ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Dear brother Bishops,
Dear Priests and Deacons,
Dear Sisters, in particular Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament,
Dear Children from our Catholic Schools,
Dear Friends in our Lord Jesus Christ,

Ten years ago today, shortly after midnight, Cardinal John Joseph Krol died. He was the tenth Bishop and sixth Archbishop of Philadelphia. At this holy Mass we remember all the good things he did for our local Church and, in particular, how he worked to promote the canonization of Mother Katharine Drexel. In God’s providence he lived to see her beatified and died on her feastday. On this anniversary of his death and hers, we once again commend his soul to the mercy of our loving Father through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Fifty-one years ago today, at 9:05 in the morning, Mother Mary Katharine Drexel, former socialite turned foundress of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People, died in the ninety-seventh year of her life, and the sixty-fifth year of her vowed covenant with the Lord. Days later, an overflow crowd assembled at this Cathedral for her Solemn Requiem Mass, only to be surpassed by the thousands upon thousands of faithful who lined the funeral procession all the way from Philadelphia to her Bensalem motherhouse, where she remains entombed today.
As one young father was overheard remarking prophetically to his little son, "Remember this day, because you are a witness to the burial of a saint." Local and national newspapers carried stories about "these sad days...when many a tear has been shed in remote Indian reservations of the Southwest, and in schools and institutions for the colored both in great cities and in the rural lands of the south." In the words of the late Bishop Joseph McShea, who preached her funeral sermon, "Generations of colored and Indian people have lost a loving mother who so affectionately and effectively had opened her hand to the needy, and stretched out her hand to the poor. In her patient search for the Will of God in her life, Mother Katharine had chosen the difficult field to till."

The story of the life of Saint Katharine Drexel is legendary, from her birth into one of the wealthiest families in the United States in the nineteenth century, to her forsaking of that wealth to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to the most neglected in our society; from her encounter with the Klansmen who threatened to burn down her school in Lafayette, Louisiana, and to kill her, her sisters, and the orphans—only to witness a few days later the Klan’s headquarters struck by lightning and burned to the ground—to her visit from the President of the Republic of Haiti, who came to Bensalem personally to thank her for her work among his people, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.

But, probably her most famous and life-changing moment was her audience with Pope Leo XIII, whom she asked to send missionaries to the United States to care for the Black American and Native-American peoples, to which His Holiness responded: "Why not, my child, become a missionary yourself?" Leo’s words echoed the words of Jesus to the Twelve in today’s Gospel: "Give them some food yourselves."

Obediently and humbly following the Pope’s advice, Mother Katharine’s daunting life’s-work became possible only through her reliance on the presence of the Holy Spirit as her true Counselor. In fact, one of the early missionaries to the Native Americans, who was supported by Mother Katharine’s generosity, witnessed firsthand her prayerful reliance on God the Holy Spirit. During visits to his mission, he noticed that when she went to chapel, Mother Katharine would forget everything else around her, sometimes having to be reminded that it was time for a meal. Often she was found in chapel till late at night, trying to solve all the problems of her missions with God’s gracious assistance. She truly recognized the power of the Holy Spirit transforming the earth, as she witnessed even those with the most stubborn of hearts back down in the presence of divine action bringing about justice and peace.

Saint Katharine Drexel could rightfully be called a woman of faith. Through her Eucharist-centered life, she became like Wisdom as described in the Book of Proverbs, saying to the poorest of the poor: "Let whoever is simple turn in here." And Saint Katharine Drexel could rightfully be called a woman of love. It was her total love of Christ which led her to open her hands to feed the poor and answer all their needs.

But, the one virtue that was most evident throughout her life, and which best describes her, was that she was a woman of hope. In the initial stage of her canonization process, many witnesses came forth to testify to Mother Katharine’s heroicity in the practice of Christian virtues. One witness stated, "Mother Katharine manifested hope in every hour of trouble that she went through, and those were many. She manifested hope particularly in the growth and spread of her community, because it is almost inconceivable to realize that one lone woman could have faced all the opposition she faced in her desire to spread the faith. Unless she had a tremendous amount of hope in the power of God to sustain her and to carry her works to completion, I do not think she could have gone on."

Mother Katharine’s entire life was dedicated to teaching the Gospel of Christ to the poorest of the poor, and to the most neglected among them. At the same time, she instilled in the Black and Native American peoples the desire to go and to do the same: to help others learn of the Good News of Jesus Christ and to be so moved as to teach this Good News to others. Hers was a life totally devoted to evangelization: she appreciated how the Holy Spirit helps to continue Christ’s work in our day; she experienced a new hope; and, she desired to deepen this hope in herself and to share it with others.

Saint Katharine Drexel recognized in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the "total gift of self," the sacrament of hope for a broken world. She knew that, despite the many achievements of humanity in the first half of the twentieth century, the world was still, for so many people, a desert of despair instead of an oasis of hope. But, Mother Katharine learned, and taught, that it is our Christian calling to live in this desert, facing despair but not consenting to it; to demolish despair through the hope that the Eucharist brings, which is hope in the Cross and Resurrection of Christ. Saint Katharine leads us in waging war unceasingly against despair. She clearly showed us, if we wage this war courageously, Christ will be always at our side.

It is the Eucharist, then, which is our only hope. This Blessed Sacrament is our hope because it is the fulfillment of God’s saving mercy, His justice, and His love. The Eucharist is our hope as the great visible sign of God’s faithfulness and love for all people. The Eucharist is our hope, for it makes us one with Christ, who is victorious over all evil, anxiety, sin, and even death itself. The Eucharist, as the Sacrament of Hope, was the focus of the life of the saintly woman of our local Church whose memory we celebrate today.

Let us, dear Friends, look at the Eucharist we celebrate, and see, as Saint Katharine Drexel saw, the suffering and risen Christ. Let us listen to Christ’s call in the Eucharist and hear, as Saint Katharine Drexel heard, Christ’s divine promise of hope. Then, as we receive the Eucharist, let us recognize, as Saint Katharine Drexel recognized in her life, that hope has indeed been realized and that the Lord Jesus is here among us! With Saint Paul, Mother Katharine identified Christ Jesus as our Hope (cf. 1 Tim 1:1).

In a letter which Saint Katharine wrote to her sisters on Christmas Day eighty-eight years ago, she shared with them her vision of how we can change the face of the earth by following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. "Reflect on the infant Jesus," she wrote; "how tiny were His feet. We do not have to do anything too great in our lives; just follow in those tiny footsteps. Then, let God do the rest and He will transform those tiny footsteps of ours into giant strides which will help us to carry the Peace, the Hope, the Love, and the Joy which is Jesus Christ to all whom we meet."

What a magnificent mission, dear Friends, for Saint Katharine Drexel and for all of us: "to carry Jesus Christ to all whom we meet." Amen.