Homily for the Commemoration
of
St. Katharine Drexel
March 3, 2022
Luke 9: 22-25
Collect
Provincial House, New
Rochelle, N.Y.
“What profit is there to gain the whole world
yet lose or forfeit oneself?” (Luke 9: 25).
Katherine Drexel and her 2 sisters were probably the richest young women in the U.S. in the mid-19th century. At his death, their father left them about $15 million. (I have no idea what that would be worth now.[1])
The Drexels had always been a devout and
philanthropic family. Still, it seems
that Katharine was a little shaken when her stepmother died in 1883 after a
3-year bout with cancer. Katherine was
25 and socially prominent in Philadelphia, as were her sisters. But she realized that all the family’s money
wasn’t able to save her stepmother’s life.
Instead, she looked to ways to use her wealth
for social good. After a trip to the
American West, she took an interest in the plight of the Indians on their
reservations and sought ways to help them.
She pleaded personally with Leo XIII for missionaries to go to
them. Perhaps it was a divine
inspiration that the Pope told her to become a missionary.
It was the spark she needed. She did a novitiate with the Sisters of Mercy,
professed vows, founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, and with them
spent the rest of her long life (96 years) and a great deal of her inheritance providing
schools and other services for the poor and underprivileged—specifically,
American Indians and blacks. She founded
the 1st Catholic university for American blacks, Xavier University in New
Orleans. Her sisters were the teachers
of our friend Abp. Marino, who knew and greatly admired Mother Drexel—even
before she was canonized in 2000 (at the same time as our SDB martyrs and the other
Chinese martyrs); that was just 6 weeks before he died.
The collect of the Mass noted Katharine’s
bringing the Gospel to the Indians and African Americans. It also noted whence she drew her strength to
serve them so long and so sturdily: her
devotion to the Eucharist.
Our Lord Jesus in the Eucharist is truly our strength, the only power that we have to “teach the message of the Gospel” day in and day out to “the poor and the oppressed.” Our Lord Jesus set for us the example of losing his life in order that life might be saved—our lives. When we put our eyes on the Cross and the Eucharist, we can easily gauge the value of the world’s wealth, like Mother Drexel, and find the strength we need to live the Gospel.
[1]
About $430 million, according to Value of 1884 dollars
today | Inflation Calculator (in2013dollars.com), updated 2/10/22.
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