St Gertrude the Great: A Dwelling Place for God
MASS Dilexisti justitiam
EPISTLE II Corinthians 10: 17-18
GOSPEL St Matthew 25: 1-13
PROPER LAST GOSPEL St
Matthew 13:31-35
HOMILIST Mt Revd Jerome Lloyd OSJV
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Carissimi, beloved in Christ
Today we celebrate St Gertrude the Great, whose life reminds us that it is possible to spend many years practising religion and still discover how much remains to be learned about loving God. She entered the monastery at Helfta in Saxony when she was five years old. She received an excellent education, became accomplished in literature and philosophy, and developed a considerable appetite for learning. She was a serious religious, devoted to her studies and accustomed to the daily round of prayer. Yet she came to recognise that her learning had occupied a place in her affections which ought to have belonged to God Himself.
In January 1281, during Compline, Gertrude experienced an encounter with Christ which changed the direction of her life. She became conscious of His wounded humanity and of the love which had brought Him to suffer for her salvation. Her studies did not cease; they acquired their proper purpose. She had spent twenty years in a monastery and now understood more deeply why she was there. That is worth considering, especially for those of us who have been Catholics for a long time.
We know our prayers, recognise the ceremonies, understand something of the Church’s history and perhaps take considerable trouble to preserve the traditions we have received. We should. These things are precious. But they are given us to draw us towards Christ. Knowledge of the Faith can become a source of pride if we forget the Person whom the Faith makes known. Even good religious habits may become so familiar that we cease to examine whether they are changing the way we live.
The Collect today asks Almighty God, who prepared a pleasing dwelling in Gertrude’s heart, to cleanse the stains from our own. Notice that God prepares the dwelling. Holiness is His gift, not an achievement we manufacture for ourselves. We must nevertheless cooperate with His grace: confess our sins, receive the sacraments worthily, pray, keep His commandments and fulfil the duties He has entrusted to us. There is nothing mysterious about those obligations, although fulfilling them faithfully can be remarkably demanding.
Gertrude is remembered for her mystical experiences and her devotion to the Sacred Heart. We ought to understand these properly. The Catholic Faith does not depend upon private revelations. Christ has revealed what is necessary for our salvation, and that revelation has been entrusted to His Church. Particular spiritual favours must always be judged in its light. Gertrude’s experiences drew her more deeply into Scripture, the Divine Office and, above all, the Holy Eucharist. The Heart she loved was the Heart of the Saviour who became man, suffered upon the Cross and shed His Precious Blood for us.
The Gospel appointed for her feast is the parable of the ten virgins. All ten wait for the bridegroom; all carry lamps; all become drowsy while he delays. Yet five have brought oil and five have neglected to prepare. When the bridegroom comes, the difference can no longer be concealed. Those who have no oil cannot borrow the readiness of the others at the last moment.
St Augustine understood the oil as charity, without which outward religious observance is insufficient. The foolish virgins had lamps. To a casual observer they might have seemed as well prepared as anyone else. Our Lord asks us to consider what is happening within. We may attend Mass, say the Rosary, observe the fasts and take pains to know the Church’s teaching. These practices strengthen Christian life; we need them. But they ought also to bear fruit in patience, forgiveness, honesty and concern for the salvation of our neighbour.
Charity itself is sometimes misunderstood. It does not require us to call error truth, nor to overlook injustice. Our Lord corrected those who needed correction, sometimes in very severe language. But there is a difference between speaking firmly because another person’s good requires it and enjoying the opportunity to establish our own superiority. That distinction is not always comfortable to examine. Gertrude’s contemplation of the wounded Heart of Christ brings us back to the measure of Christian love: He suffered for us while we were sinners, and continues to offer His mercy to those who repent.
This year St Gertrude’s feast falls on Sunday, and we commemorate the resumed Sixth Sunday after Epiphany. Its Gospel gives us the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven. A tiny seed becomes a tree in whose branches birds find shelter. A little leaven, hidden in three measures of meal, works until the whole is leavened. Our Lord asks us to recognise the action of His Kingdom in beginnings which appear too small to attract much notice.
Consider Gertrude’s own life. She lived within a monastery, prayed the appointed hours, studied and wrote for the benefit of those around her. She founded no great institution and held no public office. Yet her writings have helped generations of Christians to understand the love of the Sacred Heart and to approach Holy Communion with greater devotion. She could hardly have measured that influence while sitting at her desk in Helfta. Much of God’s work is like the leaven: hidden while its effects spread.
We need to remember this when we feel that our own efforts count for little. A parent patiently teaching a child to pray, a visit to someone who is lonely, an overdue apology, a confession made after years away from the sacraments: these are not insignificant matters. They may be the beginning of changes which we shall never see in full. We cannot force the seed to grow by wishing it would grow faster; neither may we leave it unsown. The grace is God’s, and the duty immediately before us is ours.
The Church needs such fidelity in every generation. Her life cannot be sustained by argument alone, however necessary it may be to defend the truth. Families must pray, sinners must be reconciled to God, the poor and lonely must be cared for, and the Holy Sacrifice must remain at the centre of our lives. Renewal begins with souls who allow the Gospel to govern their conduct. That was Gertrude’s discovery, and it remains our task.
There is a further encouragement in the saint’s example. Gertrude did not become holy by ceasing to be the person God had made her. Her intelligence and love of books remained, but they were placed at the service of prayer. The same is true of the gifts entrusted to us. A practical person can serve through patient work; someone who speaks well can instruct or console; someone whose strength has diminished through illness can offer suffering and prayer. God asks us to use what we have received, not to envy what He has given another.
Here at the altar we encounter the same Christ whose wounds moved her to conversion. His sacrifice on Calvary is made sacramentally present; in Holy Communion He gives Himself to those properly disposed to receive Him. We ought to approach with reverence and repentance, asking that His charity may change us. What would it profit us to receive the Lord sacramentally and then refuse Him room in our hearts?
As the ecclesiastical year draws towards its close, the wise virgins remind us that the Bridegroom will come. We cannot know the day of our death; we can know what faithfulness requires today. Let us ask St Gertrude to intercede for us, that our hearts may become pleasing dwellings for God. May the mustard seed of grace take root, may charity work quietly through our lives like leaven, and may our lamps be burning when Christ calls us to His everlasting Kingdom.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
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