HOMILY EASTER SEASON WEEK 05 02 – Year II
Elements of Discipleship: Relationship, Persecution and Proclamation –
Memorial of St. Marie of the Incarnation
(Acts 14:19-28; Ps 145; John 14:27-31a)
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The readings today offer us three elements of discipleship as followers of Jesus: relationship, persecution and proclamation.
The gospel places us back at the Last Supper just before Jesus goes to the Garden of Gethsemane. There we see again his main concern is not the physical suffering he will face, but the intimate relationship he has with the Father whom he loves, and the disciples whom he loves, whom he wants to be in an intimate relationship with the Father through their love for him. The fruit of that relationship is that it overcomes all fear that the disciples may have in their lives.
The first reading takes us back to the events after the resurrection and Pentecost as the early Church goes through its growing pains, pains that include persecution in one town after another. That persecution is seen by Paul as the key to entering the kingdom of God. In a way, nothing has changed, as many Christians today are being persecuted for their faith – more so than ever it seems.
There is another dynamic at play in this reading, and it is the interplay of kerygma and didache. Paul and his companions are proclaiming the Good News of the Risen Lord to folks in one city for the first time ever (kerygma), and then returning to other cities where they have already established churches to strengthen and encourage them (didache). Those same dynamics can be just as relevant today, as we will run into people who really have never heard the Good News of Jesus Christ either.
So, what do we learn from these readings? Put our relationship with God and with one another through Jesus first; be ready for persecutions, and be ready to carry out both kerygma and didache in our lives as disciples of Jesus.
St. Marie of the Incarnation was someone who truly had faith in Jesus and expressed that faith through loving service by washing the feet of others, especially the aboriginal people whom she served.
St. Marie of the Incarnation
The first missionary woman to the New World, Marie was born in Tours, France, in 1599. Denying her own attraction to religious life, Marie honored her father’s wishes and married Claude Martin in 1617. Claude died only three years later. Soon after, Marie began receiving revelations concerning the Incarnation, the Sacred Heart, and the Blessed Trinity. After seeking spiritual direction, she entered the Ursuline monastery in Tours.
Encouraged by a dream, she set sail with two other Ursulines, arriving in Quebec City in 1639. There, they opened their first school in Lower-town. The school grew despite sickness, poverty and strained relations with the Native peoples. When Quebecers were threatened by tensions with the Iroquois nation, Marie was recalled to France but she chose to remain in New France. She composed catechisms in Huron and Algonquin, and a dictionary of French and Algonquin. Marie died in Quebec in 1672. She was beatified in 1980 and canonized in 2104 by Pope Francis.
The Eucharist is for most people an experience of didache, of deepening our relationship with Jesus through his Word and the intimate moment of receiving his Body and Blood.
May our pondering of God’s word today strengthen us to face even persecution if that comes, and witness to the resurrection of Jesus in an often unbelieving world.
