Jubilee 2008

 

Sisters, each of you has brought a unique contribution to us as IHM Sisters. Without even one of you, our life together would have been different. We would have missed the joy you have brought to the Congregation and your personal holiness that inspires us day by day. Without one or some of all of you, countless persons would not have known the talents and gifts you have brought and continue to bring to your many ministries, as well as the compassion and tenderness of your unique personalities. There is a difference between the hidden treasure of the Gospel story and the pearl of great price. The merchant knew the great value of the pearl and so too do we know the priceless gift you are to us in community. 

Jubilee 2008: Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Great Price

-Mary Persico, IHM
July 2008

            The readings and prayers of today’s liturgy from the discourse between God and Solomon to Paul’s comforting words about the ultimate happy fortune of those who love God to Matthew’s continuation of the parables of Jesus begun several weeks ago all speak in some way to the search for God that is celebrated on a day of Jubilee! And so I thankfully choose the parables of today’s Gospel as a springboard for reflection and an opportunity to honor our 34 Sisters whom we join today as they celebrate their 25, 50, 60, 70, and 80 years of religious profession. In studying this Gospel it occurred to me for the first time that Jesus, who ordinarily spoke to multitudes of people on hillsides and along the seashore, offered these insights about the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price to an intimate gathering of friends and disciples in a modest village home. Perhaps it was because he understood they held a difficult message and their hearing required a distinctive listener. And as I look into the eyes of Sister Francis Gabriel and into the eyes of Sister Joan McCusker and those of all our jubilarians in between them, I believe you too would have been invited into that intimate gathering when Jesus told the parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price, for you have proven your ability to hear the word of God in your lives with a heart for saying Yes! You have demonstrated by your lives the beautiful words we have sung and prayed throughout this weekend – where your treasure is, there your heart shall be.

            These in a series of parables speak of the kingdom of God or the kingdom of Heaven. I suspect they are one and the same. For purposes of this reflection, bear with me as I refer to this phrase as the community of God. How does one define the community of God? Is it a place; is it in the future; who will be there; what is its purpose? How good it would be if the community of God is here, is now, is all of us, loving, dancing, growing, singing, comforting, affirming, laughing, walking hand in hand and side by side. How amazing it would be if rainbows circled a universe lush with green bounty and umbrellaed by blue unpolluted skies; and children everywhere played children’s games in late afternoon before a plentiful dinner; and old men and women were revered by their children who sat at their feet and listened to wise advice; and peace prevailed upon all countries everywhere and people in all countries everywhere shared the richness of their land and culture until all became one in God. That sounds to me like the community of God. I imagine that each one of us could describe his or her own images of that community.

And Jesus said, the Kingdom of Heaven is a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that she has and buys that field. You will note that the unsuspecting person in the story found a treasure that came out of the blue, a surprise and an unsought gain. There was a time somewhere between 25 and 80 years ago when these Sisters we celebrate today may have had a similar experience, a meeting with the expected, an encounter with God in the events of their everyday lives. This encounter somehow revealed to them a glimpse of their vision of the community of God and it was a treasure that proved to be worth all that they had to give. They heard the intimate and perhaps difficult message of God with a distinctive ear and bought the field with their lives. 

And, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant is search of fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.  In this parable, the decision to go after the prize was determined by its value. There was no pausing to analyze or postpone the search or haggle for a reduction in price. Again, for the Sisters whom we honor today, the world contains the prize, the people whom God loves. Throughout their years of ministry, there was no cutting corners or bartering for a better deal. They embraced the search that asked for total commitment and loved God’s priceless people too.

In addition to being a celebration, Jubilee is a time for all of us to remember the call to the consecrated life we live. The parables of today’s Gospel suggest that we should not only seek but be co-creators of a human community made one in God and that such a community should be the treasure we seek by the sacrifice of our very lives. Were that truly the case, we would not, as T.S. Eliot suggested in the Journey of the Magi, be at home in the structures of the world we inhabit. He writes of the three visitors from the Orient:

            We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,

            But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,

            With an alien people clutching their gods.

As Christians in search of the community of God, our buying the field or selling all that we have results in a discomfort in a world that is anything less than the treasure we seek. In his writings, Richard Rohr spoke about the three levels of story we experience – our personal stories, our communal story, and The Story, God’s Story that begins with Creation and ends with the Kingdom or God’s everlasting community, the ultimate purpose for which all has been made.  As women religious, we make the journey from my story to our story to God’s story, always keeping our eyes fixed on the pearl of great price, the community of God. Our Sister Sandra Schneiders, in Selling All, writes “…in the final analysis every human life, no matter what age or culture it is lived, is ultimately determined by what one most deeply desires and to whom or what one gives one’s life, one’s very self. Withholding that self-gift, trying to save our life, is surely in the end to lose it. The only real question is not whether to “sell all,” to give ourselves in love, but for whom and for what we will choose to exchange our one and only life.” On days like today we encourage each other to move even more deeply into that uncomfortable space, to give up certainty, to be willing to be disturbed for the sake of the treasure. On days like today we give each other courage to say yes again for a day and for a lifetime.  

            Sisters, each of you has brought a unique contribution to us as IHM Sisters. Without even one of you, our life together would have been different. We would have missed the joy you have brought to the Congregation and your personal holiness that inspires us day by day. Without one or some of all of you, countless persons would not have known the talents and gifts you have brought and continue to bring to your many ministries, as well as the compassion and tenderness of your unique personalities. There is a difference between the hidden treasure of the Gospel story and the pearl of great price. The merchant knew the great value of the pearl and so too do we know the priceless gift you are to us in community. And so we thank you, Sister Joan, for your commitment of 25 years of gentle presence and for lifting us up with music and beautiful song; we thank you Sisters Ann Belz and Ann Berendes, Monique and Jackie, Mary Elizabeth and Margaret, Martha and Marguerite, St. Francis and Martin, Loretta and Marilyn, Rita Ann and Joan, Ann Seguljic and Redempta, for 50 years of making the community of God visible to students of all ages, to parishioners and seekers of the faith, to those who are poor and vulnerable and hungering for God, to co-workers and colleagues. We thank you Sisters Janice and Benedicta, Magdalene and Rita Lorraine, Monica and Mary Mark, [Edith], Jacinta and Michel, Chrysta and Dolorosa, Ricardus and Maria, for your 60 years of dedication to community and ministry and for what you have taught us of late about other treasures – the value of deep prayer and the importance of story, our individual and collective stories; the meaning of life, and the power of one person to influence the world. We thank you Sisters Nora and Felice, Ivan and Francis Gabriel that after 70 or 80 years, you are our treasures. You have shown us the way and because of you, our vision of the community of God becomes clearer every day.

            In gratitude to all of you, we will love more tenderly.

                        We will give more freely.

                                    We will hope more fiercely.

                                                We will search more deeply.

            In love, we support you as Sisters and friends and bless you on this happy day!

                                                                                   


Eighty Years

Sister M. Francis Gabriel Lenihan

80th-Jubilarian
Sisters Francis Gabriel Lenihan and Mary Persico, president

 

Seventy Years

Sister M. Nora Clarke
Sister M. Felice Hickey
Sister M. Ivan Pollock

 70th-Jubilarian
Sisters Ivan Pollock and Mary Persico, president


Sixty Years
Sister M. Janice Barry
Sister M. Benedicta Berendes
Sister Magdalene Bubenko
Sister Rita Lorraine Burke
Sister M. Monica Byrne
Sister Mary Mark Carnes
Sister Edith Fondecchia
Sister M. Jacinta Guinther
Sister M. Michel Keenan
Sister M. Chrysta Lerhinan
Sister M. Dolorosa Loughney
Sister M. Ricardus Tuskey
Sister Maria Voorneveld

 60th-Jubilarians

Front Row, L-R: Sisters Dolorosa Loughney, Jacinta Guinther, Ricardus Tuskey, Magdalene Bubenko, Maria Voorneveld, Mary Mark Carnes
Back Row, L-R: Sisters Michel Keenan, Rita Lorrain Burke, Chrysta Lerhinan, Benedicta Berendes, Monica Byrne, Janice Barry, Mary Persico, president

Fifty Years
Sister Ann Belz
Sister Ann Berendes
Sister M. Monique Dissen
Sister Jacquelyn Donohue
Sister Mary Elizabeth Ehling
Sister Margaret Gannon
Sister Mary Martha Gardiner
Sister Marguerite Green
Sister M. St. Francis Lyons
Sister M. Martin de Porres McHale
Sister Loretta Mulry
Sister Marilyn Muro
Sister Rita Ann Naughton
Sister Joan Quinn
Sister Ann Seguljic
Sister M. Redempta Sweeney

50th-Jubilarians

Front Row, L-R: Sisters Redempta Sweeney, Rita Ann Naughton, Jackie Donohue, St. Francis Lyons, Marguerite Green, Ann Seguljic, Loretta Mulry
Back Row, L-R: Sisters Mary Ehling, Ann Belz, Monique Dissen, Mary Martha Gardiner, Ann Berendes, Margaret Gannon, Joan Quinn, Marilyn Muro, Mary Persico, president

Twenty-Five Years
Sister Joan McCusker

 25th-Jubilarian
Sisters Mary Persico, president, and Joan McCusker