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| Photo by Juan Guajardo |
Mass of Receiving the Carmelite Habit
Sister Marie Therese of the Holy Face
December 8, 2017
Most Holy Trinity Carmel
Arlington, Texas
Genesis 3:9-15, 29
Psalm 98
Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12
Luke 1:26-38
During the last several years I have had the opportunity for vocational reasons to become more acquainted with the Sacrament of Confirmation, both its rite and its catechesis. I celebrate this sacrament up to between 55 and 65 times each year, confirming up to 2,000 young adults every year, so you can imagine the familiarity I have developed with this sacrament; and the importance for me to enter into prayer that I not take the sacrament for granted.
One of the practices that I have noticed with more attention is that of choosing a confirmation name by each of the candidates. The sponsor presents the candidate by his or her confirmation name. I call them each by the confirmation name and seal their brow with the sacred Chrism. What I have noticed is that in this custom I can learn a lot about the person simply by the name of the saint that they have chosen. “Sebastian, be sealed with the Holy Spirit.” (Saint Sebastian, Patron Saint of Athletes.) “Cecilia, be sealed with the Holy Spirit.” (Saint Cecilia, Patroness Saint of Music.) “Hubert, be sealed with the Holy Spirit.” (Saint Hubert, Patron Saint of Hunters.)
As I call them each by their confirmation name I can almost guess what their interests are. Inevitably, in conversation with them after Mass, many will tell me that they chose their saint’s name because they saw a lot of themselves in the saint whose name they have respectively selected. That is my moment to teach as a bishop, I remind each of them that the selection of a saint’s name is that they should seek to become like the saint in devotion to Christ and not that they should select the saint who is just like themselves because of their comparable hobbies or interests. The grace of the Sacrament of Confirmation enables them to become like the saint, and not that the saint is to be considered comparable to them. The grace offered to us in the sacraments always prompts us to turn outward in love and not inward in preoccupation with ourselves. This is a subtle difference in understanding this custom of choosing a saint’s name but it makes all of the difference because it precisely involves conversion and the grace of the Holy Spirit that brings about that conversion.
The first reading from Genesis articulates that cunning difference brought about by the original sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve. Man and woman become preoccupied with themselves. Each of them values the other only for uses like pleasure and security. This reading concerns the aftermath of the man and the woman eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is the first case of arrogance, obfuscation, and “passing the buck.” Instead of the transparency of the intimacy of peace with which the creation story of the second chapter of Genesis emphasizes, the disobedience of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil brings with it duplicity, a defiant refusal to be honest and transparent, a fear of relationship and intimacy with God, and, in a word, a disobedient refusal to love.
This is underscored in Adam’s response to the Lord God’s question: “Where are you?” “I heard your sound in the garden and I was afraid, for I was naked, and I hid.” Instead of seeing God as the One from whom Adam’s life came, God is now seen by Adam as an adversary to him, the One who is to be feared and not trusted because He places an imposition upon Adam’s selfish freedom. Human nature might outwardly appear to be the same as before the sin of Adam, but the human condition is in fact very different than before Adam’s sin. The human condition has become cowardly, selfish, and marked by shame and death.
In addition, the second time that Adam speaks in reference to Eve involves blame and a refusal to accept his own responsibility in the colluded act of disobedience: “The woman whom You gave by me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” Adam had previously spoken of Eve prior to his sin (after she is created from his side), “This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh — this one shall be called woman.” Adam’s second instance of speech in reference to Eve is now one of accusation directed at God for effectively having made her: “…whom You gave by me….,” instead of a response of reverence and intimate trust. Thus, rupture, enmity, division and separation ensue: between the man and God, between the man and the woman, between the woman and God, between humanity and the rest of creation.
Then, there is the Good News of the Gospel. The Gospel reading for today is Luke’s account of the Annunciation of Mary. She stands completely vulnerable and trusting, unafraid, in loving relationship with God as she receives the awe-filled invitation to accept God’s will to be the Mother of His Son — the Mother of our salvation. Unlike Adam and Eve who hide and separate themselves from the Lord God, the Blessed Virgin Mary gives herself in trust and faith to complete love and full abandonment to God’s will — including an intimate share in her Son’s suffering — when she utters her fiat: “Let it be done to me according to your word.” She is the instrument that is connected to the restoration of all creation in her Son, Jesus. She is not preoccupied with herself but she is completely aware and at peace with God and with humanity — redeemed eternally by Her Son. This is why she is at times described as the “human race’s solitary boast.”
She is not to be wounded by sin but is instead to be wounded by love. Through her “yes” to God, God becomes clothed in humanity — the full humanity of her Son, Jesus. She is not just like us, but through her “yes” intimately tied with her Son’s victory we can by grace be redeemed and be saved and say “yes” as she says “yes.” We can say “yes” because of her “yes.” We become able not to hide in shame because of Mary’s purity of heart in not being afraid and in “saying yes.” Selflessness can increase in us as our sinful condition decreases and we become less fearful and preoccupied with self, the preoccupation that is the bitter essence of sin. In a word, we become able to love even more perfectly than in the original state of Adam and Eve experienced before their sin.
Today’s particular celebration is about clothing. Today’s celebration is also about naming. Today’s celebration is most especially about saying “yes” to God’s will in obedient love. Sister Marie Therese of the Holy Face is to be clothed in the habit of Carmel. Sister Marie Therese of the Holy Face is to be named. Sister Marie Therese of the Holy Face is to say “yes” in obedient love to God’s will that will come to her ordinarily through the Holy Rule and through the direction of her superior.
Today Sister Marie Therese of the Holy Face is clothed in the habit of Carmel. The habit of Carmel does not fit Sister Marie Therese of the Holy Face. Yet, through God’s loving care and attention, Sister Marie Therese of the Holy Face will fit the habit of Carmel. In poverty, the habit always belongs to Carmel and not to Sister as her own possession.
The name that Sister Marie Therese of the Holy Face receives today and by which she will be known in the hiddenness of Carmel includes the “Holy Face of Jesus”. This name is of great personal significance to her vocational journey because it was included in the name of St. Therese the Little Flower — St. Therese, the Greatest Saint in Modern Times — St. Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face. So many in the world omit this second aspect of the name of St. Therese — simply ending her name with “the Child Jesus.” Yet, in many ways, this second part of her name is even more revelatory about St. Therese and the mission of the Little Way than is the first part of her name “of the Child Jesus.” St. Therese in obedience to her superior writes in The Story of a Soul and teaches us today the significance of this part of her name:
The little flower transplanted to Mount Carmel was to expand under the shadow of the cross. The tears and blood of Jesus were to be her dew, and her Sun was His adorable Face veiled with tears. Until my coming to Carmel, I had never fathomed the depths of the treasures hidden in the Holy Face. It was through you, dear Mother, that I learned the mysteries of love hidden in the Face of our Spouse. I understood what real glory was. He whose Kingdom is not of this world showed me that true wisdom consists in ‘desiring to be unknown and counted as nothing in placing one’s joy in the contempt of self.’
The Holy Face of Jesus looks directly in loving obedience to the Father with love and suffers sin for the sake of love. The Holy Face of Jesus does not hide from God in shame and cowardice as did Adam’s face. Your life, Sister Marie Therese of the Holy Face, in this world has been wounded by sin — not only your own (as is the case of each of us) but wounded also by the sins of others — those who have waged war in your native land of Vietnam and the communists who have harmed your family and have hated Christ and His Church. They will either be converted like St. Paul was converted or they will go the way of Herod and Nero and all who have persecuted Him throughout history. Your new life in Carmel is to be wounded by love.
The Blessed Virgin Mary shared through her Immaculate Heart the sorrows of her Son’s cross and suffering. The Cross is the only way to be wounded by love. The Cross of Jesus is a sign of contradiction; it is a paradox. Thus, your life of transparency and selflessness is to take place as a paradox in the shadow of the Cross — hidden from the world in the life of community enclosed within Carmel. Your life in community is the school of the Cross — to be wounded by love as your Crucified Spouse was wounded by love; as the Blessed Virgin Mary, in purity of heart achieved through her Son’s merits, was wounded by love.
We pray for Sister Marie Therese of the Holy Face today at this Mass as she is clothed, and named, and as she says “yes” to God. She will soon be forgotten by the world as Christ is too often forgotten. We ask God to bless her perseverance for what she has accepted as a grace from Him out of love for Him and for our salvation. In particular, as your bishop, I humbly ask you to follow the example of our patroness, St. Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face and pray for our salvation but especially to pray for priests.
