Jubilee 2024

As we continue to celebrate our jubilee year and our jubilarians, I am struck that we are making use of the liturgy for the dedication of a church, both at Vespers tonight and at Mass tomorrow.  This is very appropriate, since the biblical themes of the house of prayer, the temple, and the city of Jerusalem are interwoven with references to the human person as the dwelling place of God.  Those unforgettable lines from the hymn written by Mother Miriam Pollard sum it all up:

“No mortal hands have made this temple, crafted buttress, roof and floor.  Rather Christ’s own risen Body forms the arches and the door. …
Here we walk on living pavement, here we kneel in God’s own heart. …
Let rev’rent mind pierce through the symbol: scattered like these stones are we. Christ the mortar binds together all our wills in unity.”

The whole point is that a church is not just a building, but a community of believers, gathered in Christ’s name and transformed into members of his risen Body.  God makes his home in us: his church of Wrentham, just as we each make our home in God by means of this church, this community.

Remember what Bishop Erik brought out during our recent retreat – I believe this touched quite a number of us.  He spoke of the breastplate of the high priest as described in Exodus 28, with twelve jewels representing the twelve tribes of Israel. The high priest wore this to enter the Holy of Holies and approach the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat where God’s presence rested.   By doing this, the high priest took with him on his breast and in his heart the remembrance of the whole people of God and their needs: a beautiful image of intercessory prayer.  The theme is recapitulated in the book of Revelation, where the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem is described as being walled around with twelve jewels, just like the high priest’s breastplate, only this time representing the twelve apostles.  What could this mean? The city wall is the breastplate, covering the heart of the high priest and so:

“To be a citizen of the New Jerusalem is to … reside within the very breast of him who perfected and fulfilled what Aaron had foreshadowed. It is to be configured to him who was perfectly obedient to the Father’s will, pouring himself out in love, thus restoring man’s innocence. …
Subsisting within the breastplate, building up the city whose light is the Lamb, we have the consolation of being remembered in Christ’s heart. At the same time we are agents of remembrance in his name on behalf of all the names entrusted to us, the names of all whose lives have impacted on ours, in the hope that none might be forgotten, none lost; that mercy might extend to all.”

Such a description of our vocation and mission is worth remembering in the context of a jubilee year.  On this day, we are celebrating not only our community’s life of 75 years, but three of our sisters, who have put into the treasury of God’s temple all that they had to give, their whole lives.

Sister Jane has lived 70 years as a vowed member of the church of Wrentham.  Your memory of the early days and the foundresses is still sharp.  You recall being exhorted as a postulant to help build a monastery for people not yet born – that’s us! Without fuss or frills, you have walked the ordinary, obscure, and laborious road of monastic life, keeping your feet on the solid ground of the daily needs of life in community. You are a true seeker of God, with endless intellectual curiosity, which stems from an avid discipleship and a childlike wonder at the God who is always a few steps ahead of you. May your deep desire to know and be known be fulfilled.

Sister Maureen has lived 60 years in religious profession, 50 of them here at Wrentham.  During your scripture studies as a Sister of Mercy, you discovered that passage which will hear at tomorrow’s Mass, where Paul quotes a hymn about the self-emptying of Christ until death on a cross, transformed by the Father into exaltation and glory.  You knew then that you could not write about this passage, but only live it.  I trust that your many years in the school of love have brought you closer to the loving knowledge you seek.  What we know is that your passionate devotion, your ability to speak of the inner life, your capacity for deep relationships, and your irrepressible laugh have been an irreplaceable part of the warp and weave of life at Wrentham.

Sister Mariann has lived 25 years in monastic vows at Wrentham.  The monastery was for you a desert oasis discovered in mid-life after much wandering.  You once said that the moments you most readily find the monastic life you seek are when we help one another.  No quality of yours is more readily apparent than your readiness to drop everything – even your cane – to meet another’s need –at risk of bodily injury! You have shown yourself a warm and supportive sister in community, offering all-comers a healthy dose of “black Irish” realism and wit, combined with genuine compassion – always with a special concern for the underdog.  May your Good Shepherd draw you deeper into his welcoming embrace.

Today, I want to thank you, our jubilarians, for reminding us, each in your own way, of what we are called to be as the church of Wrentham, to embody these characteristics of Christ’s own Body: ‘love’s home’, ‘ark of broad charity’, ‘fountain of kindness’, ‘true sanctuary of God’.