Friday, August 23, 2024

 Optional Memorial of Saint Rose of Lima, virgin

(Ezekiel 37:1-14; Matthew 2:34-40)

Many people noted Rose of Lima’s physical beauty both as a baby and as a maiden.  However, it was her spiritual loveliness that gave her universal attention.  She loved the Lord so much that she underwent constant penances like wearing a crown of thorns.  She serves as a model of how Jesus responds to the scholar’s question of the greatest commandment.

Rose spent much of her time as a recluse in the hermitage she built near her parents’ house.  She also took care of poor children and the elderly sick.  Her charity did not escape the attention of the people of Lima.  When she died at the tender age of thirty-one in 1617, the entire city, it is said, attended her funeral.

Rose exemplifies how the commandments to love God and love neighbor go hand-in-hand.  When we love God with all our heart, we will express our love in different ways, especially by loving other humans.  And when we assist others out of love, we will need to call upon God in prayer for help.

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

 

(Optional) Memorial of Saint Rose of Lima, virgin

(II Thessalonians 2:1-3a.14-17; Matthew 23:23-26)

Today we celebrate the first saint born in the Americas, St. Rose of Lima. She was baptized Isabel Flores de Oliva, the daughter of a Spanish soldier and an indigenous seamstress. In her childhood she undertook the mortifications of St. Catherine of Siena, her model. She ate little, prayed much, and devoted herself to Christ as his bride. The name Rosa was imposed on her by Archbishop Toribio de Mogrovejo, who was destined to be declared a saint himself.  At first Isabel complained about her name, but a Dominican priest consoled her saying: "' Well, daughter, is not your soul like a rose in which Jesus Christ is recreated? '"

When her family had financial problems, Rose helped out by planting a vegetable garden and doing embroidering.  She noted the greater poverty of the indigenous people around her.  Their plight caused her to ask: “'If Christians are obliged to proclaim love everywhere, why did they come to America with wars, destruction and hatred?'” This question disturbed her until she discovered the redemptive value of suffering.  Rosa was beautiful, but she resisted suitors so that she might dedicate her life to Christ through prayer and care for the sick poor. She died of tuberculosis at the age of thirty-one.

We find it difficult to understand the mortification of the saints like Rose of Lima.  It strikes us as exaggerated piety or perhaps even madness. But it is wiser to see it as a way of sharing in the suffering of Christ for salvation as St. Paul says in the Letter to the Colossians. We should not do direct harm to our bodies. But fasting and praying on our knees can strengthen both body and spirit.

Monday, August 23, 2021

 (Optional) Memorial of Saint Rose of Lima, virgin

(I Thessalonians 1:1-5.8b-10; Matthew 23:13-22)

St. Rose of Lima lived in colonial times.  Her father was a Spanish conquistador who experienced financial setbacks.  To help her family, Rose, whose baptized name was Isabel de Santa María de Flores, sold flowers.  Like her model, St. Catherine of Siena, she wore a Dominican habit and associated with the Dominicans of Lima, including St. Martin de Porres.  Like him, she cared for the poor.  But uniquely, she gathered renown as a holy woman and attracted many God-seekers to her hermitage on her parents’ property.  There she prayed and cared for the sick. 

Paul’s message in today’s first reading describes St. Rose well.  He writes to the Thessalonians of “your work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ,
before our God and Father…”  Rose did not have to wait long for Christ to come for her.  She died when she was thirty-one.  It is said that all of Lima, a prosperous if small city at the time, came to her funeral.

St. Rose faced disappointments in life.  She wanted to join a monastery but was unable to do so.  Rather than rebel, she made the best of her situation.  In the process her sanctity shown like the sun breaking through clouds at the end of a rainstorm.  We should emulate her care for the poor and pray to her when we face difficulties.

Friday, August 23, 2019

Memorial of Saint Rose of Lima, virgin

(Ruth 1:1.3-6.14b-66.22; Matthew 22:34-40)

The significance of today’s readings may be found in the life of St. Rose of Lima.  She completely dedicated herself to God and neighbor.  Like Ruth she would never abandon the Lord who created her.  Rose demonstrated her love for God by fasting and other penitential acts.  She also took care of the needy by making of her small quarters an infirmary for the sick.

There are many women like Rose of Lima.  One lived in a resort city of Cuba.  She organized a charity service that brought dozens of infirm people a breakfast of coffee, cereal and milk every day.  She also took care of her mother who was in a persistent vegetative state.  She kept the aged woman clean and maintained the feeding tube which gave her mother sustenance. 

It is often a trying task to love both God and neighbor.  Even today with all the conveniences at our disposal such love challenges us.  Sometimes, unfortunately, the conveniences divert us from giving ourselves to others in love.  We stand in the need of God’s assistance to fulfill the commands He imposes.  We must never forget that the commands are given in love.  By them God prepares us for eternal life.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Memorial of Saint Rose of Lima, virgin

(II Thessalonians 2:1-3a.14-17; Matthew 23:23-26)

A priest ministering to the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa’s congregation, rightly feels humbled.  The sisters sit at his feet attentive to every word that he utters. The priest knows that they, more faithfully than he, carry out the work of Jesus in their meticulous service to the poorest of the poor.  In her daily life St. Rose of Lima demonstrated as great self-effacement and dedication as the Missionaries of Charity.  Her care for the poor was overshadowed only by other acts of piety as she demonstrated love for God to the edification of an entire city.

Today’s first reading offers a blessing to the community of Christians at Thessalonica.  It expresses the desire that the people remain committed to the teachings of Christ.  Evidently, they were rankled by new ideas at odds with what St. Paul taught.  No, the letter implies, they are to keep the faith, assist, the poor, and support one another.

The practice of the saints should move us from self-concern to devotion to others.  Certainly there is no shortage of self-love in our times deafening us to the teachings of Christ.  Thankfully, we have saints today as much as in times past to show us that God commands us to purify our love for others. 

Friday, August 23, 2013

(Optional) Memorial of Saint Rose of Lima, virgin

(Ruth 1:1.3-6.14b-66.22; Matthew 22:34-40)

St. Rose of Lima (Peru) exemplifies how to deal with adversity.  As a young woman, she wanted to enter a cloister.  But her father would not allow it.  She did not disobey but carried on a life of austerity and compassion while living on her parents’ property.  She died at a young age but not before winning the admiration of the entire city. Although her story in many ways differs from that of Ruth, both woman show a remarkable love of God and consideration of family.

Ruth comes from a pagan background during the time of the Judges.  She marries an Israelite and accepts his God and well as his family as her own.  Today’s passage shows how Ruth refuses to give up either when her husband dies and her mother-in-law, considering Ruth’s need for a husband, tells her to return to her people.

Ruth gives witness to the priority of serving the Lord so vitally needed in our own time.  Many today are willing to forsake God’s law – be it the Sunday obligation to attend Mass or the prohibition of using contraceptives – to conform to social norms.  The example of Ruth encourages us to always do what God wills.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Memorial of St. Rose of Lima, virgin

(Ezekiel 36:23-28; Matthew 22:1-14)

St. Rose of Lima wanted to enter a convent, but the privilege was denied her. Undaunted she took the habit of sisters of St. Dominic as a member of the Third Order. Then she virtually established her own convent by taking care of the city’s destitute and the sick and giving herself to prayer and penance. She prayed, “Lord, increase love in my heart.” That the human heart is made for love is attested in today’s first reading.

Ezekiel promises that Israel will have a heart transplant. In place of its stony heart that refused to love God and neighbor, it will receive a tender heart to love as humans ought. The prophet adds that this will be done through the gathering of the people in a new land and with the sprinkling of cleansing water.

It is confounding to think how Ezekiel’s prophecy might have been fulfilled when contempt and carelessness still persist today. Yet we know that Jesus has renewed our hearts in Baptism (the sprinkling) which brings us into his Church (the new land). Regrettably, however, some choose self-gratification rather than his way of love.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Memorial of Saint Rose of Lima, virgin

(I Thessalonians 2:1-8; Matthew 23:23-26)

A priest ministering to the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa’s congregation, rightly feels humbled. The sisters sit at his feet seemingly attending to every word that he utters. The priest knows that they, much more than he, exemplify the work of Jesus in their service among the poorest of the poor. In her daily life St. Rose of Lima demonstrated an even greater self-effacement and dedication than the Missionaries of Charity. Her care for the poor was overshadowed only by her acts of piety as she demonstrated for an entire city love for God.

St. Paul in the reading today sees himself as the same kind of servant. “…we were gentle among you,” he writes, “as a nursing mother cares for her infants.” Paul likely means that he was patient in his work among the Thessalonians taking pains to explain the gospel in simple terms that these simple people could understand. Evidently he also labored at his own trade of tent-making while among the people so that he would not burden them with requests for his upkeep.

The piety and service of saints move us from self-concern to devotion to others. Certainly our times provide no ready outlet in the race for vainglory. However, we can see saints among us today as certainly as in the seventeenth century when St. Rose of Lima lived and in the first century when St. Paul worked shining like stars in the sky. They remind us that there is one greater and better than we who commands our constant effort to purify our love for others.