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. 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 we 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 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!
No comments:
Post a Comment