HOMILY WEEK 32 05 – Year I
Faith and Readiness; Believe and Love:
Optional Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Hungary
(Wis 13:1-9; Ps 19; Lk 17:26-37)
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A nervous lector at the Sunday Eucharist ended her reading one day with the words, “This is the end of the world.” To which the congregation dutifully responded. “Thanks be to God!”
The readings for this liturgy, and the optional memorial of St. Elizabeth whom we honor today, invite us to have faith, and to be ready for the end of time, by expressing our faith through selfless action.
The first reading from the Book of Wisdom and the psalm are all about faith in God, and more particularly, about having the eyes to see God in creation as the author of all beauty and origin of all things. If all creation glorifies God, how much more so should we!
How sad it is that the “new atheists” don’t have those eyes of faith to make that simple first step – to marvel at the complexity of our universe and world and arrive at the conclusion that this astounding creation could not simply happen by accident.
hat is perhaps even sadder is that many who claim they do believe in God, fall for the temptation to put their trust in the false gods that have plagued humankind since the beginning of time – over-attaching to possessions and pleasure, prestige and fame, power and control – the very same temptations that Jesus faced in the desert and rejected.
Jesus, in today’s gospel, has another message for those who believe in him – be ready for the end of the world, for the second coming, because it will come unexpectedly and suddenly. The gist of his warning for us is not to get distracted by these allurements of this world, however good they might be, to the point where he ceases to be the center of our lives.
The best way for us to express our belief in him, and to always be ready at any moment for the end times, is to do his will every day, and to live as he wants us to live. That is very simple and boils down to one word – love. We are to love God with our whole being, love all others as we love ourselves, love others as he has loved us, and finally, love those who hurt us by forgiving them from the heart.
St. Elizabeth of Hungary
Today, we honour someone who did that in spades – St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Also known as Elizabeth of Thuringia, she was born in 1207 to King Andrew II of Hungary and Gertrude of Andechs-Meran. At age 4, she was betrothed to Ludwig of Thuringia and sent to live in his family’s castle. They married when Elizabeth was 14, and by all accounts enjoyed a happy though brief life together. Elizabeth built hospitals to care for the needy and the sick, but many of the nobles resented the expense. When her husband died of plague while away on a crusade, Elizabeth was accused of mismanagement and had to leave Wartburg. Having made provision for her children, Elizabeth entered the Third Order of St Francis and spent her days caring for the sick, the aged and the poor. Renowned for her prayer, works of charity, spirit of penance and great gentleness, she died at Marburg in 1231 at the age of 24 and was canonized by Pope Gregory IX in 1235. She is patron saint of the Franciscan Third Order and of Catholic charities.
Here is what her spiritual director, Conrad of Marburg, had to say about one whose goodness overflowed:
“She was a lifelong friend of the poor and gave herself entirely to relieving the hungry. She ordered that one of her castles should be converted into a hospital in which she gathered many of the weak and feeble. She generously gave alms to all who were in need, not only in that place but in all the territories of her husband’s empire. She spent all her own revenue from her husband’s four principalities, and finally she sold her luxurious possessions and rich clothes for the sake of the poor.
Twice a day, in the morning and in the evening, Elizabeth went to visit the sick. She personally cared for those who were particularly repulsive; to some she gave food, to others clothing; some she carried on her own shoulders, and performed many other kindly services. Her husband, of happy memory, gladly approved of these charitable works. Finally, when her husband died, she sought the highest perfection; filled with tears, she implored me to let her beg for alms from door to door.
On Good Friday of that year, she laid her hands on the altar in a chapel in her own town, where she had established the Friars Minor, and before witnesses she voluntarily renounced all worldly display and everything that our Savior in the gospel advises us to abandon. Even then she saw that she could still be distracted by the cares and worldly glory which had surrounded her while her husband was alive. Against my will she followed me to Marburg. Here she built a hospice where she gathered together the weak and the feeble. There she attended the most wretched and contemptible at her own table.
Apart from those active good works, I declare before God that I have seldom seen a more contemplative woman. When she was coming from private prayer, some religious men and women often saw her face shining marvelously and light coming from her eyes like the rays of the sun.
Before her death I heard her confession. When I asked what should be done about her goods and possessions, she replied that anything which seemed to be hers belonged to the poor. She asked me to distribute everything except one worn out dress in which she wished to be buried. When all this had been decided, she received the body of our Lord. Afterward, until vespers, she spoke often of the holiest things she had heard in sermons. Then, she devoutly commended to God all who were sitting near her, and as if falling into a gentle sleep, she died.”
One almost has to remain subdued and humbled before this testimony to such a faith-filled and loving servant of God. If the Eucharist is an act of faith in God’s love for us in Jesus, and a commitment to go out and serve with love, then she truly lived the Eucharist.
So, may our celebration today deepen our faith in God, and empower us to always be ready for Jesus to come again by expressing our faith through selfless love, like St. Elizabeth.
