The following is the text of Fr. Robert Maloney’s homily at the Central Shrine of the Miraculous Medal in Philadelphia on the Feast of the Miraculous Medal.The year 1830 was a terrible time in Paris. Unemployment was rampant. Bread prices soared. In July a revolution ripped the city into small piece. Barricades blocked the streets. King Charles X escaped to England. The Superior General of the Congregation of the Mission fled and would not return for two years.
Three members of the Vincentian Family emerged as heroes in this turbulent time. The first, Blessed Rosalie Rendu, climbed over the barricades to rescue victims on both sides of battle and walked fearlessly through streets where shots rang out. She became so famous for her courage and for her works among the poor that when she died 36 years later, 70,000 people flocked to her funeral. The second, Blessed Frederic Ozanam, under the influence of Rosalie Rendu, began to organize young university students to care for the poorest of the poor. Would he ever have dreamed that the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which he was founding, would one day have more than 560,000 members and would exist in more than 140 countries?
The third hero of 1830 was unknown. She lived her whole life in obscurity. But on the night of July 18, 1830, just as the fires of the July revolution were being kindled, Catherine Laboure, a 24 year old novice of the daughters of Charity, had a vision of the Virgin Mary. While the city rumbled with revolution outside, Catherine and the blessed Mother spoke peacefully and familiarly for two hours. In this conversation and a second apparition on November 27, Mary gave Catherine a two-fold mission: a medal was to be struck in her honor and Catherine was to promote youth groups that would wear the medal and serve the poor.
Let me speak with you about both aspects of this two-fold mission that Mary gave Catherine 175 year ago.
1. First, a medal was to be struck
There were lots of obstacles, but Catherine was very successful in this mission. Can you believe it? More than one BILLION medals were made in Catherine’s lifetime. People from all over the world asked for them The medal had a special attraction for the poor, who came to call it the “Miraculous Medal”; and eventually, countless men and women from every level of society began to wear it. Born in an era of rationalism, the medal proclaimed the need for symbols to express faith, love, and commitment. The symbols on the medal were, in fact, a graphic catechetical lesson about God’s provident care for his people.
Here in the United States, the medal was especially popular, because Marian devotion has had an enormous place in the religious culture of tens of millions of people who have flocked to the United States: Irish and Italian, French and German, and today Latin Americans, Filipinos, Vietnamese, Koreans and many other immigrant groups that love Mary deeply.
Catherine was so successful that the Association of the Miraculous Medal is the largest branch in the Family of St. Vincent de Paul. We don’t even know exactly how many members it has. We estimate that more than ten million people wear the medal in the United States alone. And the Association is expanding rapidly on a worldwide level, especially in Africa and Asia.
2. There is a second part to Mary’s message to Catherine: form youth groups…
This part of Catherine’s mission also flourished in the beginning. Then it faded, and now in the last several decades is flourishing once again. Worldwide membership in the Vincentian Marian youth groups has grown to 80,000. These groups exist in more than 50 countries.
This par of the message is extremely relevant today too. Is there anything that Pope John Paul II emphasized more often, both in word and in action than youth? The young ARE the future of the church. They are the third millennium. It belongs to them. The future of the Church lies in their hands. So Mary says to us today. Put the medal in the hands of young people. Encourage them to wear it. Form them into groups that believe deeply and that love the poor, as Mary did.
Today, on this 175th anniversary, the medal continues to challenge all of us, both younger and older. The medal urges us, like Mary, to have these three characteristics:
– To be faithful listeners to God’s word. Gospels present Mary as the model for all believers. Beyond all others, she knew how to “listen to the word of God and act upon it” (Luke 8:21). On the deepest level, those who wear the medal are making a statement: I commit myself to live like Mary and to listen attentively each day to what God is saying to me.
– To be faith-filled pray-ers. In a frantically busy, seemingly self-sufficient world, quiet prayer is extremely important. The message that the Miraculous Medal shouts out to the world is this: that prayer is essential; that those who ask, receive; that those who seek, find; that to those who knock, the door is opened.
– To have a deep love of the poor. In the gospels, Mary lives in solidarity with the poor of Israel. In fact, she is their spokesperson in Luke’s and John’s gospel. She cries out in gratitude to God for his many gifts: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” And she recognizes that God can turn the world upside-down: “He casts down the mighty from their thrones and lifts up the lowly.” In the revolutionary days of 1830, Mary, through Catherine Laboure, called young people to stand in solidarity with society’s poorest. This message is all the more relevant today when the Church proclaims mary and Mother of the Poor.
Catherine Laboure had a huge impact on the church. The medal that flowed from her visions in 1830 gave powerful impetus to the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which the Church proclaimed two decades later in 1854. Surely without Catherine, Christians throughout the world wold never have prayer so often: “O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” And Catherine continues to say to us upon this 175th anniversary: Wear this medal. And imitate Mary who image you carry. Listen to God’s word as Mary did. Put it into practice as Mary did. And form young people as the future of the church so that they too will radiate Mary’s spirituality.
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