Catholic Extension presents the Lumen Christi Award to the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Sharing the Light of Christ

Each year the Catholic Extension Society presents the Lumen Christi Award to a priest, woman religious or lay person, who devotes their life to serving the poor. For the first time in the history of our diocese, the honorees were selected from our area. The Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Sister Carolyn Kosub, Sister Emily Jocson and Sister Fatima Santiago, have been working tirelessly to build up the community in the area of western Hidalgo County, in and around Pueblo del Palmas since in 2003.

The announcement brought great joy to my heart. The recognition of the Sisters work was formally presented during a Mass at Saint Anne’s Church on Sunday November 16. It was a grace filled occasion to celebrate Mass with the parish community for the presentation of the award. Father Jack Wall, president of Catholic Extension, and his team from Chicago came to our border diocese to make the presentation.

During the Mass, I asked the sisters to stand and be recognized. It was difficult for them, because those who really follow the path of Christ don’t look for the light of recognition, but I wanted to thank them on behalf of the entire community for investing time from their lives with us. As Pope Francis says, time is more important than the space, and the work of the Sisters shows how the giving of time can open up spaces of hope and hospitality in our communities.

Through the gift of their time with people in the community, they have built something beautiful for the Lord. St. Anne’s Church and the building for Proyecto Desarollo Humano, where the Sisters work, are signs of the time they have spent cultivating friendships, offering communion classes, building fraternity; it is a sign of their giving of themselves,-- la entrega siempre da fruto.

Reflecting on the title of the award, Lumen Christi, which means the Light of Christ, I think of the Easter Vigil. At the Easter Vigil we light an Easter candle and then slowly we light all the candles around the Church that was once dark. Soon the light fills the space, and in this way the space becomes light. This simple and sacred ceremony is like a sacramental sign of how Christ Jesus works amongst us. Christ is the light. He is a light not just to see, but to share.

God wants us to share the light. When the Lord came, he didn’t come just to show us he was the light, saying, “Come close to me.” Rather, the light has to become something within us. When we receive the light of faith, we receive the light of charity and hope because Christ has risen. We receive this not just so that we can have it and say, “thank you Lord for the light.” He shares his light with us so we can give it to others. We have to share this light because we cannot fulfill the mission of Christ only by receiving. We must give also.

We aren’t fully disciples of the Lord until we find a way to share that and let somebody else light their candle from us. This is the Christian life. For 2000 years, the light of Christ has been going from one person to another.

That is why time is important, the time to relate with one another and to go out into the community. When you read the Gospel, we learn the Lord Jesus loved a crowd. He didn’t stay in the desert like John the Baptist. John the Baptist had another mission. Jesus spent time with the people. It seems so obvious, God in Christ Jesus liked being around people! Yet often in our world, there is a spirit that says people are problems to be avoided. Not so with the Lord Jesus! He showed us what it means to be a daughter or son of God. Jesus never said no to anyone in the Gospel, “I don’t have time. Sorry, I have to go raise the dead. I have important things to do.” The Lord Jesus showed us that the most important reality at any given moment is the person right in front of us, and not what we are going to do tomorrow. It’s what we do today, as we relate to the person in front of us.

The light of Christ is the light of Jesus who takes time with people, and opens up paths of friendship and community. So we give thanks to the Lord Jesus who shared his light with the sisters. The Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, from the moment of their baptism, and through to the profound promises of their consecrated life, received the light so that they could share the light with others. We celebrate with them because we have obtained also, with their help, the grace of receiving the light that has its origin in Christ.

The community of Pueblo del Palmas and our entire diocese will grow and continue to grow by the grace of the Lord because of this light. The light we share is the friendship with Jesus that allows us to know the joy that comes from walking with him in our everyday lives. People ask, “What’s so good about the Good News?” It is simply this: God is walking with us. We are not alone.

Sometimes people ask me, “Where’s Jesus?” It is the question of the world. Whether the world knows it or not, this is their question to us who are believers. He is not hard to find. What is missing often is the will to look for him. Jesus is in the Eucharist and he is in anyone who is in need, anyone who knows how to shed a tear, and anyone who knows what it’s like to have a hope that is in danger of being extinguished. He is seated in the same pew next to each of you. That is why Jesus wants a community. He wants us to look for him amongst our brothers and sisters.

What the sisters have brought, because Jesus has brought it to them, is a desire to share the joy that comes from Jesus being with us and a desire to translate that joy into a genuine concern for one another. Jesus is not hard to find, and the sign of his presence is the gift of himself; that is why the Eucharistic sacrifice is the preeminent sign of his presence. He gives himself totally to us in his Body and Blood. From this First Gift, flows the sign of his presence in each one of us in the community of the Church, in the way that we give ourselves for the good of others. This is what is good about the Good News.

We have a mission. The Pope reminds us of this constantly. We cannot remain seated. We have to share the light of Christ with many people in our community who do not know the hope of Jesus, who do not know of the light of his presence.  We have to be people of who extend ourselves.

On behalf of the entire Diocese of Brownsville and the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary I thank Catholic Extension Society for recognizing this sign of Christ’s light in this world. We are all blessed and we have so much to be thankful for because Christ is with us. I invite everyone to recognize daily how it is that the Lord Jesus gives himself to us in the Eucharist and how that gift itself invites us to give ourselves to one another.

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