April 4, 2005

It has been an intensive time of life and death lately – the deaths of Terri Schiavo and our beloved Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, mixed in with the mysteries of Holy Week and Easter Week. Perhaps you have had your own experience of death lately to magnify the reality of our mortality even more. Then we begin this week celebrating the re-birth of hope, or more precisely the conception of Hope, with the Annunciation to the Mother of Hope.

Although the radios proclaimed on Friday “there’s no hope for the Pope”, we know that hope is exactly what the Holy Father radiated by his life and death. Even the secular airwaves couldn’t help but proclaim the Gospel as they spoke of the courage and holiness of this apostle. The Lord came through those “locked doors” of the media – channels that usually lock out any mention of Jesus spoke to the world “Peace be with you!” What they could only hint at, we can proclaim with full confidence: Jesus Christ has conquered death and those who live for Him will live forever. What took place at the Annunciation takes place again in an extended sense in the lives of His saints, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory”. (Jn 1:14)

Mary’s “yes” to her vocation is re-echoed in the generous yes of every Christian. As we joined in a Eucharistic procession for vocations on Sunday, walking from church to church through a large part of Manhattan, the impact of every Christian’s “yes” to the Lord hit home for me again. Pope John Paul’s impact upon the world was uncontested. The poor teenage girl from the little country town in northern Israel who gave her unconditional yes to the Lord had an even greater impact. It is no surprise that the Holy Father chose to be totally hers (“Totus Tuus”). Each of us has a vocation to holiness, to a particular state of life, and to a unique mission within that state of life. May our Holy Mother and our newest friend in Heaven (that hardly seems presumptuous), our departed Holy Father, help us to consistently give our yes to the Lord.

Fr. Richard Roemer, CFR
Community Vicar, residing at St. Joseph Friary in Harlem

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