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Sr Monica Staudinger OP |
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Funeral Homily ~ Thursday, February 10, 2005 ~ Rev. Reginald Urban
God never directly causes good or evil. There is always someone or something in the middle - either people or nature.
Good or evil comes into our world through human or natural freedom. All the social and natural disasters are ultimately caused by God, but only indirectly, only because God gave you and me and nature freedom.
God did a lot of good through Sister Monica. Sister Monica used her freedom well - she chose "the good" often.
Here is a short list of the ways.
Sister Monica chose to be God's instrument of good in the world in which she lived:
She was a person of prayer, like her namesake, Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, and like St. Scholastica, whom we honor today in our weekday liturgy. She was a person of prayer even in her childhood. It enabled her to be "vigilant", like those who "await their master's return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks."
She was also a teacher and/or principal at different times in 18-20 different parochial schools! I thought I got around a lot! I've only been in 6 different parishes as a priest!
She must also have been a good student, since people are only good teachers because they are good students. "You can't give what you don't have."
She was also a "mother." When I asked Sister Veronica to tell me Sister Monica's best qualities, the first one she shared was "mothering"! I think it must be a prerequisite for being a sister!
Freedom also enabled Sister Monica to be "direct." Sister Monica, as gentle as she was, told you what she thought. She probably sometimes surprised some of you by what she said, considering her gentle disposition!
According to Sister Veronica, gentleness was her sister's outstanding virtue. "There is nothing so gentle as real strength, and nothing so strong as real gentleness." It enabled her to take everything in stride. It enabled her to be strong in difficult times, from which she was not exempt.
Finally, long-suffering. The season of Lent reminds each of us that we must pick up our cross and follow Jesus. As a matter of fact, it is today's, the second day of Lent's, gospel. Sister Monica did that in her own prayerful, vigilant, humble, and gentle way. As we just heard from the book of Wisdom, God purified Sister Monica through her suffering like gold in a furnace. Just as Sister Monica was a teacher in life, she will continue to be a teacher in death, especially for those who knew and loved her. Everyone has a lesson to teach, if we but take the time to listen. As we begin the season of Lent let us listen to the humble, gentle lesson that Sister Monica is wanting to teach us.
Discovering that Sister Monica was a teacher and principal, I asked Sister Veronica what she liked to read. She said the Bible and books like Open Heart, Open Mind by Father Thomas Keating. So, it seems appropriate to conclude with something from that book:
Take everything that happens during the periods of centering prayer peacefully and gratefully, without putting a judgment on anything. Even if you should have an overwhelming experience of God, this is not the time to think about it. Let the thoughts come and go. The basic principle for handling thoughts in this prayer is this: Resist no thought, hang on to no thought. React emotionally to no thought. Whatever image, feeling, reflection, or experience attracts your attention, return to the sacred word.
Don't judge centering prayer on the basis of how many thoughts come or how much peace you enjoy. The only way to judge this prayer is by its long-range fruits: whether in daily life you enjoy greater peace, humility and charity. Having come to deep interior silence, you begin to relate to others beyond the superficial aspects of social status, race, nationality, religion, and personal characteristics.
To know God in this way is to perceive a new dimension to all reality. The ripe fruit of contemplative prayer is to bring back into the humdrum routines of daily life not just the thought of God, but the spontaneous awareness of His abiding Presence in, through, and beyond everything. HE WHO IS - the infinite, incomprehensible, and ineffable One - is the God of pure faith. In this prayer we confront the most fundamental human question: "Who are you, Lord?" - and wait for the answer. pp. 114 - 115 |
