Jesus in
order to save it. You deny yourselves
and carry the cross of Jesus. You teach
us the joy of following Jesus, the joy that Saint Francis and Mother Maria
Theresia knew even in the midst of suffering and pain. I do not mean to idealize your religious life
since none of us is perfect. We are all
still sinners who depend on Jesus and His mercy. Yet we thrive to grow in holiness. To do so, we must rely always on the Lord’s
grace. We depend on Him. We cannot carry His cross by our own strength
any more than Saint Francis could have received the stigmata by his own efforts
or power. So we must humbly
follow the Lord, relying on His grace.
In two months the humble Maria Theresia Bonzel will be called “Blessed”
because of her heroic virtues. It is
especially the virtue of humility that allowed her to advance along the path of
holiness.
May the Lord help us on our journey!
May He help us to carry His cross each day! May He continue to bless the Sisters of Saint
Francis with the gift of holiness and stir up many more vocations in this
congregation!
With Saint Paul, Saint Francis, and soon-to-be Blessed Maria Theresia
Bonzel, may we glory only in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!