Sermon of Fr. Davide Pagliarani, Écône, April 13, 2024

I am unable to find words to express our joy today! This great occasion leaves us speechless, because the religious life, the life of just one Sister who is faithful to her vocation, is more eloquent than words. Her example speaks for itself. Indeed, she speaks, not by opening her mouth, but simply by being what she is. Today, all of you are gathered here together, and what can we say after fifty years? How can we summarize these fifty years? How can we sum up the destiny of this congregation, of your own personal destiny? How shall we give adequate thanks to divine Providence, for that is the reason why we are gathered together today.

I think that today, more than ever, we must ask ourselves the question: what is a Sister of the Society Saint Pius X? What does she have in particular, what are the characteristics that make her vocation unique? Why did divine Providence want this congregation, with this Rule and not another? It can be summed up in one word: hidden. The vocation of a Sister of the Society Saint Pius X is a hidden vocation, and the reasons for this are very profound. It is a deeply contemplative vocation, a life of total self-dedication, a life consecrated to adoration, and thus it must necessarily be hidden; it has a certain hidden character. There is a hidden beauty and charm in this vocation, and this is necessary, because we cannot believe in the mystery of the cross, we cannot deeply penetrate the mystery of the cross without being hidden. During His life on earth our Lord hid Himself for thirty years. Why did He hide Himself for thirty years? Because He was preparing Himself for the cross. And during His Passion He hides Himself; He hides His divinity. After His death He will likewise hide Himself in the sepulcher. Now He continues to hide Himself in the Holy Eucharist, and this until the end of the world. We cannot penetrate these mysteries, and in particular, the mystery of the cross, without hiding ourselves too. And here, I think, is found the key, the key for those who look at the religious life from outside, to discover, and today, perhaps for each one of you to rediscover, the rare beauty of this vocation.

The sepulcher of our Lord, the sepulcher itself, is a very eloquent expression of the vocation of a Sister of the Society Saint Pius X. We are now in the midst of Paschal Time and the memories of Holy Saturday are still fresh in our minds. The prophet Isaias already mentioned that the sepulcher of our Lord would be glorious. What did he mean by this? Was he only speaking of our Lord’s tomb, or did it signify something else? Did it have some other value? Without doubt, this sepulcher is, first of all, our soul, the soul of a religious, a consecrated soul, a hidden soul where our Lord hides and continues to hide Himself. Here, I would like to consider for just a few moments, the semblance of your soul to a sepulcher.

The Gospel tells us that this sepulcher was new, wherein no man yet had been laid. This is a very beautiful imagery of the soul of a religious: no one, outside of our Lord, may enter there. This sepulcher is new. What a magnificent expression of virginity, of purity of heart; no one enters there, this sepulcher is consecrated forever, it was created for our Lord, and must always belong to Him alone. This is the most beautiful preaching possible. Never forget this! It is a sermon, which even today, is capable of making people, even pagans, stop and think. They are dumbstruck by this testimony; they can’t believe it. When they realize it is true, they are forced to reflect upon it: yes, there is another life, another life for which someone consecrates herself already here below. You can take all the treatises you want on apologetics, any treatise that defends the faith, defends dogma. They won’t have any apologetical conclusions that will have more of an impact upon the world. Don’t ever forget: this sepulcher is new and is a very beautiful expression of virginity. And I might say, without this testimony, faith would only remain a testimony of faith, deprived of a corresponding way of life that manifests the purity of faith and the holiness of faith through the practice of virginity. The testimony of faith alone would be something very small and very weak indeed.

The Gospel also tells us that the sepulcher was hewed in stone. Stone struck with a chisel: not an easy work, especially at the time of our Lord. It was not easy to chisel stone into a sepulcher, to chip into hard rock. What does this mean? It means that we cannot keep the treasure of the religious life without self-restraint, without steadfastness, without strength. But the strength needed to chisel the stone, to chip away at this very hard matter, to triumph over nature, is given to us by our Lord, hidden in the sepulcher, abiding in the sepulcher. He is the one who provides this strength, it is our Lord Himself who continuously inspires the soul of a religious with fresh courage.

There is one more important detail, the meaning of which is easy for us to grasp: the sepulcher of our Lord was very close to Calvary. Our Lord was not buried in another quarter of Jerusalem. He wished to be buried right next to where He died, in the same place. Why is this? In order to imply that in this sepulcher, that is, the soul of a religious, Calvary and the cross must be remembered continuously, all the time. We must always go back to it in thought, never tiring of it. Meditation on the Passion is inexhaustible. Why? Because our Lord’s love is inexhaustible. The very great extent and the import of His love escape us, and so, His Passion, being the most sublime manifestation of His love, is inexhaustible. This is what nourishes love in the soul of a religious. In fact, what do we ask of Our Lady in the magnificent Sequence we just sang? We beseeched her to help us penetrate more and more profoundly into this mystery. Fac me cruce inebriari: Make me to be inebriated with the cross!…Fac me plagis vulnerari: I also want to be wounded, wounded with the wounds of our Lord, the same wounds as our Lord. Why? Because, once again, these wounds are the visible manifestation of His love…Magnificent!

A huge stone, an immense stone was rolled in front of the tomb. What does this mean? This means that the treasure of the religious life, the treasure which each one of you has, must be protected by an immense stone: the stone of your commitments, the stone of your Rule, the stone of your vows, the stone of obedience, the stone of poverty. This stone cannot be removed; it must protect your heart, protect your thoughts, protect your affections, so that your whole life may be aimed at Him to Whom everything has been consecrated forever. You must roll this stone into place and never let it budge, not even a fraction of an inch, because this stone is keeping safe something that is exceedingly precious indeed.

There is one last detail: as you know, our Lord was buried in the sepulcher and anointed with an abundance of spices, myrrh and aloes, about a hundred-pound weight, an astonishing amount. Ordinarily this was not done, not even for the very wealthy. Our Lord was anointed, embalmed with many, many pounds of spices. Once again, why all these details? Because a religious who welcomes our Lord into her soul, a religious who is truly the sepulcher of our Lord, the living sepulcher of our Lord, never calculates how much she gives, the amount of spices, like Mary Magdalene. As Mary Magdalene, whom Judas reproached for having spent too much money on our Lord. But our Lord approved and encouraged her: “She hath done it for My burial.” Here it is very easy to understand that there is a profound meaning behind all this, both spiritual and moral. It signifies the total consecration to our Lord of all that we have, all that is most precious to us, everything, our virtues, our virtues as religious, our mortifications, our hidden life and our love.

There is still one last detail which, in a certain way, will allow us to tell what the eternal destiny of the life of a religious must be. Where does the life of a religious lead to? Where is your future? Once again, the answer is found in the Gospel. Having buried our Lord with a superabundance of spices, the holy women awaited the day of the Resurrection in order to bring even more spices, yes, even more spices so that they could do still something more for our Lord. Humanly speaking, this was absolutely absurd; they had already anointed the body with all the spices they possibly could. But charity knows no boundaries. Charity doesn’t make calculations; a true religious doesn’t count the cost. She is always longing to give more, longing to bring more. She lives in expectation of being able to give still more; and this ardent desire devours her. This is the religious life. And on Easter she is astounded: filled with enthusiasm looking to give even more to our Lord, she finds Him glorious and resurrected. Dear Sisters, this will also be your future. It will be Easter, your own Easter, when you will take your flight to our Lord, with all your spices and aloes which symbolize everything else that you still want to offer Him, your Easter, when you will meet Him, when you will see Him. Saint Paul says it: you will be glorified with Him having a special title. The glory of the Resurrection, under this special title, will be your own glory. Saint Paul sums it up perfectly when he says: but you are dead, you are dead to the world and buried in Christ in the tomb, in the sepulcher of your soul. And when our Lord will come again, He who is your life, you who remained hidden on earth, you will also appear with Him in glory, having a ray of His own glory. This is what Easter is: it is a profound feast; it is especially what Easter is for each one of you. This is your eternal destiny, and I would say, this is your magnificent vocation, the vocation of a Sister of the Society Saint Pius X, that divine Providence has especially reserved for you, at the foot of the cross, at the foot of the tabernacle, close to our Lord’s tomb. This vocation belongs to you, and there is nothing more sublime.

Finally, what was Our Lady’s life like after her Son’s resurrection? We always contemplate her at the foot of the cross. But after Good Friday, what did she do for the rest of her life? For what was she waiting? She was, in fact, the living sepulcher of our Lord. She kept our Lord in her soul. She kept in her heart all the memories of our Lord’s life, and in particular, of His Passion, waiting, she as well, for exactly the same thing that you are waiting for, and which, being guaranteed by your religious life, will, without any doubt be given to you. Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.