Homily for Feast of Angela Merici

Tomorrow is the feast day for Angela Merici and I was assigned in my preaching class to focus my homily on her life. I had to give this homily in class last week, but as it happens, I also have to preach at the house once a semester, so I thought that I would simply re-do on the actual feast day what I did last week.

Roger Merrill and Steven Covey talk about the different areas of we need to attend to in our daily lives in their book "First things First." As a student for the priesthood, it's funny how many gear shifts I find myself having to do. One for being a student (in which you are always behind on reading), one for prayer life (which when you a required to do it sometimes feels more like work than not), one for friends (and making sure that SOME of those friends come from the outside world), house responsibilities, ministry, etc.

I don't say that to suggest that my life is more busy that other people's. I definitely remember life "on the other side of the ontological divide" and the many different directions pulls came from; in fact, when I get stressed I have to remember that I have a lot more flexibility of time then I did before in order to black the different hockey pucks that come flying my way.

But as a trick, I remember that Covey and Merrill talked about how frequently those different areas of out lives overlap. So with that in mind, I present here a homily that my community will be hearing for the first time... and my class heard last week.

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Should anything ever happen to James Earl Jones, God forbid, I think I know somebody who could easily replace him as the announcer for CNN. Rick was a lector at the church I used to attend in Baltimore and he was well known for this rich, deep voice—we often used to joke that Darth Vader who was reading from the Old Testament—but he was just as well known for being a father figure for many in the parish. But it is this story the pastor if the church told me about Rick that still stands out in my mind.

A few years ago, both his wife and his mother were killed when the car they were driving was blindsided by an 18-wheeler on Interstate 95. And for once, the parish had the opportunity to reach out to Rick; the outpouring among the congregation had been tremendous. And after a few weeks had gone by, Rick wanted to address the place he called home. So after giving the announcements, Rick said “I know that you are all worried about me… and yes this has been a rough time. But I want you to know that things are going to be fine. Because God is my rock. God is my rock.”

I don’t know about you, but even though I’m a seminarian I find that kind of faith almost beyond my reach. And I wonder if there was a time when 17th Century Saint whose life we celebrate today might have felt the same way. Angela Merici is best known for founding the Ursuline Sisters, which formed one of the backbones of women’s education for centuries. But before all of those things, she was simply a young child who had lost almost all of her siblings, and then her two parents. And if that wasn’t bad enough, a few years later her last remaining sister died suddenly, which left Angela distraught for years because her sister had not received her last sacraments.

Now many of us today might not be able to relate to a theology that compares the power of the sacraments to the hand motions of Caesar in the gladiatorial arena—thumbs up or thumbs down—but for Angela dying without last rites meant great peril for one’s soul so she prayed fervently for her sister.

But in today’s reading, we learn why Angela’s fears were misplaced… because as Jesus tells us in the Gospel reading, we are family to God. “For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Eventually Angela Merici prayers were answered when she saw a vision of her sister in heaven, resting with the Saints. Because as Angela Merici loved her sister, as Rick loved his mother and his wife, as we love our own families, God loves us that much more... as family. And that is the Good news that we come to celebrate today.

[For more information on Angela Merici, click here]
[For the day's reading, click here]