Together on the Journey: A Weekly Word from Archbishop Hebda
My body isn’t wired for these dog days of summer. I love the heat when I’m with my family at the beach, but layer me with vestments in a crowded Church and I quickly look wilted and distressed, even when there’s great air conditioning. If I had a dollar for every time someone offered me a handkerchief as they came out of Mass this past weekend, we would be able to suspend our Archdiocesan capital campaign.
Providentially, our heat wave coincided with yesterday’s remembrance of St. Veronica. We all know St. Veronica from the Sixth Station of the Via Crucis which recounts the story of the pious woman who stepped forward to extend kindness to Our Lord on his way to Calvary by wiping his face. She was rewarded for her compassion by a miraculous imprinting of the image of Jesus’ face on the cloth that wiped his brow. The very name “Veronica”—meaning “true icon”—reflects that miracle.
In the many years that I lived in Rome, I would always try to go to the Basilica of St. Peter on Laetare Sunday for the annual exposition of “Veronica’s Veil,” one of the four great relics housed in the massive columns holding up the cupola of that great Church. If you have been to St. Peter’s, you will probably remember the giant statue of St. Veronica at the base of that column. It was sculpted—at the request of Pope Urban VIII and under the direction of the great renaissance master, Gian Lorenzo Bernini—by the Italian artist, Francesco Mochi, in the first half of the 17th century—and successfully conveys the sense of marble in motion, with Veronica’s veil seemingly flapping in the wind.
While we Americans popularly refer to the treasured cloth as Veronica’s veil, the Italians use the Latin term “sudarium”—literally the cloth used to wipe away one’s sweat. I like that earthy designation somewhat more than St. John Henry Newman’s more polite 19th century reference to “Veronica’s napkin.”
No matter the designation, the cloth serves as a powerful reminder of both Christ’s unfathomable love for us, and of the love and compassion we are called to offer to Him and to one another as members of the Body of Christ. It’s no surprise that so many of the great saints had devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus (e.g., St. Augustine of Hippo and my patron, St. Bernard of Clairvaux). You might remember that the Little Flower signed her name “Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face” when she received her Carmelite habit in 1889.
We’re so blessed in our Archdiocese to have so many brothers and sisters who, like Veronica and those other great saints, work to bring comfort to the suffering face of Jesus. I’m edified when I think, for example, about the generosity of the members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul who—in imitation of their saintly namesake—strive throughout this Archdiocese to see the Face of Christ in those on the margins who are struggling. The same could be said for the staff and volunteers of Catholic Charities, and those who collaborate with Mary Jo Copeland at Sharing and Caring Hands, or the with Missionaries of Charity or the Little Sisters of the Poor or the many parish and regional foodbanks and outreach efforts. I’m so grateful to all those who continue to reach out to our “good neighbors” as the Sisters of St. Joseph would refer to those in need, especially in the midst of this heat wave.
We don’t have to look far to find opportunities for compassion. I was overwhelmed this past weekend to be in the presence of so many families at the His Name Hallowed concert held at Holy Family High School in Victoria. It is always inspiring for me to see how parents and grandparents sacrifice for the little ones who were in such abundance that evening, and even how older siblings take care of younger siblings.
I invite you to join me in spending a few moments this week reflecting on the Holy Face of Jesus. May our Lord’s suffering for us remind us always of his love and mercy, and prompt us to discern how Jesus is now calling us to imitate him in extending mercy to all who bear his Face today. St. Veronica, pray for us!
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