Jubilee Reflection

by Sister Sheila Novak, SDS

What are we really celebrating today?  The obvious answer is right here in the Jubilee invitation – 60-50-40-25 years of living Salvatorian religious life by our Jubiliarians. It is a milestone – to be recognized and commended-so here we are gathered-in our good clothes, with a beautiful liturgy – with good food to follow.

But as I got to thinking about this day and what we are celebrating, I remembered a book about religious life that I read some 30 years ago.  It was right at the time when the changes of Vatican II were shaking up the Church we knew – the church of the first vows of most of our Jubilarians. We were coming out of a time of black and white – when we even wore black and white. We were reminded of some very basic realities that had gotten eclipsed in the last few centuries. Holiness was not just for religious. Vatican II clearly stated – all are called to holiness.  All are responsible, all are to participate in the mission of the church. This opened the door to new roles for the laity – and to some of our brothers and sisters choosing to follow their call elsewhere. It was a challenging time!

The author of this book was asking the question – then why religious life? Do we need religious life any more with the rediscovery of the role of the laity?  He methodically put forth various reasons used to explain religious life. Are religious meant to be a more efficient work force in the Church?  Are they looking to be heroic, to be ascetic and sacrificial, to achieve a greater merit and perfection?  All of these explanations got a resounding NO!

Then he moved to the core of religious life – which stirs my soul to this day.  Religious life is a life of faith agreeing to stake everything on Jesus.  It embraces one’s thoughts and one’s heart, the whole of one’s existence.  This attachment to Jesus fills our whole life.  All else remains secondary!  All are called to a life of faith, but religious focus their lives on this and proclaim the absolute place of God in our lives!

To illustrate his point, he spoke about the great adventure of marriage and family and all that marriage demands in being a sign of Christ’s love.  But if a lay Christian should happen to lose the faith – s/he could still continue to find meaning in the core of daily life.  It would still be possible to have a joyful marriage and productive involvement in the world. 

Not so if a religious loses faith.  Without faith, without this relationship to the Jesus we follow, our life would lose all meaning! This is my long answer to our opening question – what are we really celebrating today?   We celebrate how these Jubilarians have been faithful, how they have staked everything on Jesus/making him the pivot of their lives. They have done this – not just for a period of time, not just when everything was going along smoothly, but they have stayed with it through its reshaping, its radical external changes – a walk in faith.

In doing some homily research, I asked the jubilarians what was a challenging time for them?  I promised them not to name names – and they filled me in on what these years have been for them.  They have come through the black and white pre Vatican II church to live in a time of ambiguity.  Even with the good education they received, there were moments of being asked to leave a ministry they knew and loved for something unknown, with the question – can I really do this?  Our first reading talked about passing through the waters, walking through fire and flames.  That has looked like the death of a best friend.  One of our jubilarians had a serious stroke – for another, it is living with cancer.  And yet, both of these persons keep going – still seeking ways to serve the Lord they follow.

I also wanted to know how they got through these challenging times – what kept them going? Their responses reflect their faith at the heart of our celebration today – and echo the Script readings they choose.  Several spoke about God as their grounding. These are some of their words describing their years:  My desire to love God, hearing God’s call, feeling the rightness of that call, sensing God was with me, realizing God is not way out there, but so involved in my life.  You were also named as important in keeping them going -   the love of family and friends, the support and blessing of being a part of the Sal community – with all the opportunities for companionship and spiritual growth.  This is just a sampling of the wonderful responses they shared – but even this sample is a testimony to what we are really celebrating today.

We Catholics have a traditional devotion of the living rosary – where each prayer of the rosary is represented by a person. What we have today with our Jubilarians is a living creed! They are an incarnation of the readings we just heard proclaimed. They have lived God’s reassuring promises of Isaiah: I have called you by name/you are mine/ you are precious/ I love you, I am with you.  When you pass thru rivers you will not drown, thru fire, you will not be burned.  I am your Savior.  I will continue to make your inner self to grow strong – just immerse yourself in the immensity of my love -  its breath and length and height and depth!  I will fill you with my fullness! 

We celebrate your answer to that critical question Jesus asked in today’s gospel:  Who do you say I am? All these years you have said:  You are the one on whom I stake my life!  The one I have loved and for whom I continue to exist.  You are the necessity of my life!

What are we really celebrating today?  A lavish God, who calls us precious and glorious – who is always with us – who sees us through our most difficult moment – who frees us, strengthens us – who glories in all the good we are.  Thank you, Jubilarians, for how your lives have inspired us, have reminded us of the God we all follow – of what God can do in us and with us!  Your faithfulness enkindles our own call to be faithful!  Now that is really something to celebrate!