The Medal You Wear Is a Trophy of the Victory Won
Homily for the Freshman Medal Mass at Mount de Sales Academy
It is not insignificant that our freshmen are to receive their Miraculous Medal today on the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. In fact, it is deeply fitting.
To make a long story short, we celebrate today’s feast because the Christian fleet secured a crucial naval battle over the Ottoman Turks in 1571 at what is known as the Battle of Lepanto. The Christian forces were rallied from among the Catholic states by Pope Saint Pius V (and at this point I am contractually obligated to mention that Pius V was a Dominican). Alongside his ships, Pope Pius also marshalled the faithful throughout Christendom to take up arms by praying the Rosary for a victorious outcome. And that is what they did, and that is what they achieved. In gratitude, Pope Pius instituted this feast in perpetuity on the day of the battle, October 7, in remembrance of the victory that saved Christian Europe and as reminder of the incomparable power of Mary’s intercession.
How a sea combat in the 16th century applies to you Mount de Sales students in the 21stcentury might not be plain and obvious. (I would point out, however, that both have to do with ‘sailors’). In any case, the relation between them is more than meets the eye. To see it, we need to turn to the Gospel. The Gospel also tells of a battle. But this battle is not fought with guns and ships on the water but with prayer and fasting in the soul and in the body: the fight we must all fight with darker powers within and outside us. Now, it is easy to be unnerved by the talk of devils and demons, especially in spooky season. But Jesus tells us that they exist and that they intend to wreak havoc on us and in us. That may (and should) make us uncomfortable; but we always do well to take Christ at his word.
To understand this battle and to know who fights in it, we need to return to the very beginning. If you think back to the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3, you will recall that the devil-serpent tells Eve that the reason God has forbidden the fruit of the tree at the center of the garden is that if they eat of it, they will become like God (Gen. 3:5). He tempts them to eat the fruit so that they will receive what God is withholding from them. The problem is that God wasn’t withholding anything from them at all. God’s plan all along was for Adam and Eve to become ‘like God’, to become one with him. Had they stayed faithful, that is exactly what they would have become. But they were lured into believing that God did not actually want the best for them.
So the evil one also tempts us. He lures us to believe that God is against us; that he doesn’t have our best interest in heart; that life would be better without him. And when he succeeds us in convincing us this is true, everything is turned upside down: we make ourselves God. Quickly, this wreaks havoc on our world because, try as we might, we never have the power and ability to be the masters of our fate. Then we realize that we, too, are naked and ashamed; for we realize that we are nothing. And that is where the evil one would like us to be.
But that is not where God would like us to be. For immediately after Adam and Eve had eaten of the tree, God gave them a promise: that while the serpent would strike at the heel, the heel would strike at his head: and the heel to crush his head would be the woman’s; and the woman who definitively crushed the evil one by the birth of her Son is Mary; and the serpent’s head trampled under Mary’s foot is exactly what you women wear and are about to wear around your necks. We are all engaged in a spiritual battle; but the war has already been won, and the Miraculous Medal is our trophy.
Sisters, as you wear this Medal, remember always what is true: that you are individually, personally, and uniquely created and loved by God. Whenever the evil one tempts you to believe anything less, call upon Mary to remind him that his head has already been crushed and that he should not speak.
Our Lady’s intercession can do more than turn the tides of war. She can make us saints. Ever while wearing these Medals, may we fly to her protection, implore her help, and seek her intercession that we would not be deceived by the lies of the evil one but may always walk in the bright light of truth, her Son and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Homily preached October 7, 2022, on the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, at Mount de Sales Academy, Catonsville, MD.
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