Friday of the First Week of Lent 2023
“You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.
But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother
will be liable to judgment,
and whoever says to his brother, Raqa,
will be answerable to the Sanhedrin,
and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna.”
-Matthew 5:21-22
During the Season of Lent we are often invited to look inside of ourselves and to recognize the sins or failings that can limit our growth in holiness, compromising our relationship with God and our commitment to discipleship. This is important work and a necessary aspect of conversion. However, as with so many things in life, there is a shadow-side to this sort of looking inward. We can become too focused on sin and self-correction and our Lenten observance—even our Christian life—can become a personal, individualized experience that undermines the social dimensions of our Christian Faith.
Certainly the Readings on this Friday of the First Week of Lent invite us to look not only at the sin in our life, but to also go deeper and look at the attitudes and motivations that support our sins and to also recognize that basic adherence to religious maxims isn’t enough. We must take an honest look at the many forms our sins, prejudices, or preferences might take. As the US Bishops point out in Sacraments and Social Mission: Living the Gospel, Being Disciples, this includes the reality that sin is never an individual affair. Rather, sin has social dimensions and that the “collective actions (or failures to act) of individuals create ‘structures of sin,’” including “widespread poverty, discrimination, denial of basic rights, and violence… because of greed, racism, selfishness, or indifference” (page 11; see also John Paul II’s Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, nos. 2 and 16).
On March 3, the Church in the United States remembers and celebrates the life and holiness of a woman who dedicated herself to not only working to bring the beauty and dignity of the Gospel to marginalized people across the US, but who dedicated herself to combatting these systems of oppression and discrimination: Saint Katharine Drexel.
“To her religious community, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, she taught a spirituality based on prayerful union with the Eucharistic Lord and zealous service of the poor and the victims of racial discrimination. Her apostolate helped to bring about a growing awareness of the need to combat all forms of racism through education and social services.”—Pope Saint John Paul II
Mother Drexel at a day care founded by the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in New Orleans, Louisiana (ca. 1930s)
The daughter of one of the wealthiest men in America, Katharine Drexel was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1858. As a young woman, she became aware of the suffering of Native Americans brought on by oppressive government policies and she grieved the injustices and violence that victimized black people in the South. She believed that the Church had a special mission to respond to these needs. While visiting Europe, Katherine worked to recruit priests and religious to minister to Native Americans, and it was during this trip that Pope Leo XIII suggested that Katherine herself become a missionary.
In 1889, Katharine entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Mercy, and, in 1891, she professed her vows as the first member of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People (today, they are known simply as the “Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament”). At the time of her profession, she not only professed the traditional vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but she added a fourth vows of service to the “Indian and Black Races.” Opening a novitiate in Philadelphia, she received twenty-one new sisters in the first year. The new community’s first mission was in New Mexico. Other missions and schools soon followed, including Xavier University in New Orleans. Pope Saint Pius X approved the rule of life of the Congregation in 1907. Despite this approval of her work by the Holy See, Mother Drexel and her sisters faced opposition from bishops and pastors and persevered in their mission despite the trials of the Great Depression, two world wars, and threats of violence from the Ku Klux Klan and hosts of individuals across the United States.
By the time of Mother Drexel’s death on March 3, 1955, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament were serving in 63 schools and Mother Drexel had established 50 missions for Native Americans and another dozens of schools serving African American children across a region that extended from Tennessee to Arizona, and Louisiana to the Dakotas.
Saint Katharine Drexel was canonized in 2000.
“We can take this old world… and make it over again. ‘I make all things new,’ says Jesus. He can do it. We can do it. We have his Gospel. We have Him.”—Saint Katharine Drexel
In this time of extreme polarization and virulent partisanship, it’s easy to shy away from the difficult conversations about systemic injustice, taking refuge in a privatized sort of spirituality that simply looks at internal realities. The compassion and generosity to which we are called as Christians demands that we name social sins and engage in the works of justice, solidarity, and promoting the rights and dignity of others. (To learn more, visit Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching | USCCB.) This work was a fundamental part of the life and ministry of Saint Katharine Drexel and her legacy invites us to live our faith in ways that exceed the demands of religious obligation, but which truly seek and promote the dignity of our sisters and brothers: “If we wish to serve God and love our neighbor well, we must manifest our joy in the serve we render to Him and them. Let us open wide our hearts. It is joy which invites us. Press forward and fear nothing” (Saint Katharine Drexel).
God of love,
you called Saint Katharine Drexel
to teach the message of the Gospel
and to bring the life of the Eucharist
to the Native American and African American peoples;
by her prayers and example,
enable us to work for justice
among the poor and the oppressed,
and keep us undivided in love
in the eucharistic community of your Church.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-Collect for Commemoration of Saint Katharine Drexel
