Reflection on the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

God really likes surprises. In 1951 when 15 of my 36 novitiate classmates and I gathered for the first time at lunch in the guest house, which is now Knobs Haven, some of us decided that Sister Antoinette would one day be the Superior General. But the God of Surprises put a finger on Mary Ann Coyle instead. When Barbara and Buffy started out in Loretto, I doubt either one of them planned to be President of the Congregation. And just before elections, Buffy assured me that she would not be chosen. But the God of Surprises said otherwise.

At age 16 in my tiny Latin class with three boys, the teacher said to Joe Messner and me, “I think you will be a priest one day, and you will be a nun.” Joe responded that he was thinking about it, and I don’t remember how I answered, but I did say to myself, “Over my dead body. If I were a boy, I would be a priest but I will never be a nun.” Well guess what Surprise God had in store for me! At age19 I was boarding a train for Loretto Motherhouse and Joe was in the seminary.

“Here I am, Lord. Is it I Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go, Lord, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart.” 

“The vocation to be a Sister of Loretto, therefore, shows itself in a spirit of courage and generosity marked by trust in God, ingenuity and self-reliance, made firm by a personal response to God.”

Whether having already served in leadership or are preparing to do so, those words should resonate strongly with you as a vowed or co-member. The Community put out a call, and the God of Surprises chose you and you replied, “I will go, Lord, if you lead me.” You have responded with faith and courage.

I don’t know how the God of Surprises works, but our own experience seems to confirm that God leads us in very subtle ways. Look at Peter in today’s Gospel. He was just an ordinary fisherman trying to make a living for his family. Then Jesus shows up, and he is attracted to him immediately, walking away from his boat and nets to follow him. It is unlikely that he was an educated man but he was much smarter than the religious leaders because he was the first to recognize Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah. God chose Peter to lead, not the “wiser,” more sophisticated Pharisee we might have expected to be selected. Apparently, God sneaks into our unconscious and, like a farmer, plants little seeds that grow into new and different plants.

So we congratulate past and present leaders of the Community for paying attention and listening to that small voice that has called you to be our beacons of light. Your task has never been easy nor will it be in the future. When you choose to answer a call to serve, you give up some of yourself. Time and energy that you might have spent doing something you liked or needed is redirected toward others. That is no small gift to this Community, and we appreciate it.

But those who have gone before us have shown the way. There have always been difficult times, starting with Father Nerinckx being pushed out, Mother Catherine and the Community being placed under interdict by Bishop McCluskey, struggles to stay afloat with low salaries or adapting to the changes after Vatican II. With ingenuity and faith we have survived. Mother Praxides even had to threaten to deposit the Sisters on the doorsteps of the bankers who wanted to foreclose on the Loretto Heights debt. When scrutinized by the Vatican, a sour experience, we made it sweet by using the opportunity to look at ourselves and where we were and at what might make things better.

Today, our Executive Committee and Forum are faced with a totally new kind of dilemma. They are facing and accepting the fact that the fulfillment of our Loretto Congregation’s special mission is at hand, a situation that none of us expected to experience in our lifetime. God is full of surprises. But it is also a time of transition into something new as we place that mission of working for justice and acting for peace in the hands of a new configuration of people, Loretto Link. The mission is not ended, just transformed. All is not finished, there are others ready to do the work, thanks to the wisdom of past leaders.  

But this is not just the work of leadership, it is the work of the whole Community. They don’t have a monopoly on the Holy Spirit. If we have ideas or suggestions to offer, we need to share them. We need to help in any way we can – serving on committees, researching, supporting, listening carefully, sharing our wisdom, showing up, trusting the sincerity of others and especially by praying. We are on this ship together, a family, a Community of faithful fiends of Mary at the foot of the cross. 

“As Sisters of Loretto we share in the mysterious yet pragmatic gift of the Holy Spirit which quietly and decisively brought Loretto into being and keeps it alive today.” 

God is with us, in us, closer than we could ever imagine. God is totally immersed in our lives, in all of creation, and we never travel alone. Together with our loving God we have embarked on this journey, and we will continue walking with one another wherever God leads us. In the words of our closing song, “We are companions on the journey, breaking bread and sharing life; . . . We have been gifted with each other, and we are called by the word of the Lord: to act with justice, to love tenderly, and walk humbly with our God.”