Homily

Mary: Reasons to Trust her

Saturday, December 8, 2007, Immaculate Conception
Ss. Cyril and Methodius Parish, Sterling Heights

            Whenever we come to the great Marian feasts during the liturgical year, I always am distressed: How could I ever praise Mary worthily with my poor words? Yet I remember that passage in Numbers wherein the mouth of the donkey, the ass, of Balam was given by God to miraculously speak God’s words to God’s enemies, the Lord can also make me capable of delivering his message to His own children. So may God thus help me, his useless servant, as I praise his mother, the ever Virgin Mary.

            May today’s homily lead us all to know and love Mary as our mother, and then to really and truly live as her sons and daughters.

            And for this I wish to bear witness to the Blessed Virgin’s protection, care and blessings in my life, even if only briefly.

            For in my childhood, I first learned to pray the rosary around the time of my first communion at that poor little church, St. Claude’s in Clinton Township, before the most beautiful statue of Our Lady of Fatima. Her immaculate heart rose from her breast, and was pierced with a sword, while next to her stood a statue of Jesus, whose own visible heart was wrapped in thorns. And Fr. Wilk would infallibly send us to go pray to Mary after our confessions.

            And my mother on earth showed me how to wear the scapular of my mother in heaven, and so taught me to entrust my salvation to her loving and powerful promises.

            In and out of Catholic schools, depending on what my family could afford at the time, and how lenient the parish was on our tuition; but also later in high school, depending on the orthodoxy of the religious program, occasionally I had fine teachers who would take us to Mass, to confession by classes, and would start each lesson with a decade of the rosary.

            As a high school student, already resolved on becoming a priest later in life, I consecrated my life to the Blessed Virgin, with my whole class; and I took that consecration very seriously. From now on, in a mystical way, I would belong to Mary, and offer my love and my devotion, and the spreading of her devotion to others, in exchange for far greater gifts, namely, her protection and intercession.

            Very few of you could imagine the obstacles set to my priestly vocation throughout the years; I myself hardly can believe them, even though I lived through them. Resistance on nearly every side, and endless setbacks. Still, none of these difficulties have ever added up to a single vocational doubt. And I would always go to Mary, my mother, and ask her for light, for aid. And she has never failed to answer my prayers.

            It was at a parish dedicated to Mary, to her Assumption, where I offered my first Mass and consecrated my entire priesthood to her. Now it has pleased Mary to draw me to her service, for on Monday I received my letter from Cardinal Maida assigning me to Assumption Grotto parish in Detroit. You’ll see me helping out here and there at Ss. Cyril and Methodius parish, but it’s time for me to go. And Mary has played a clear and powerful role in this.

            So why is it that so few of you trust in Mary? Why is it that you fail to pray to her, to bring her flowers, to ask for her favors and to give your lives to her? Why is it that in return for her maternal love, you hand her the bloody nails with which you crucified her Divine Son? Why is it that in the world today, there are some fools so brazen as to ridicule her and to despise devotion to her? How can there be men so stupid that, filled with the errors of the Protestant reformers, they flat out hate devotion to her, speech about her, prayer to her and love for her?

            My dear brothers and sisters, you have never experienced love on earth like the love Mary has for you. A stream of tears flows endlessly from her eyes, as she weeps for hardened sinners, to obtain for them the most marvelous of graces. Her mantle reaches out over all the earth, and protects her beloved from Satan, who is absolutely powerless against her.

            On this day of her Immaculate Conception – for she was perfect in her love for God, and had no sin, not even original sin – entrust the salvation of your souls to her, and every other project. For it pleases Jesus the Lord to glorify his mother throughout the earth. Amen.