Excerpts from Fr Michael Mohaley’s Homily
Thank you Nora for the privilege and honour of joining you and your fellow Sisters, in thanking God for the love he has shown in calling you to be a Columban Sister, and standing with you in fidelity as you lived your vocation.
Today, we celebrate a love story between Nora and God, a love story that has strengthened our faith and the lives of many people she has encountered along the way.
60 years ago when Nora responded in love to that call may seem like a long time ago but it isn’t something in the past. That word came to her as a creative word, it sprung from eternity…
‘I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.’
That creative word, Jesus, has continued to form her into another Christ through a kind of osmosis, through her interaction in prayer with Jesus in friendship… private moments which only she and Jesus know.
When Our Lady said ‘yes’ in that little room in Nazareth, the eternal word took flesh in her. Jesus was formed in her and her life unfolded in ways she could not have foreseen. Just as Mary’s ‘yes’ resonates still in our lives, so Nora’s ‘yes’ continues to resonate in her life up to this very moment. And this is because of God’s fidelity to her; a fidelity of tenderness and unfailing love.
His fidelity does not depend on ours…
‘God, by calling you, has joined you to his son, Jesus Christ; and God is faithful’ (1 Corinthians 1:9)
‘You can trust God not to let you be tried beyond your strength’ (Corinthians 10:13 JB)
Our ‘yes’ to God has a story, our fidelity to God has had a story that we could not have foreseen unfolding in advance. For Nora, it was her willingness to be missioned in Korea.
I would like to mention 4 moments in her story that touched my life…
- FTP (Formation Training Programme) – her courage in taking the course so that she, with her fellow Columban Sisters, could embrace the new approaches to formation in a changing world.
- Meeting the young Sisters in Korea – when I met Nora in Korea I was impressed by her relationship with them, one of warmth, respect and ease.
- Also, on a visit to Korea, I had the privilege of accompanying her on one of her house visitations. Even though I did not know any Korean, I could feel the welcome she received and how much her help and compassion was appreciated.
- Her hospice work and care of the elderly was, for Nora, the crowning part of the life of service she wanted to live. I know it cost her to leave it and Korean ten years ago. However, Nora has continued her Mission in a different way in her own country. Her motto ‘My grace is sufficient for you’ continues to be her strength and hope.
On this, Our Lady’s feast day, we pray that each of us may follow her example.
