Our Lady Of Victories
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10 August 1986
Emmitsburg, Maryland

My dear Sisters,

Going to and coming from the White House over the last few days I have stopped many times at the statue dedicated to Our Lady of Victories and have spoken there to the Mother of God. What an amount of history that statue has to tell!

There are well over one hundred thousand pilgrims coming here each year to the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann. Imagine some ten thousand less coming here on one day, ninety thousand, and not only spending a few hours here but encamping on the grounds. Imagine these pilgrims to be soldiers, and we have a faint idea of what it seemed like in 1863, when ninety thousand troops pitched camp here in preparation for a very bloody battle. The White House itself was occupied by the commanding officers planning the strategy of the war.

The group of Sisters here at that time must have been terrified. Did they, I wonder, make their meditation often during those days on the words of this morning's gospel: "Fear not, little flock"? (Lk 12:32). We do know for certainty that they prayed intensely to the Mother of God and in the simplicity of their faith promised that if the battle was averted, they would erect a statue to Our Lady of Victories. Plans were changed, and the army, the Union troops, took, as the little plaque tells us, the dusty road to Gettysburg, where one of the bloodiest battles in the history of your country was fought.

After the event, the Sisters faithfully erected the statue to Our Lady of Victories. There she stands today, holding the Infant in her arms with her left, graceful arm stretching out to support and protect her Divine Child. The gesture of faith of the Sisters is a magnificent commentary on the first sentence from the second reading of today's Mass: "Faith is confident assurance concerning what we hope for and conviction about things we do not see." (Heb 11:1). Those Sisters had assurance that Our Lady of Victories would not abandon them. They lived with the conviction that the troops who dotted the grounds would move and that they would be spared the horrors of war. So the statue stands today, speaking to us of the power of her whom we greet as Our Lady of Victories.

It must have been a great moment of tension in the history of the community here. Although we do not experience this particular type of tension in our lives today, we do speak about tension in our lives. We invoke many modern means to eliminate tension. We have discussions in our communities; we use consultation; we try to reach a consensus about decisions that are to be taken. These are all good means to reduce tension. The question, however, we must ask is: do we rely too much on natural means to dissolve and reduce tension within our communities? What about our faith?

I am reminded here of a difference between a problem and a mystery. By definition, a problem is something that can be overcome. There is a solution to the problem of a crossword puzzle. A mystery is, as we were often told, a revealed truth that our minds cannot comprehend. Do we, when we speak about obedience, find ourselves talking a great deal about the problems of obedience and very little about the mystery of it? Do we talk about the problems of poverty and scarcely at all of the mystery of our poverty? It is the mystery of the obedience, the chastity and the poverty of Jesus Christ that we are called to live and imitate.

Perhaps we have to think more about victories of grace in our lives. Perhaps we have to think of the importance of saying no to ourselves in order to say yes more fully to Jesus Christ, poor, chaste and obedient. Each no that we say to ourselves is a purifying of the windscreen of our minds so that we can see more clearly the road ahead in following Jesus Christ.

It is important for us to remember that faith is very much an affair of the heart. We recall Our Lord's words: "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God." (Lk 5:8). If we are having problems with faith, if we are having intellectual difficulties, it could be that the root of those difficulties does not lie in our heads but rather in our hearts. Faith is the capacity to see God and the things of God. If our hearts are not pure, then it is difficult for us to see God and the things of God. "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God." (Ibid.).

I recall on one occasion talking to a young man who rather aggressively attacked me because, as he said, the Pope had thirteen Cadillac automobiles in Rome. He was very vehement about this and could not reconcile it with the Church of the poor. He spoke so vehemently that I almost felt as if I was responsible for the Pope's having thirteen Cadillacs (which I am certain he does not have). However, I listened to him for a long time and, as he unwound, I came to realize that he had a serious moral, personal problem in his life. His dissatisfaction, it was clear, was not so much with the Pope as with his own manner of life. So true is it that difficulties of faith may have their roots in a lack of purity of heart. I do not mean to say that at times in our lives we may not have to walk through the valley of great darkness, such as has been described by some of the saints and mystics. But it is always worthwhile examining the foundations of belief, not in my head, but in my heart. "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God." (Ibid.).

Passing by the statue of Our Lady of Victories, I have thought many times of those words in St. John's letter: "This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith." (1 Jn 5:4). How truly that was verified in the life of Mary! It was her faith that sustained her and gave her a victory. If the world is to be conquered today for Christ, the victory will come from faith. We talk much about secularism and the inroads it has been making in our religious lives. How can it be stemmed? "This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith." (Ibid.). We need to live and to show the world of today that we have "confident assurance concerning what we hope for and conviction about things we do not see." (Heb 11:1). We nourish such an assurance and such conviction in the silence of prayer, but we must show them forth by the manner and simplicity of our lives.

Lady of Victories, by your faith you shared the victory of your Son over eternal death. Lady of Victories, you gave victory to this community in sparing it from the ravages of war, and you became protectress of this valley. Lady of Victories, win for us the gift of purity of heart that leads to faith, so that as we walk the dusty road of life, we may have assurance about what we hope for and conviction about things we do not see. "Turn then, O most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus."

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