Homily: Feast of St. Katherine Drexel
Feast of St. Katherine Drexel (Luke 9:22-25) “Follow Me”
“You must take up your cross and follow in my footsteps.” What sacrifices do people have to make in order to serve Jesus? It is interesting to ponder this question.
Some people, for example, seem to give up a lot of privileges in order to take up a religious vocation. With other individuals, a religious vocation might be an opportunity to better their life. Perhaps they will receive an education they might not have received, or they might achieve a higher social status than they might have otherwise achieved in their life.
Katherine Drexel had a lot of different roads she could have taken in her life. But she chose to give up everything to follow Jesus. She was born in 1858 and was the daughter of a wealthy Philadelphia banker. The family firm eventually ended up on Wall Street and was called Drexel Burnham Lambert.
As a young lady she could have married and had a comfortable life, but she wanted something different. She visited Rome and Pope Leo XIII encouraged her to devote her life to serve the poor. At the age of 30 she entered the Sisters of Mercy, but she decided that she wanted to do missionary work among African and Native Americans. Her interest in Native Americans was heightened by visiting Indian reservations in the Dakotas.
In 1891 she started her own religious congregation, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. She established schools for children of color throughout the south and southwest. One of her enduring works was the establishment of Xavier University in New Orleans.
One of the most interesting stories about Katherine Drexel revolved around Beaumont Texas. The Ku Klux Klan threatened to burn down one of her schools. The sisters prayed and a tornado hit the Klansman’s headquarters and two of the members died. The Klan never bothered the sisters again.
By the time Katherine Drexel had died she had given a fortune worth 80 million dollars away. Truly, she had tried to give everything back to God.
Reflection Questions:
- What has my Christian Vocation cost me? What sacrifices have I made to follow Jesus?
- If my Christian faith has cost me something, was it worth it? Would I follow Jesus again?
Dear Parishioners,
Lent is a time of renewal. Many people came to receive ashes yesterday. That is always an inspiring thing to see. There is something about this sacramental that strikes a chord in us all. One would not think that being reminded of our mortality would be very appealing exercise, but many seem to draw great meaning from receiving a smidge of ashes on their foreheads.
I read once that the universe is made up of dust. If we look through a telescope distant stars and planets are often obscured by dust clouds. If we were to break down our bodies into chemical compounds, we find that the same dust that floats through the universe is in our bodies. This fact can remind us that we are connected to everything that exists. Somehow the words “remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return” take on new meaning when we remember what we are made of. It also, in a way, reassures us.
May Our Lady of Peace intercede for our troubled world this day.
Fr. Mark