A Life of Reciprocal Love

The following homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde Sept. 23 at the Poor Clare Monastery in Alexandria for the Golden Jubilee Mass for Poor Clare Sister Mary Clare of Our Lady’s Assumption.

To be chosen and loved: this touches the core of our inner being. We experience delight: "Someone loves me and desires me for myself, and not for what I have or what I do." This dynamic of choice and response leads to reciprocal love and reciprocal love lies at the core of friendship and marriage. Reciprocal love lies also at the heart of the consecrated life, and in a very tangible way, of cloistered consecrated life.

This dynamic of choice and response resulting in reciprocal love is being celebrated in our midst today as we observe the golden jubilee of Sister Mary Clare of Our Lady’s Assumption. Who is calling? Who is choosing? It is the Lord Jesus! Moments ago, we heard His call expressed in the first reading: "I will allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart. … I will espouse you to me forever … in love and in mercy … in fidelity." Who is responding? It is Sister Mary Clare. Echoing the spirit of Holy Mother Clare, she says to Christ her Spouse: "Yes, Lord, here am I; I come to do your will."

This dynamic of choice and response resulting in reciprocal love began many years ago when Sister Mary Clare was given human life at her conception and God’s own life at her Baptism. This dynamic of choice and response took on a new and radical meaning when Sister Mary Clare heard the Lord’s invitation to become a Poor Clare and responded with a generous and willing "yes." That "yes" was deepened by the solemn profession of vows and has been repeated over and over these past 50 years, in good times and in bad, in times of intense spiritual joy and in the ordinary time of contemplative cloistered living. As our Holy Father stated: "…what else is the cloistered life if not the continuous renewal of a ‘yes’ that opens the doors of one’s being to welcome the Lord? You pronounce this ‘yes’ in your daily assent to the divine work and in your assiduous contemplation of the mysteries of salvation" (Address to the Cloistered Women of Religious of Italy and the World, Sept. 10, 1995).

Sister Mary Clare, we rejoice with you as you give thanks to the Lord for having chosen you to be His spouse as a Poor Clare. You have tasted the goodness of the Lord in countless ways these past 50 years. Here in contemplative cloistered living, you have discovered that the favors of the Lord are inexhaustible and that His mercy endures forever! Here in contemplative cloistered living, you have prayed each new morning: "O God, you are my God whom I seek; and my soul thirsts. … Thus have I gazed towards you in the sanctuary" (Ps. 63:2-3). Here in contemplative cloistered living, you have continually sought the face of Christ and discovered the essential pearl of great price: to be one with Him in loving union.

Here too in contemplative cloistered living, you, along with the other Poor Clares, have sustained and strengthened by your prayer and penance the Body of Christ, especially as it is made visible and present by this Diocesan Church of Arlington. As Vita Consecrata reminds us: "Institutes completely devoted to contemplation, composed of either women or men, are for the Church a reason for pride and a source of heavenly graces. … In solitude and silence, by listening to the word of God, participating in divine worship, personal asceticism, prayer, mortification and the communion of fraternal love, they direct the whole of their lives and all their activities to the contemplation of God. In this way, they offer the ecclesial community a singular testimony of the Church’s love for her Lord and they contribute, with hidden apostolic fruitfulness, to the growth of the People of God" (no. 8).

Sister Mary Clare, all of us who are gathered with you now in the prayer of Christ’s Eucharistic Sacrifice are pledging to you the support of our prayer. In a special way, Mother Abbess and your sisters of this monastery rejoice with you and pray for you. Your family members here present — your sister, brother, nieces and cousins — unite with you as well in gratitude and joy-filled prayer.

As you father in Christ, I urge you to continue seeking deeper intimacy with your Beloved Spouse, the Lord Jesus. Let His words echo over and over in your heart: "Live on in me as I do in you. … I am the vine, you are the branches. … Apart from me you can do nothing. … Live on in my love…."

Through contemplative prayer, may you continue to grow more deeply in love with Him who chose you from before your birth to be His spouse as a daughter of St. Clare. Even as we congratulate you on this significant milestone in your journey, your Golden Jubilee as a professed Poor Clare, we commend you to the loving care of our Blessed Lady, whose Assumption you especially honor in your religious name. Following her advice: "Do whatever He tells you" (cf. Jn 2:5), you will be drawn ever closer to Her Divine Son.

Permit me to end our reflection with words taken from the Blessing of Saint Clare, words addressed in a particular way to you, the daughters of Holy Mother Clare, but also in a different way to all of us who walk on pilgrimage as God’s Holy People. "Always be lovers of God and of your souls and of all your Sisters, and always be careful to observe what you have promised the Lord."

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