Homily

[dropcap style=”font-size: 16px; color: #745cb2;”] Homily in the Eucharistic celebration on the Feastday of St. Therese Couderc, foundress of the Cenacle Congregation. [/dropcap]   Presider, Fr. James Gascon, SJ began his homily with this story: The Story of Three Trees Once there were three trees on a hill in the woods. They were discussing their hopes and dreams when the first tree said, “Someday I hope to be a treasure chest. I could be filled with gold, silver and precious gems. I could be decorated with intricate caring and everyone would see the beauty.” Then the second tree said, “Someday I will be a mighty ship. I will take kings and queens across the waters and sail to the corners of the world. Everyone will feel safe in me because of the strength of my hull.” Finally the third tree said, “I want to grow up to be the tallest and straightest tree in the forest. People will see me on top of the hill and look up to my branches, and think of the heavens and God and how close to them I am reaching. I will be the greatest tree of all time and people will always remember me.” After a few years of praying their dreams would come true, a group of woodsmen came upon the trees. When one came to the first tree he said, “This looks like a strong tree; I think I should be able to sell the wood to a carpenter,” and he began cutting it down. The tree was happy because he knew that the carpenter would make him into a treasure chest. At the second tree the woodsman said, “This looks like a strong tree, I should be able to sell it to a shipyard.” The second tree was happy because he knew he was on his way to becoming a mighty ship. When the woodsman came upon the third tree, the tree was frightened because he knew that if they cut him down his dreams would not come true. One of the woodsmen said, “I don’t need anything special from my tree, I’ll take this one,” and he cut it down. When the first tree arrived at the carpenters, he was made into a feed box for animals. He was then placed in a barn and filled with hay. This was not at all what he had prayed for. The second tree was cut and made into a small fishing boat. His dreams of being mighty ship and carrying kings had come to an end. The third tree was cut into large pieces and left alone in the dark. The years went by, and the trees forgot about their dreams. Then one day a man and a woman came to the barn. She gave birth and they placed the baby in the hay in the feed box that was made for the first tree. The man wished that he could have made a crib for the baby, but this manger would have to do. The tree could feel the importance of this event and knew that it had held the greatest treasure of all time. Years later, a group of men got in the fishing boat made from the second tree. One of them was tired and went to sleep. While they were out on the water, a great storm arose and the tree didn’t think it was strong enough to keep the men safe. The men woke the sleeping man, and he stood and said “Peace” and the storm stopped. At this time, the tree knew that it had carried the King of Kings in its boat. Finally, someone came and got the third tree. It was carried through the streets as the people mocked the man who was carrying it. When they came to a stop, the man was nailed to the tree and raised in the air to die at the top of a hill. When Sunday came, the tree came to realize that it was strong enough to stand at the top of the hill and be as close to God as possible, because Jesus had been crucified on it. ˜°˜ Mother Therese’s spirituality is rooted in a deep mystical experience of the goodness of God, characterized by self-surrender and total abandonment to the will of God under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. What does Mother Therese tell us in our time? We offer our weakness: Omnipotence of the Father,communicate yourself to my weakness and deign lift up from its profound misery, so that it may perform works of being offered to Your Divine Majesty and procuring its glory. We offer our weakness, and precisely in these weaknesses that we become effective instruments of God’s love.  Part of offering is the awareness of them; and the grace of understanding that comes with our offering. For example, one who directs a retreat is able to journey better with a retreatant who has difficulty praying because she herself experienced how difficult it is to pray.  Sometimes, when we are “good” at praying, then we fail to hear a retreatant who shares us nothing but his struggles in prayers. Just like the three trees who offered their own pride, arrogance, and slef-absorption, were deemed worthy to experience Jesus most close, Therese today summons us to surrender the self, not in its perfection but in its rawness and feebleness, to a God who transforms and makes wonders in His work in us.   Photos from the Feastday celebration  

  Homily of Fr. Jose V.C. Quilongquilong, SJ on the first day of the Novena to the Blessed Trinity through the intercession of St. Therese Couderc 17 Spetember 2012 My dear friends, the message of our gospel today is very appropriate as we open the novena of masses in preparation for the coming Feast-day of St. Therese Courderc on September 26. The message of our gospel captures very well the two characteristics of the spirituality of St. Therese Couderc: goodness and surrender. Our gospel reading described how Jesus was amazed at the faith of the centurion. We can say that the centurion’s faith was characterized by goodness and surrender. First, the centurion’s faith was characterized by goodness. He was a good man. He showed “cura personalis” – personal care for his slave (doulos in greek). The Jews in the area also recognized his goodness as they begged Jesus to help him. They told Jesus: “He deserves to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation and he built the synagogue for us.” In other words, the centurion was a “benefactor” (bene facere), someone who did so much good to others. His goodness transcended cultures and religions. The centurion’s goodness was also marked by great humility. He considered himself not worthy to be visited by Jesus. His humble words are what we say now before taking communion: “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof…” We have here a person who embodied goodness. His goodness was the foundation of his faith. Second, the centurion’s faith was characterized by surrender. He was helpless before his sick slave. He was a man of great authority, a commander of 100 soldiers, but he was powerless as he sought the healing hand of Jesus. He relied on the help of other people to communicate to Jesus about the condition of his slave. He sought the help of Jesus but he felt unworthy of his presence. He believed that only the Word of Jesus was sufficient for healing to happen. He surrendered to the power of God’s word—Dabar Yahweh.   Thus, the gospel story of the centurion reminds us of the spiritual experiences of St. Therese Couderc: her spiritual experiences of goodness and surrender.   I believe that St. Therese must have perceived the goodness of this centurion as coming from the goodness of God. In her experience she perceived “the goodness of our God, who has communicated to them something of his infinite goodness, so that we may meet it in everything and everywhere.” If St. Ignatius exhorted others “in omnibus amare et servire Domino” (in everything to love and serve the Lord), I believe that this would be the exhortation of St. Therese for us: “in everything is goodness of the Lord!”.   St. Therese must have also resonated with the centurion’s experience of surrender. She knew the power of God’s word as described in the following: “How he (GOD) communicates himself to the one who seeks him sincerely and has known how to surrender herself. Let them experience it and they will see that here is found the true happiness they are vainly seeking elsewhere. The surrendered soul has found paradise on earth, since she enjoys that sweet peace which is part of the happiness of the elect.” We say the following before taking communion: ‘Lord I am not worthy to receive you but only say your word and I shall be healed”. We can adapt this prayer with St. Therese: “…only say your word and I shall be happy.” Truly, our Mass today is a fount of so much goodness and surrender!

Homily of Fr. Jett Villarin SJ during the Perpetual Vows of Sr. Susay Valdez 27 Dec 2008 Our Lady of Pentecost Parish Good has many senses which can reflect the many moods and movements of our life. You can say that the moods of Susay or of anyone here can swing about these many senses of good. One sense of goodness is that of “goodness gracious.” I’m sure Mother Superior Meny here and the sister have gone through this mood many times. “My goodness” has nothing to do really with goodness; it is an exclamation or sigh of exasperation, of surprise or wonder over nothing good or gracious at all. You can also understand goodness in terms of being “good at something,” that is, being competent, clever, or skillful. I’m sure that Sister Susay is professing the vows not because she is an expert in poverty, chastity and obedience. On our own, we’re never really good at these things. They are an invitation to shape a life patterned after the Christ we profess to love.