Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God
SEEK 2015 - Conference presented by FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students
Bishop James D. Conley
Nashville, Tennessee
January 1, 2015
My brother bishops, priests, deacons and seminarians, our beloved religious women, consecrated brides of Christ, Curtis Martin and the FOCUS staff, dear missionaries and college students, dear friends in Christ one and all – on behalf of our good bishop and my good friend, Bishop Choby, welcome to Nashville – Music City!
My name is Bishop James D. Conley, Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska. Are there any Nebraskans in the house?
It is a real joy and an honor for me to be with you for SEEK 2015, especially as we begin with the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on this Solemnity of the Mother of God and the first day of the new year – 2015!
The number of young people here tonight at this Mass is awesome. Wow. It’s really incredible. And I know that many are still arriving and the numbers will grow over the next few days. This really is an incredible event – the largest ever in the history of FOCUS. It could very well be the largest gathering of Catholic College students for a weekend conference in the history of the Catholic Church in America.
And my dear brothers and sisters, we are here because we are all seeking. We are seeking peace. We are seeking joy. We are seeking friendship. In the depths of our hearts, we are seeking things we cannot even name.
We are here because we are seeking love, and therefore we are seeking God, who is love incarnate! Today is the Octave of the celebration of that love incarnate, the 8th day after the celebration of the nativity of Jesus Christ.
Tonight, in the celebration of the Mass, Jesus Christ himself is made present among us. Hidden in the form of bread and wine. And everything that we seek for in our lives can be found in this Holy Sacrifice, in this Holy Eucharist.
Jesus Christ is the answer to every thing we seek. Or, better yet, in the words of Saint John Paul II, when he spoke to the United Nations in 1995, “Jesus Christ is the answer to the question that is posed by every human life.”
This long weekend, I have no doubt will be a lot of fun. You will hear some tremendous, world-class speakers. You will hear some very talented musicians and other performers. But nothing we do here will be more important than prayer. You will have the opportunity for the sacrament of penance or confession, the celebration of Holy Mass each day, and extended times of quiet prayer before Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. In the holy sacraments of our Church and in prayer, Jesus is waiting for you—you, whom he has loved since before time began.
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Before I begin my homily, I’m going to do something I probably shouldn’t do. Some of you might know that I converted to the Catholic faith as a student, during my days at the University of Kansas – Rock Chalk! Most of my family members are not Catholic. But I am a very proud uncle because this past year, at Easter, my niece, Kaitlyn, who is a senior at the University of Memphis, was received into the Catholic Church.
Kaitlyn is here with us tonight, and I probably shouldn’t ask you to recognize her, but I would like to recognize her and all of the other young men and women here who have chosen the Church that Christ founded. Fellow converts, we welcome you to the Catholic Church – let’s give it up for all the converts in the house (applause)!
My niece Kaitlyn is a soccer player at the University of Memphis, and I also probably shouldn’t mention that this year she set her school’s single-season assist record. But I can’t help it. I told you I’m a proud uncle!
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Today we are celebrating the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, and we are concluding the octave of Christmas—the 8 days in which the Church celebrates the Incarnation of Christ at Christmas. The solemnity is placed on January 1st so that we can begin our year with Mary on our minds. She, who was the most beautiful woman ever to walk this earth, is a perfect way to begin the year, and the perfect way to begin our gathering here Nashville.
I would like to offer three reflections for you tonight on Mary, the Mother of God.
The first is that Mary is calling us to become contemplative disciples of Jesus Christ, contemplatives of Jesus Christ living in the world. In today’s Gospel, the shepherds arrive at the manger where Jesus was born. They share the story of angels appearing to them in the fields. They share the excitement they have for the newborn Christ. But they came primarily to pray and to adore.
And Mary, the Mother of God, holds on to the words they share. St. Luke says that Mary “kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.”
Mary is the very first person to whom the Gospel of Jesus Christ was revealed, and therefore Mary is the first disciple of the Lord. When the angel Gabriel appeared to her, he revealed that Mary’s son would be Jesus Christ, the savior of the world. When her son was born, Mary discovered that the angels of heaven announced his birth to the whole world.
She pondered the mystery of the Gospel in her heart.
Dear friends in Christ, over these next few days I would ask you to ponder the mystery of the Gospel in your hearts. Read the Gospel, and take it in. Ponder the mystery of God’s redemption of the world. Ponder how profoundly God has loved us. Ponder how much he desires our redemption. Ponder his work in your own life.
We’re called, like the Blessed Virgin Mary, to be great saints. Each one of us is called to set the world on fire with the love of Jesus Christ. We’re called to be heroic and radical missionary disciples. But our Christian lives, like Mary’s must begin with contemplation, must begin with prayer and adoration, must begin with wonder!
St. John Paul II put it this way. “Prayer, intimate dialogue with the One who is calling you to be His disciples, must come first. Be generous in your active life, young people, and be deeply immersed in the contemplation of God’s mystery. Make the Eucharist the heart of your day.”
Today, on her Solemnity, the Mother of God reminds us to be deeply immersed in contemplating God’s mysteries, to adore the Blessed Sacrament, and receive the grace of God’s mercy in confession. The Blessed Mother reminds us to ponder the Gospel in the quiet of our hearts. Everything else we do as Catholics depends on that.
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My second point is that the “beauty” of the Blessed Virgin Mary is critical to the new evangelization. Pope Benedict XVI says that, “nothing can bring us into close contact with the beauty of Christ himself other than the world of beauty created by faith and light that shines out from the faces of the saints, through whom his own light becomes visible.”
The light of Christ is uniquely visible in the face and beauty of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. As I said, she was by far the most beautiful woman who ever walked this earth. This is why she has so captured the imaginations of artists, sculptors, musicians and poets – who all sing of her beauty in art, verse and music.
A new exhibit opened in early December in Washington, DC, at the National Museum of Women in the Arts entitled: “Picturing Mary: Mother, Woman, Idea,” that brings together paintings, sculptures and drawings in various media from the 14th – 19th century.
As each of you know, we live in a world of incredible technological achievement. The technology we have—even in our cell phones—to communicate, to research, and to organize our lives is beyond what most generations would have ever dreamt possible. And technology can help us to communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
But sometimes, technology can distract us, it can dull our minds, it can isolate us. If we aren’t careful, our technology can make us very hurried, very bored, and very lonely.
Beauty is the antidote to dull minds and flat souls. Beauty can capture our hearts like nothing else. Beauty—in music, and poetry, and painting, and worship—can open our hearts to the power of God’s love.
The world needs beauty to see the profound mystery of God.
When we reveal and celebrate the beauty of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we open hearts to the beauty of God. Something as simple as singing the Salve Regina, quietly and reverently, touches hearts like almost nothing else.
The beauty of the Mother of God is captured in literature, and poetry, and paintings, and songs. Her femininity—the genius of being a woman—is beautiful. Her life is beautiful. And that beauty can point the world to Jesus Christ, the Savior of the universe, but who, in her arms, is still a child.
Mary’s beauty also reminds the world that God wants to make each one of us beautiful, beautiful in holiness and in grace. Mary is beautiful because God redeemed her in the Immaculate Conception. And when we see that beauty, we see what God wishes to do for us, and for the world.
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My third point is that Mary, the Mother of God, is a gift from God for each one of us. From the Cross on Calvary, Jesus Christ gave us his mother to be our mother and the mother of the Church. And the Blessed Mother loves us and loves the Church, as only a mother can.
Many of you are discerning what God is calling you to do with your lives. Many of you struggle with being away from home, and some of you struggle with broken families, or no real family home to go to at all. Many of you struggle with loneliness, or confusion, or self-doubt. Those are the struggles that come with being human, those are struggles that come with being young.
God has given us a mother to love us in the moments we need her most.
When you need the love of a mother, go to the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is a comforter, a protector, and an intercessor. As the ancient hymn to Mary reminds us, “she is our life, our sweetness and our hope.”
Many of you have consecrated yourselves to Jesus through Mary through the work of St. Louis Marie de Montfort. I highly recommend this to all of you if you have not already done so. I did this when I was a college student and it made all the difference in my life.
St. Louis Marie de Montfort says that we should “boldly implore the aid and intercession of Mary, our Mother. She is good, She is tender, She has nothing in Her austere and forbidding, nothing too sublime and too brilliant.” One of the prerogatives of those who consecrate themselves to Mary, according to St. Louis Marie de Montfort, is confidence, confidence in God’s mercy and confidence in God’s love.
The Blessed Mother is good, and tender. And as our mother, she longs to help us. This is especially true if we are devoted to her, if we consecrate ourselves as her sons and daughters.
In Italy, situated outside of the city of Rome in the hillsides to the east, there is a little village called Frascati. It is famous for its white wine, among other things. In 1527, a group of mercenaries marched towards the village. The goal of these marauders was to steal the city’s wealth, to burn and plunder everything. Frascati’s defenders waited near a little image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. When the mercenaries advanced, they heard a woman’s voice shout to them. It was the Blessed Mother. She shouted “Back soldiers – this land is mine.”
The mercenaries turned and ran away.
Our mother—the Mother of God—is powerful. As she did at Frascati, she will do for us, she will protect us when we go to her. She will protect us from temptation, and fear, and the attacks of Satan. And each day, even in the little stresses and worries of our lives, she will protect us.
Blessed Mother Teresa told her sisters this: “If you ever feel distressed during your day — call upon our Lady — just say this simple prayer: 'Mary, Mother of Jesus, cause of our joy, please be a mother to me now.' I must admit — this prayer has never failed me."
The Mother of God will come to you, as your mother, as a gift from God. Because of her intercession, we don’t need to be afraid. Even if we have sinned, and we are afraid to go Christ for mercy, we can begin by asking the Blessed Mother to pray for us, and to come along with us as our mother would.
The Blessed Mother will never fail us. We all want to be saints—to be faithful and fervent disciples of Jesus Christ. And I know that no matter where the Lord calls us, the Blessed Mother will comfort us, and pray for us, and be with us.
So, my brothers and sisters, as we begin this graced time together, let us look to Mary. Let us be contemplatives in the world, like Mary. Let us be drawn to her beauty and reveal that beauty to others. And let us treasure the gift that is Mary.
I shared with you in the beginning that famous quote by Saint John Paul II that “Jesus Christ is the answer to the question posed by every human life.” The conclusion of that quote reads, “and the love of Christ compels us to share that great good news with everyone.”
I pray that each of you will know the Blessed Mother as your mother—as a gift from God. I pray that you will be moved by the power of her beauty. And I pray that like her, you will contemplate the mystery of her son, Jesus Christ—who is the answer to everything that we seek. And that as missionary disciples of the Lord, that you go forth from this conference and set the world on fire with that beauty.
