Together on the Journey: A Weekly Word from Archbishop Hebda
As we come to the end of July, I realize that we’ve been blessed with several feast days that remind us of the potential that we have in our families to help one another get to heaven.
While it wasn’t celebrated liturgically this year because it fell on a Sunday, yesterday was the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus. While there are no scriptural references to these beloved saints, we know about them from the “fruit” of their family life—Mary’s openness to doing God’s will suggests a home centered on God’s love.
You may remember that we also celebrated earlier this month (July 12) the feast of Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, parents of St. Therese of Lisieux. They were the first couple to be canonized together. While I’m impressed by the holiness of each of the members of the Martin family (three saints and one on the path to beatification!), I’m intrigued by the way in which they led us each to desire nothing above Jesus.
Later this week, we’ll celebrate the great feast of Sts. Martha, Mary and Lazarus, siblings who teach us about faith, trust and love for our Lord, through the interactions with Jesus so beautifully recorded in the Gospels. I love that St. John recorded Martha’s bickering about Mary’s sluggishness in doing the household chores when Jesus was present, because it makes this family totally relatable in their ordinariness. They are saints … but they remind us that holiness is most often lived as a long-term journey. As the playwright Oscar Wilde quipped: “Every saint has a past and every sinner a future.”
I certainly feel blessed by the witness of my own siblings: one sister and two brothers. We certainly share a few traits, but we are also very different. I know that I would be further along on the path of holiness if I were sharing a home with them. As I witness their sacrificial love in their homes, I’m inspired to be more generous in living out my own vocation. I know how supportive they have been of me, and I try to be supportive of them as well.
If you listen to the daily “The Saints: Adventures in Faith and Courage” podcast produced by the Merry Beggars (the entertainment arm of Relevant Radio), you already know that they are featuring the story of Blessed Stanley Rother each day this week. I know that it’s intended for young listeners, but I listen to it every day on the way into work. I love how this morning’s episode captured the encouragement that Stanley received from his parents and particularly from his sister, Sister Marita. (As an aside, I was delighted that a young version of my predecessor, Archbishop Flynn, made it into this morning’s episode, with young seminarian Harry Flynn recruiting Stanley for his intramural football team at Mount St. Mary’s.)
Families remain the “building blocks” of society and prime soil for cultivating saints, especially through everyday opportunities for holiness. I feel blessed to have met many families in our archdiocese who are creating “domestic incubators” for saintly lives, often in difficult circumstances. In my pastoral letter, I described many of the challenges faced by today’s families and called upon all of us to help them. I encourage you to read and pray with this letter, then discern ways you can accompany families—your own and/or those at your parish—following the example of many saints before us.
I’m hopeful that we have many future saints among us. I was inspired this weekend by three encounters with our young people. First was a brief meeting with our young Totus Tuus missionaries, who have just completed their summer service in our parishes, introducing Jesus to our youngest brothers and sisters. Their excitement was both palpable and contagious … not unlike what I imagine the disciples would have experienced when they came back together after Jesus sent them out two by two.
Later that evening, I attended an original musical production of the life of St. Francis held at Maternity of Mary as part of ARISE!, the parish’s music and theater ministry for children ages 7 to 18. The kids were amazing performers but impressed me even more by their faith, which came through every note and dance step. Bravo!
Finally, I had the privilege of celebrating the closing Mass at Partnership for Youth’s annual Steubenville conference. What a pleasure to pray with nearly 2,000 teens. I was particularly moved by the number of young women who came forward for a blessing for their vocational discernment, and an even greater number of young men who did the same. Please join me in praying for those young people and for all the participants at the conference: May their time together bear lasting fruit in their lives and for our Church.
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