+ Today we celebrate the
feast of St. Cecilia who was born in the middle of the
second century. She gave God a gift of virginity (even though she became
married due to circumstances beyond her control), and God gave her the gift of
martyrdom, the most sublime gift he could give in return. In the estimation of
the early Church she was therefore considered doubly blessed with two very
powerful expressions of love of God!
Martyrdom, of
course, was seen as a
tremendous gift from God – because the one called to be a martyr engaged in
sufferings equal to that of Christ: they truly "carried their cross"
as Christ carried his: and were thus deserving of the joys of the resurrection
as he won them and first experienced them.
But when
martyrdom waned in the
history of the church virginity was seen as a substitute: "carrying the
cross" by total renunciation of what life had to offer, especially in the
area of sexual expression, so to focus completely on Christ the Groom – Christ the Goal – Christ the One who would come
one day to take us to the Marriage Feast
of Heaven – was considered on the same level as martyrdom.
And so, Cecelia
was doubly blessed to be
both a virgin and a martyr. She is the patroness of music because she is said
to have heard heavenly music in her head when she was married to a pagan
husband who would be baptized because of her insistence on remaining a virgin!
The readings today are suited to this feast: Cecilia was like one "led to the desert so that God could
commune with her and she with God" – her life was very focused and
oriented on the goal: eternal life on
high with Jesus and his Father. The gospel passage relates how she
certainly was one of the virgins who had
their lamps full of the oil of gladness, the oil of prayer, the oil of
attentiveness, the oil of expectation, the oil of welcome: so that when the
Lord bid her come: she went forth immediately!
We are all
invited to the Marriage Feast of heaven – it is never too late to become as single-minded and focused in vision
as St. Cecilia! We may even hear heavenly music in our heads (and have it burst
forth from our lips) as we come closer and closer to the object of our longing:
JESUS, the CHRIST – KING OF THE UNIVERSE – KING OF OUR HEARTS!
The bridegroom is here; let us go out to meet Christ the Lord!
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