The People the Lord Has Chosen

By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Bishop of Arlington
(From the issue of 6/19/03)

This homily was given by Bishop Paul S. Loverde at the Profession of Solemn Vows by Sister Mary Charitas of the Child Jesus, who is a member of the Poor Clares, at the Monastery of Mary, Mother of God in Alexandria, Virginia.

"Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own." This psalm refrain enables us to understand more fully today’s two-fold celebration: the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity and the Profession of Solemn Vows as a Poor Clare by Sister Mary Charitas of the Child Jesus.

"Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own." Today’s scripture readings reaffirm this amazing truth: God has chosen a people to be His own! In our first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, we hear that the chosen people – the original People of God, our ancestors in the faith, were indeed chosen by God Himself. ". . . did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation . . . which the Lord, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?" In today’s second reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans, we are being reminded that those who are led by the Spirit of God are His children, daughters and sons, adopted but nonetheless real members of His family, the people He has chosen. Today’s gospel account makes so evident the mandate for the Church to evangelize. "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. . ." To evangelize means to invite people to come to Jesus, inviting them to become members of that people the Lord has made his own. Baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, this new People of God – you and I – go forth to catechize, to teach and to live the fullness of their Catholic faith.

Yes, through Baptism, we have become "the People the Lord has chosen to be his own." This people is rooted in the Most Holy Trinity, One God in Three Divine Persons. As Saint Cyprian states, the Church is essentially a mystery of Communion, "a people made one with the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit" (cf Vita Consecrata, no 411, p 71). We pray to become ever more a Trinitarian people. In today’s Opening Prayer, we asked: "O God, Three Persons, be near to the people formed in your image . . ." Yes, we must model the Trinity in the living out of our ecclesial lives, reflecting our unity in prayer, in evangelizing and catechizing, in speaking truth in love, in reaching out to the poor and needy and in defense of all human life, beginning at conception. We are the people "the Lord has chosen to be his own;" let us live as this kind of people.

"Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own." God’s choice is revealed in His primary and most fundamental way by His universal call to holiness and our Baptismal consecration by which each of us began to share His Trinitarian life as a member of the people formed in the image of the Trinity.

This primary choice on God’s part – to belong to His people – is then revealed even more specifically by the different vocations present within the Church. One particular way of living out God’s universal call to holiness is the consecrated life, which in turn, has various expressions. Of these, the cloistered life is one such concrete expression. "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. By their lives and mission, the members of these Institutes imitate Christ in prayer on the mountain, bear witness to God’s lordship over history and anticipate the glory which is to come . . . . 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" (Vita Consecrata, no 8).

On this Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, we gather to witness the Profession of Solemn Vows by Sister Mary Charitas of the Child Jesus. By her free and deliberate decision, in response to the Lord’s invitation, she chooses to belong to the Poor Clares for the rest of her earthly pilgrimage. How fitting that Sister Mary Charitas makes this profession of solemn vows on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.

In Vita Consecrata, Pope John Paul II enables us to view the consecrated life from the perspective of the Trinity. The call to consecrated life is "an initiative coming wholly from the Father (cf Jn 15:16), who asks those whom he has chosen to respond with complete and exclusive devotion." (Vita Consecrata, no 17). Those called to the consecrated life are asked by the Son, Jesus the Lord, to make "a total commitment, one which involves leaving everything behind (cf Mt. 19:22) in order to live at his side and to follow him wherever he goes (cf Rev. 14:4)" (Vita Consecrata, no 18) "Like the whole of the Christian life, the call to the consecrated life is closely linked to the working of the Holy Spirit. In every age, the Spirit enables new men and women to recognize the appeal of such a demanding choice" (Vita Consecrata, no 19). This deep link of the consecrated life with the Trinity is so beautifully summarized by our Holy Father in a later passage in Vita Consecrata. "The consecrated life is thus called constantly to deepen the gift of the evangelical counsels with a love which grows ever more genuine and strong in the Trinitarian dimension: love for Christ, which leads to closeness with him; love for the Holy Spirit, who opens our hearts to his inspiration; love for the Father, the first origin and supreme goal of the consecrated life" (Vita Consecrata, no 21).

Sister Mary Charitas, in the name of our diocesan church, which is so truly blessed to have the Poor Clares within her midst, in the name of all here present, including myself as the diocesan bishop privileged to witness your profession of solemn vows, I pledge to your our prayer-filled support and warm congratulations. With each passing day, may you seek ever more fervently the spouse of your heart, Jesus our Lord; may you be led to ever deepening levels of intimacy by the Holy Spirit of love; may your life here, hidden within this cloister, give ever more increasing praise to God our Father! May your life as a Poor Clare become "a confession and a sign of the Trinity, whose mystery is held up to the Church as the model and source of every form of Christian life" (Vita Consecrata, no 21).

Permit me to conclude by echoing the words of holy Mother Clare to Blessed Agnes of Prague: ". . . Trust in no one, yield to no one who would deter you from this goal or obstruct your path to prevent you from fulfilling your vows to the Most High in that way of perfection to which the Spirit of the Lord has called you."

Yes, how blessed we all are – for through God’s loving mercy and gracious call, we are "the people the Lord has chosen to be his own."

Copyright ©2003 Arlington Catholic Herald.  All rights reserved.