Homily

This past week I was thinking about two different ways of living, two different ways of seeing life. There are people who live life with a short-term view, not looking too far down the road, not trying to reach a goal that seems far off, not having some kind of long-term strategy but moving along though life more or less taking things as they come along.

These last few weeks, it has become clear to me that Sr. Mary Magdalene is failing, and unless a miracle happens, she is not long for this world. I don't know a great deal about her life and I'm sure I have forgotten some of the things she told me. She was born on the prairies of Canada and raised in the Russian Orthodox Church. As a young adult, she became Catholic and entered the religious order of the Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood in Ontario. There she spent a good portion of her day in prayer. She did that for many years until she met up with Sister Mary Diana to try and form a slightly different style of monastic life that included more prayer and more time alone, apart from the hustle and bustle of a monastery. They eventually were able to set up their own little monastery in La Pine, Oregon, where they spent over 20 years following their own monastic rule based on their experiences and the knowledge they had received from their previous religious orders. So I think of Sister Magdalene's life as one-half of the Hermit Sisters, all those years in Central Oregon. I think of her driving the tractor, chopping the wood, shoveling the snow, fixing what needed fixing and taking on many new challenges that never would have come her way back in the old monastery in Canada. She created beautiful religious cards, with scripture verses as text and excellent calligraphy that she learned in her former convent. These were sold to help support themselves. And there was the bread baking where the two of them produced dozens of loaves to be sold to the public as a source of income. And she was the same nun who planned and oversaw the installation of a new septic tank.

How very, very different her life has been from ours in many ways. All those years in La Pine with no television, no phone, no microwave, no central heating, no internet access, no computer, not even a washing machine or a dryer or an iPod. No movies, no dining out, and although she did make a few trips to see her brother, there were no vacations. Now, nearing the end of her days, she has no living blood relatives, and of course no children or grandchildren to surround her bedside. In the monastery, there were no big family gatherings at Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or Easter, no attendance at family events. In fact often not even a great deal of news about what was happening in the world at all. So her life was very different from the lives that most of us live. In fact, it may be difficult for us to even have a decent grasp of this kind of life, because we are so immersed in the world and family life, and we have a lot of stuff, and it may be tough for us to visualize a life that is so very different in style and focus. But I want to say that I think Sr. Mary Magdalene lived her life, and still lives her life, with a long-term goal in mind. She wants to live in union with God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. She wants to love God, and to love His people. She wants an everlasting home where there are no tears, mourning or septic tanks. She had long-term goals and she lived her life by them, and now it seems her long-term goals have become short term goals by necessity.

We cannot closely imitate her life or the life of Sister Mary Diana, because that's not our vocation. But we can be inspired by her example of love and dedication because we have surely been uplifted by her prayers many, many times. We have to deal with many people and situations, dangers and distresses living in the world in the way that we do. It's very tempting, I think, to have a short-term view of life, one that only extends to today and tomorrow, and maybe reaches out only 20 or 40 years beyond that. Short-term views can lock us into a way of thinking and living that only values what we have while we're still breathing. Only a long-term view can put us on the road to eternal love, everlasting peace, our genuine and true home. St. Paul says today that God has "brought us to life together with Christ . . . and raised us up together, and seated us together in heaven with Christ Jesus that he might show in the ages to come the overflowing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."

Now, everybody likes nuns! You could see that clearly while Sister was in the hospital and nursing home. Everybody likes nuns, but surely not everyone understands their vocation. One of the beauties of monastic life is to be a witness to God's love and this gift of eternal life for those who are faithful, for those who live in the midst of the world. Nuns such as we love, they sacrifice, in part, so that we can see by their example the beauty of a long-term view of life which is supported by God, nourished by prayer and headed for glory. They serve as witnesses to the kingdom of God, lest we be tempted to live according to the goods and evils of a passing world. I think of the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, and God forbid, that we should end up in flames, and ask Father Abraham to help us. And Father Abraham would say, "I sent you two nuns. Why didn't you learn from them?"

Dear Friends, we are always tempted to see our short-term goals of life as longer-term goals, but not goals that last forever. We're tempted to think and act for right now rather than for eternity. We feel the pressure to live in such a way that when we leave this life our obituary will be filled with a long list of our accomplishments and loving tributes from family and friends. But I think when Sister Magdalene's time comes her obituary could be written using the words of another nun: "She did something beautiful for God." And that's a truth we can meditate on for the rest of our lives.