Corpus
Christi [B]
Exodus
24:3-8 ―
Hebrews 9:11-15 ― Sequence
― Mark 14:12-16,22-26
June
10, 2012
“…how much more will the blood of
Christ… cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God. [Hebrews
9:14]
Sister Joseph
Mies, Sister Assumpta Betzen, Sister Donata Kerschen. You recognize their names…. Sister Denise Mohr, Sister Mathias Schneider,
Sister Sophia Stockemer. You recognize
their last names, if not their first, because they grew up in our
parish. They were baptized here at St.
Mark’s: Sister Catherine Girrens, Sister
Celestine Roths. Some of you, or your
parents, were classmates with them:
Sister Melina Strunk, Sister Wilfreda Stump. Some of your grandfathers danced with them at
Andale High before they entered the convent:
Sister Ellen Thome, Sister Rosalia Voegeli.
As
little girls, they knelt against this Communion rail, and received Jesus for
the very first time in Holy Communion:
Sister Caritas Betzen, Sister Helena Lies. At their First Holy Communion, they probably
had curls under their veils. When they
became sisters, their curls were cut before they put on their religious
veils: just one small sacrifice of many
made during long lives of sacrifice for Jesus. Sister Anslema Voegeli, Sister Dolores
Strunk: they attended Mass with their
families every Sunday at St. Mark’s, sitting in the same pew, week after week
until that day when they woke up, and heard God ask them to spend the rest of
their lives on earth as consecrated religious. God loved them so much, that He asked them to leave
this parish, to follow Him, and to serve His people wherever
there might be a need.
St.
Mark’s sisters left their families and their parish to serve elsewhere. This week, the Lord is rewarding their
sacrifices, by sending sisters into St. Mark’s Parish, to live here, and
worship here, and to serve your children and grandchildren by word and example: to lead your children and grandchildren closer
to the Jesus they love with all their hearts.
X X X
The
beauty of a diamond is even more clear when you hold it up to the light of the
sun. Turning the diamond in your hand, it
makes the sun seem even more brilliant than usual, which we might not think
possible. The sun’s brilliance shines
through every facet of the diamond. Both
the diamond and the sun shine more brilliantly because of the diamond’s nature.
Today
the Church throughout the world is celebrating the Mystery that even today is known by its Latin name: Corpus
Christi, the Body of Christ. This
phrase, Corpus Christi, is like
a diamond. The light of our Catholic
Faith shines through the Body of Christ to let the brilliance of God’s love
shine in our world.
If you were to
say the phrase “the Body of Christ” to any Christian, the first thing to come
to mind might be one of many different things, because the Mystery of
the Body of Christ has many different facets.
If you were to say “the Body of Christ” to a group of Catholics, most of
them likely would think of the Holy Eucharist first. Maybe some of those Catholics, as well as
other Christians, might instead think first of the Church, or perhaps the
Sacrament of Marriage, based on Saint Paul’s teaching of the Ephesians. He explains to them that “no
one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ
does the church, because we are members of his body. ‘For this reason a man shall leave (his)
father and (his) mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one
flesh.’ This is a great mystery, but I
speak in reference to Christ and the church.”
As
the Church celebrates this Holy Day in honor of Corpus Christi, she wants us to enjoy the brilliance of this
Mystery. The primary focus of this feast
is the Sacrament of the Eucharist. But
the Church doesn’t want us to stop there. She wants you to appreciate this Mystery in
its fullness, so that you can grow in your love for the Body of
Christ. The more you grow in this love,
the more the love of Christ will have space to grow in you.
The
fullness of the Mystery of Corpus Christi
can’t be seen until we see that all of its facets are related to one another. We can see that the phrase “the Body
of Christ” refers to the Holy Eucharist, and to the Church, and
to the Sacrament of Marriage. But we
don’t see the fullness of this Mystery until we see how each of these
three relates to the other two. These
three are all inter-related.
This
year, as we here at St. Mark’s celebrate the Mystery of Corpus Christi, focus on just one of its particular facets: the witness of women religious within the
Body of Christ.
X X X
Even
if you’re not a Mies, Betzen, Mohr, Schneider, Stockemer, Strunk, Stump,
Voegeli, or any of the other families from which our parish’s sisters have
come, you may have been taught by the sisters who came to St. Mark’s. You may remember one of our own, Sister
Assumpta Betzen, who served here for many years. But how many of our young parishioners today
have been blessed to see a religious sister each week? to hear them tell about the Jesus they
love: the Jesus who wants our children
and grandchildren to experience His love?
Religious
women—consecrated sisters—are an indispensable part of the Mystery of Corpus Christi. Of course, since the Second Vatican Council,
their presence in the Church has greatly diminished. But during that time since Vatican II, some
new orders have flourished. The Sisters
of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Wichita didn’t exist as its own order until
1976. In that year, in Los Angeles,
three IHM sisters made the difficult decision to form an offshoot of the IHM
order. The IHM’s in Los Angeles had
given up the religious habit, abandoned many of the disciplines of daily
religious life, and strayed from Catholic teaching and liturgy. But those three IHM sisters who came to
Wichita at the invitation of Bishop David Maloney were determined to live
faithfully the life they had vowed to God.
And they did.
The Sisters of
the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Wichita have been serving throughout our
diocese—and growing within our diocese—for the past 36 years. And now the IHM sisters want to move their
motherhouse from Wichita to St. Mark’s.
In my conversations with her over the past few months, Mother Mary
Magdalen at least twice has mentioned to me for how long the sisters have been
looking for land in this “Fertile Crescent” of Catholicism that stretches
northwest of Wichita. They want their
order to sink roots in our parish. Will
you help welcome them into our parish family?
X X X
This
Wednesday Mother Mary Magdalen will sign the documents to take possession of
eighty acres within our parish boundaries.
Next Sunday, Mother will describe for us the sisters’ tentative plans in
a letter inserted in our bulletin. I
don’t want to give away all their plans, but their initial hope is to
build their novitiate on their St. Mark’s property over the next year. Then, the IHM’s novices, and the professed
sisters in charge of their formation, will live in our parish and attend daily
Mass here. The reason this would work
out so well is because the professed sisters who teach have to attend Mass
early in the morning in order to get to their schools on time. The novices, on the other hand, follow a
schedule completely at the discretion of their mother superior, and so they
have more flexibility in their daily routine.
One
Sunday next month, all of the IHM sisters will attend 10:00 a.m. Mass here at
St. Mark’s, and Mother Mary Magdalen will speak to us after Holy Communion
about their move into our parish.
Following that Mass, the Altar Society will host a reception to welcome
them. In the meantime, you can show your
hospitality to “our sisters” by bringing non-perishable items from their wish
list. If you didn’t get a copy of the
wish list last weekend, there are copies in the pamphlet rack in back. There are two drop-off boxes under the tables
in the back of church, and one in the parish
hall, next to the office. These
boxes are blue with the image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
This
week a new chapter begins in the life of St. Mark Parish. A hundred years from now, when your grandchildren’s
grandchildren read about the “early years” of our parish, they’ll note certain
years as pivotal. 1875: St. Mark the Evangelist Parish is
established. 1887: the Diocese of Wichita is established. 1903:
the current church is dedicated.
2003: the Parish Life Center is
dedicated. 2012: the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
move into St. Mark Parish.
This
is a new chapter, but not the final chapter.
There are many more chapters to be written, and on those pages will
appear the names of many other religious sisters, faithful laypeople, and their
pastors: praying and working together,
to let the love of the Body Christ grow in our corner of the world.
