Readings: Jer 29:11-14, Eph 3:14-21, Jn 15:9-17

                                                Take nothing

                                                for your journey,

                                                only your longing,

                                                your unknowing,

                                                your insufficiency,
 

                                                Take only your willing heart

                                                which will burn so bright

                                                its ashes will rain like blossoms

                                                down, down upon

                                                all you have ever loved.

                                                                                    Mary Vineyard.

             Louise has just been called forth by our congregation, the Missionary Sisters of St. Columban to begin a journey into mission, the mission of God, a journey into a life of missionary service. It is also a journey into mystery, the journey within.  Jeremiah in the first reading says: “I know the plans I have for you” (29:11). God’s plans for Louise may bring her in a life of missionary service to caring for tribal women in Pakistan, or aids patients and people devastated by the tsunami in Myanmar, or into Buddhist-Christian contemplation, or to work with students on the China mainland, or again to minister to the mentally and physically handicapped in the Philippines. She may on the other hand be sent to minister to the poor in the slums of Lima, Peru, or the homeless and migrants of Dublin, to name just a few. For the past three years Louise has been preparing for this lifelong commitment to missionary service.  In fact she has already tasted this life in her year in Lima, Peru.  She therefore knows the meaning of our introductory poem:

                                                   Take nothing

                                                   for your journey

                                                   only your longing

                                                   your unknowing,

                                                   your insufficiency.

            Louise’s commitment today to a life of Columban missionary service will be expressed by a life of vowed poverty, celibacy and obedience in the service of the poor. Her commitment to vowed poverty calls her into practical solidarity with those who live in situations of deprivation and degradation and to be a prophetic voice of protest against materialism, consumerism, and the destruction of our cosmos. Her vow of celibacy invites her to appreciate celibate solitude so that she can foster deep intimacy with God in contemplative prayer. Her vow of obedience invites her to listen attentively to her own inner voice, to God, to the voice of her suffering sister and brother in need – and this is a listening that demands a response.  By this compassionate listening she will refuse to tolerate the violence and injustices of caste and privileged class and of subjugated peoples born to serve.  We witnessed an example of such injustice recently at the G8 meeting in Japan when its members spent $300 million dining on caviar and champagne while they talked about the starving bellies of the poor of Africa. Such injustice touches us deeply. To days’ ceremony is inviting Louise to remain in the love of Christ, nourishing the energy of Christ within her so that she can bring that divine energy – that love unbounded, as Timothy Radcliffe, the former master general of the Dominicans describes it – into her ministry and express it in a life of compassionate action. That is what it means to lay down one’s life for one’s friends, as we have just read in the gospel. Today’s gospel also reminds us that there is no greater love than this.

            There is a richness in today’s theology of commitment and Rumi, the 13^th century Sufi mystic and poet captures it so well in his poem, The Silk Worm:  I can travel on my thousand feet throughout the earth, my sacks filled with the sacred.  What a marvelous maxim that is for missionaries! - to travel on our thousand feet throughout the earth, our sacks filled with the sacred! By entering into today’s celebration of profession of vows and renewing our own vows we fill up our own sacks with the sacred. Joan Chittister, the Benedictine sister reminds us that we need a renewal of commitment because the pressures of ministry “drain our souls, dry out our hearts ... and make living more a series of duties than a kind of joyful mystery.” Therefore she says we ought to be in touch with the sacred, and live a strong, clear, witnessing, spiritual life, absorbed in the mind of Christ, and grounded in the gospel.

            Many present here today who have spent years in mission perhaps would love to be setting out again on a life of missionary service. As we congratulate Louise, we rejoice and are grateful for the plans God has had for us and for the service we Columbans have been able to render in mission. But the call never comes only once.  It comes again and again and again. Some of you here may be feeling competent and comfortable, others tired and in ill-health, perhaps a little forgetful and fearful, but you continue the mission of God by a quieter, less active but more reflective lifestyle, with gratitude to God for the years sent in missionary service and for the opportunity now to enjoy mystical moments in contemplative silence.

            Louise’s commitment today invites all of us here present, whether we have professed religious vows, marriage vows, or priestly vows, or are planning one of these choices, to renew our own commitment. Certain moments in our lives are saturated with holiness. Today’s ceremony of commitment may be one such moment.  It invites all of us to commit ourselves anew to contemplate deep intimacy with God, to be reborn to a deeper level of consciousness, to nourish the divine energy within us. In the second reading from the letter to the Ephesians we have prayed that “our roots go deep down into the soil of God’s marvelous love and compassion (Eph 3:17) so that we may experience the divine energy of Christ which surpasses all knowledge.” And the message of Jesus in the gospel just read reminds us to “remain in my love,” that is remain in the divine energy and compassion of Christ.” (Jn 15:10).

            To be nourished by the energy of the divine and to live our lives in Christ it is helpful to appreciate what St. Paul means by being “in Christ,” a phrase he uses more than 140 times in his writings.” When we live “in Christ,” we enter into the deepest mystical experience of Jesus. We are situated within the body of Christ.  We are joined to Christ and therefore to one another in mission. St. Columban, the Celtic missionary and mystic of the 6^th century, and our patron, must have been guided by these words when he chose for his motto: Let us be Christ’s not our own!  Julian of Norwich reminds us that being “in Christ,” means that we are inside the mind of Christ looking out, seeing the world through his eyes.  We are not outside Christ looking in. Julian also says that there is a great torrent of prayer going up from the heart of Christ to the Father and we have the privilege of being part of that prayer. That’s what living “in Christ” means. It is about being united with the sacred at the core of our being. We can say with St. Paul to the Galatians: “I live now, not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me.” (Gal 2:20). So with St. Columban we pray “Let us be Christ’s not our own!”

            Filling up our sacks with the sacred and contemplating the outpouring of divine life into our hearts prepares us to appreciate the transforming power of divine energy in the world. A life of compassionate living comes from a deep silent space within. When we reach out to our neighbour, the divine energy we nourished in prayer is transformed into compassion because compassion is the fruit of contemplation by which we are touched by the compassion of God. Hafiz, the 14the century Sufi brings contemplation and compassion together for us:

                                                 You will find yourself knee deep in ecstasy

                                                 When all your talents to love

                                                 Have reached their heights

            Hafiz is saying that we can have an experience of ecstasy when our commitment to compassion and generous service knows no bounds. We are knee deep in ecstasy when we reach out in practical solidarity with those who live in situations of deprivation and degradation. Today, Jesus is inviting us Columbans to accompany him to places where life is most at risk and to trust in the secret power of compassion whether that be in Pakistan, Myanmar, China, the Philippines, Birmingham or Peru, or in any of our missions where Louise will have the opportunity of ministering to people in need.. And her missionary work will bond her ever more intimately and spiritually to her family and friends, who will share in her life of missionary service:

                                                  Take only your willing heart

                                                  which will burn so bright

                                                  its ashes will rain like blossoms

                                                  down, down upon

                                                  all you have ever loved.

 

                                                                                    Kathleen Coyle ssc