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Homilies | Saturday, November 26, 2016

Virgen Mambisa: Continue to accompany your people

Archbishop Wenski's homily at the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity

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Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily at the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity Nov. 26, 2016, the first Sunday of Advent and the day after the death of Cuban leader Fidel Castro was announced.

“Let us walk in the light of the Lord,” Isaiah the Prophet tells us.

“Let us throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light...,” says St. Paul in his Letter to the Romans.

This is what the Word of God tells us as we begin this liturgical time we call Advent. Advent is here to call us to conversion. Advent comes to revive in us the wait for the Lord, the Prince of Peace. The purpose of Advent is really to give new birth to our thirst for God. If our life is a constant Advent in wait for the Lord, we will be able to “go rejoicing to the house of the Lord,” as the Psalm tells us.

Local Cubans join in prayer during the Mass Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski celebrated Nov. 26 at Our Lady of Charity National Shrine (La Ermita de la Caridad) in Miami.

Photographer: TOM TRACY | FC

Local Cubans join in prayer during the Mass Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski celebrated Nov. 26 at Our Lady of Charity National Shrine (La Ermita de la Caridad) in Miami.

That is why we do well to begin this Advent at the feet of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, here in her shrine, built with many sacrifices by exiles, rusty penny by rusty penny. Our Lady of Charity is like the icon of Advent time, because she shows us how we must await the day of the Lord. Upon seeing the small image of this holy Virgin, we realize that greatness is not in the dimensions of things or structures but in the moral status of the human spirit.

The Cuban people are a noble people – but also a people who suffer. As Archbishop Pedro Meurice told St. John Paul II 19 years ago, “This is a people that has a wealth of joy and a material poverty that saddens and afflicts them to the point of not allowing them to see beyond their immediate subsistence. This is a people with a vocation to universality, that builds bridges of neighborliness and affection, but is blocked at every turn by foreign interests, and endures a culture of selfishness due to the difficult moral and economic crisis which it suffers. Our people,” the Lion of Oriente continued, “is respectful of authority and likes order, but it needs to learn to demystify false messianisms.”

The Messiah we await is not another caudillo; He is the lamb of God who comes to bring us peace. Although he will “exercise authority,” he will not oppress us or exploit us. On the contrary, he will transform our culture of war into a culture of peace: “…They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.”

To sum up, Advent is the time to prepare our heart to welcome the Lord. These instructions suggest that we leave sin behind and clothe ourselves in virtue, “that he many instruct us in his ways and we may walk in his paths.” Of course, Advent sets us on our way to Christmas preparations; but, even more important, because “at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come,” Advent reminds us that one day the Lord will come to judge the living and the dead. That is why the Scriptures warn us to stay alert, to arise from our slumber. That is, not to live as in the time of Noah. In the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, we read: “...both the just and the wicked God will judge, since a time is set for every affair and for every work.” (Ecclesiastes 3:17)

So, during this time of Advent, we simply have to respond to that grace in order to put on the armor of light, that is: faith, hope, charity, humility, temperance, joy, peace, patience, understanding of others, goodness and faithfulness, meekness, simplicity, spiritual poverty, etc.

One of the sisters who work at Our Lady of Charity National Shrine (La Ermita de la Caridad) in Miami folds her hands in prayer during the Mass Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski celebrated there Nov. 26.

Photographer: TOM TRACY | FC

One of the sisters who work at Our Lady of Charity National Shrine (La Ermita de la Caridad) in Miami folds her hands in prayer during the Mass Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski celebrated there Nov. 26.

Now, on the eve of this first Sunday of Advent, as if to stress the words of Christ, “at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come,” we find out that Fidel Castro has died. Every human being, each one of us, must die; all of us will be judged one day. Now it’s his turn to receive the judgment of God who is merciful but also just. The death of Fidel provokes many emotions – both in and outside the island. Nevertheless, beyond all possible emotions, the passing of this figure should lead us to invoke the patroness of Cuba, Our Lady of Charity, asking her for peace for Cuba and its people. 

She has accompanied the Cuban people for more than 400 years, and has never left our side, not in the moments of sacrifice and courage with the Mambises, who shed their blood to gain longed-for independence, nor in the times of bonanzas, turbulences and hopes of the young republic.

But the Virgen Mambisa has known how to suffer with her Church when the Marxist darkness wounded and decimated it, and she stood at the foot of the cross with her children as they died in the firing squads shouting “Long live Christ the King.” In the same way, she was present in the midst of the barbed wire of so many prisons and of the forced labor camps of the UMAP.

She has always been with her children, the same in years past as in recent times. And she was present in the holy cards hidden in the closets of those who found themselves forced to survive by denying their devotion in public, as well as in the medals worn around the necks of those who, their heads held high, transmitted, transmit and continue to hand down to their children and grandchildren the precious gift of faith.

Present on the island and in the diaspora, she continues to lavish her motherly love, today like yesterday, in the prisons that remain unemptied and in the midst of women who march to reclaim liberty. She is present accompanying all those who, inside and outside of Cuba, fight for respect for human dignity and work for a future of freedom, justice and peace. In that way, she brings us closer to that day in which love for her Son will be the effective foundation for what we always ask her, that all Cubans might be one. 

“To Jesus through Mary, we are one in charity.” May our holy Lady of Charity listen to her people and hasten for Cuba the hour of its reconciliation in truth, accompanied by freedom and justice. May, through the intercession of the Virgen Mambisa, the Cuban people know how to traverse that narrow road between fear which gives in to evil, and violence which, under the illusion of fighting evil, only makes it worse. Virgen of Charity of El Cobre, teach us to pray: Maran atha, Come Lord Jesus!

Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski celebrates Mass Nov. 26 at Our Lady of Charity National Shrine (La Ermita de la Caridad) in Miami with members of the Cuban community, the day after former Cuban leader Fidel Castro died. At left is Father Fernando Heria, rector of the shrine. The archbishop offered prayers for the people of Cuba, invoking the patroness of Cuba, the Virgin of Charity, asking her for peace in Cuba and for its people.

Photographer: TOM TRACY | FC

Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski celebrates Mass Nov. 26 at Our Lady of Charity National Shrine (La Ermita de la Caridad) in Miami with members of the Cuban community, the day after former Cuban leader Fidel Castro died. At left is Father Fernando Heria, rector of the shrine. The archbishop offered prayers for the people of Cuba, invoking the patroness of Cuba, the Virgin of Charity, asking her for peace in Cuba and for its people.


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