This is the edited text for the Homily for a Votive Mass of Our Lady and Blessing of the Convent for the Sisters of Our Lady of China, Riverwood, 12 November 2024.
Last week, much of the world watched on in anticipation for the results of the US Presidential Election. Broadcasters ran non-stop coverage of the count in real time, with panels of “experts” analysing the results as they trickled in with fancy graphs and projections and offering commentary on what the change of government would mean. Amidst panicked and overblown rhetoric, claims were made that this election would be the most consequential of our lifetime, that democracy and world peace were on the line, and that the stakes were nothing short of “existential.” Some were left elated, others anxious.
Unfortunately, politics in the United States, as in many parts of the world today, is now highly polarised. Instead of consensus-building we get tribalism; where once there was respectful civil disagreement, we now have name-calling and cancelling; working towards the common good of all has been replaced with my side winning at all costs. The new and old media magnify the divides. There seems to be no space left for a genuine dialogue and debate. Perhaps most worryingly of all, some think and act as if political power were the be-all-and-end-all of human life. Political allegiance has become their core identity, family members and friends are turned against each other, and higher ideals and virtues, including spiritual ones, are forgotten.
Important as political decisions can be, they are not the most important decisions. Far more consequential are those we make for or against God. They might not come with the hype and glitz of political campaigns and elections, but they are what determine our eternal destiny and, in the meantime, our character and choices, and the kind of society we build together.
The most anticipated decision in all of history, with the most far-reaching ramifications, came not from any politician or party, not from any election, but from the lips of a humble maiden in the nowheresville of Nazareth in Galilee. Two thousand years ago a virgin named Mary cast the most important vote of all history and the cosmos. And it wasn’t pollsters or the media commentators waiting with bated breath on the outcome but all of creation.
In our Gospel this morning (Lk 1:26-38) the Archangel Gabriel asks the highly favoured maiden: “Mary, are you willing to conceive the Son of the Most High God in your womb and bear Him as your son Jesus?” Adam and Eve listen on, the patriarchs, prophets and kings also, all the holy men and women of old prick up their ears from the limbo of the dead. The angels, too, attend in eager expectation, the sun and stars, the animals and plants. How will the woman react? The first woman said “No, I will not obey.” The greatest angel said “No, I will not serve.” What will this New Eve, this Queen of Angels, say?
All creation is hushed, expectant, awed. “OK,” she says, “let what you’ve said be done in me.” And the Word became flesh, our salvation was set in motion. In placing her trust in God and allowing herself to be handmaid of the Lord, Mary enables the God-man to dwell with us. By his life, death and resurrection, a place in eternity will be secured for us. But it could not be without her yes, a yes she repeated all the way to the Cross.
Mary, then, is our perfect role model in the faith. Her trust in God, despite natural fears, inspires us to follow her lead. Her love for God and humanity is a paradigm of service for each of us. She is celebrated in your congregation as 中華大聖母 (Jhōnghuá Da Shèngmü), Our Lady of China the Great Mother, following an incident during the Boxer Rebellion. A small village founded by the Vincentian Fathers was under military attack. The Blessed Virgin appeared with St Michael as a fiery horseman not just to the faithful but to the army and chased the soldiers away. Devotion to Our Lady of China has blossomed ever since. And you, dear sisters, have joined her mission, imitating Mary’s fiat in your own lives, serving the Incarnation as she did, chasing away the forces of evil and siding always with the good and true and beautiful.
Like Mary, you may not have known what you were getting yourselves into when you entered the Order, let alone when you were sent to Australia. You may have been fearful or unsure. Yet God led you to this very place so that you might become agents of his love, that love described so beautifully in our epistle (1Jn 4:7-14). Now, dear sisters, as you enter into the fifth decade of your service here in Sydney, recommit yourselves to loving your sisters, patients, catechumens and all, “since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God… As long as we love one another, God will live in us and his love will be complete in us.” Through your daily fiat you cast your vote and “testify that the Father sent his Son as the Saviour of the world.”