Jubilee Homily by Monsignor Thomas Banick
Jubilee Remarks
Sister Ellen Maroney, IHM
August 15, 2021
Good morning, Everyone, and welcome, welcome, welcome home! Welcome, too, to our sisters, families, and friends who join us by livestream. This is such an exciting day for several reasons. It’s the first time in over a year and a half that we’ve been able to gather together in this space – the decibel level in the foyer and in here with our entrance song is evidence of our joy! Second, even the weather knew better than to be anything but glorious today. Most importantly, and the real reason we’re here today, we celebrate and give gratitude for the lives, fidelity, and heartfelt love of our 2020 and 2021 Jubilarians. It’s the first time in our history, I believe, that we’ve celebrated two years together, which adds to the uniqueness of everything else about this past year and a half. I have to admit, I did think it would be fun to have a contest, like Jeopardy or Family Feud, between the two groups, with the winners taking home all the gifts. But then I realized that our 2021 group includes Sister Daria, who’s celebrating her 80th jubilee of wisdom, so the 2020 group wouldn’t have a much of a chance at winning!
I extend a special welcome and thank you to our celebrant, Monsignor Banick, Dolores’ brother and a true friend of us all, and a big thank you to Mary Ellen Higgins and all who helped plan this liturgy, to all our wonderful musicians, and to Mike and Chartwells waiting downstairs for us.
Sisters, on this beautiful feast of the Assumption, this jubilee is a source of joy and enlivenment for our entire congregation. We give much gratitude for your gift of life and fidelity and we pray that God will continue to bless you as you look back on all that has been and look forward to God’s continuing surprises and graces.
Poet and author Khalil Gibran wrote: “When you love, you should not say, ‘God is in my heart,’ but rather, ‘I am in the heart of God.’” When we celebrate a jubilee, we’re really celebrating a love story. The God who calls us by name asks us to give our total heart for the sake of the world, and enfolds us in that expansive God-heart forever. When we are faithful to our call, we do indeed find ourselves at home in God’s love. We celebrate today the life-long commitment to that love relationship by these remarkable women:
Sister Daria McGinn, who’s celebrates eighty years of fidelity - and who is already planning her eighty-fifth jubilee;
Sisters Elsa Eckenrode, Margaret Loftus, and Charlene Templeton, who mark their seventy-fifth jubilee;
Sisters Mary Ellen James, Kathleen McNulty, Gracette Baker, Marguerita Carbone, Jean Conaty, Celeste Parry, Joan Paskert, and Tarcisius Tasselli, who are celebrating seventy years of fidelity;
Sisters Grace Campbell, Jane Marie Connolly, Eleanor Marie Malanaphy, Karen Marie O’Neill, Mary Ann Remus, Joel Marie Sheehe, Jean Louise Bachetti, Dolores Banick, Carlita Bird, Josephine Cioffi, Eileen Egan, Jane Ellis, Myra Gilbart, Helene Hicks, Mary Alice Kane, Joan Katoski, Ancilla Maloney, Babette Opferman, Ann Parker, Rosella Salvato, Anne Mary Smith, Sue Ann Steves, and Marion Tarone, who celebrate their Diamond Jubilee;
Sisters Maria Peter Kratz, Therese O’Rourke, Mary Persico, Maureen Schrimpe, Ann Monica Bubser, Kathryn Clauss, Jean Gallagher, Susan Hadzima, Dorothy Kibler, and Ellen Maroney, all celebrating their Golden Jubilee;
And Sister Susan Ellen Brown, who celebrates her Silver Jubilee.
Now I know that numbers never tell the whole story, but I can’t resist sharing this with you, if you haven’t already noted it: do you know that these forty-six jubilarians have given two thousand, seven hundred, and seventy years of service in fifteen different states, Canada, Rome, and Peru – we could run a travel agency from all their experiences! I have this wonderful vision right now of Theresa Maxis and Louis Gillet up in heaven saying, “The dream continues”!!
But, impressive as those numbers are, today is not about measuring time or place. No mere number could possibly measure:
- the simple acts of kindness that brightened a day of an adult co-worker or a stranger met, or a student who simply needed some encouragement or compassion from you;
- the lives that were touched and forever changed or redirected by your efforts;
- the hearts that were healed because of your patience or wisdom;
- not to mention the life lessons that you taught and the faith that was nurtured in others by your lives of prayer and fidelity.
Sisters, today is about celebrating with profound gratitude and joy the gift of life each of these women is and how they have blessed countless lives through their wholehearted response to God’s call first received those may years ago. We gather here today also to praise the fidelity of our God, whose call, love, and mercy have been the anchor of these women throughout their lives. While we human beings find it easiest to measure the value of things concretely, by numbers, by size, by financial cost, the deeply rooted person is not so caught up with merely sight and sound. Instead, she thinks in terms of the invisible, the essence, the silent. She thinks of compassion and love, sacrifice and faith, generosity and courage – the things of the soul which are the true measure of our humanity and our godliness. Today we celebrate with deep gratitude these women who have taught us and so many others about these soul-things by their commitment and love for God and God’s creation, by their lives of self-sacrifice.
Your fidelity, Sisters, has required imagination, trust, perseverance, vision, and total commitment, and we thank you for your courage and prophetic example. Author Heidi Cerneka, wrote in Give Us This Day that Jesus’ message to us is “Get out of your comfort zone and be a neighbor. Get involved with your neighbors, your sisters and brothers.” You, dear jubilarians, did indeed leave your individual comfort zones – your families, your individual professional plans, and more – and got involved with your neighbors, especially the most vulnerable. Your “Yes” to God’s call those many years ago has woven a tapestry of God’s grace among thousands of lives, and our world and all of us are richer for your presence.
The words of poet Sister Deborah Humphreys come to mind today:
How do we remember what brought us [here]
women as different as the passions that sent us out
to borders, edges, or into dead center
carrying our books, our full baskets of bread . . .[whatever was needed]
Dare we not tell each other [and everyone]
what it has meant to be Sisters
and how, in the name of God
we have loved
when [others] told us
it would not be possible.
Dear Jubilarians, we praise God for your gift of possibility that was lived out in each of your amazing lives. Congratulations, dear friends, and thank you. Now with each of you at the center of our hearts and prayers, let us continue this Eucharistic celebration of gratitude and hope.
