between the apostle Paul and Our Lady of Victories.
One of the key messages of NT Wright’s book Paul: A Fresh Perspective is that God did not only mean to save his chosen people, but also through them, to bring about restoration to the whole world! From the moment that evil entered the world in Genesis, God made a covenant with his people, saying that he would make things right. Through following the Torah, the Israelites could bring about this kind of restoration, but the Israelites became part of the problem, by falling into idolatry themselves, just like the other pagan nations! God stayed true to the promise to Israel and to Abraham, but he did the unexpected. After sending his Son to perfectly fulfill the law, he opened up the family to the Gentiles as well. Being God’s chosen people no longer was about your ethnic origin – or about being circumcised or fulfilling other commands found in the Torah. It was about faith. Paul wasn’t taking part in a grace /good works debate like those in the late middle ages but rather a Gentile/Jew debate. So we have to read Scripture through Paul’s context first. And just as in the beginning, with this new chosen people God means for the restoration of His kingdom to come about. We are to be made new through the workings of the Holy Spirit by becoming like Christ. And through the same power that raised Jesus from the dead working in us, God will bring about the redemption of the world!
So, what does this have to do with Our Lady of Victories (the name of our church, honoring the Virgin Mary)? In Romans, Paul says that “if only we suffer with him (Christ)” then we will also “be glorified with him.” I think that our church is a physical manifestation of Mary sharing in the glory of God. One of the amazing things about our church is that there are 37,000 ex-votos (“fulfilled vows) in recognition of Mary before the Lord and his people over the past two hundred years in thanks for her offering up prayers to God on their behalf. Many of them are wonderfully miraculous! Just like Bathsheba would sit next to King Solomon and consequently had influence on him (I Kings 2:19), Mary sits in the new Kingdom with her Son, King Jesus and can intercede on our behalf! Of course, Jesus doesn’t need Mary to tell Him our petitions, but God has always desired to work through his people to bring about restoration. And I find myself realizing, what a big picture of God’s grace! How beyond imagining, that God give us this! When you walk into this church and see God’s power to raise up the humble as he does with Jesus’s mother, then you touch and see God’s grace. It becomes 3-D! It’s a matter of our being carried up into His love so that we love one another and truly bear one another’s burdens. Where God’s people are obedient to Him and his will is done, there his Kingdom comes! And the “new commandment” is that we “love one another” (I John).
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| Ex-votos thanking Jesus for answered prayers and Mary and Joseph for praying on their behalf. |
Right before St. Therese died, she said that she felt her mission was just about to begin! Therese spoke of what attracted her to heaven – “It is Love. To love, to be loved and to return to earth to win love for our Love … I feel that my mission is about to begin, my mission to make God loved as I love Him, to teach souls my little way.”
Both Mary and St. Therese are examples of God working through his chosen people to bring about the restoration of His Kingdom! And so when we see Our Lady of Victories, dedicated to Mary or The Basilica of St. Therese in Lisieux, we are looking at the kingdom of God on Earth. In these churches we honor (not worship!) Mary and St. Therese and by that we honor God himself because we see through them, his grace in action! Sometimes I think I get caught up in seeing things too much on this side of death. If a basilica were built for me, right now, I’m sure it would go to my head! I’d think I was pretty great. But then I remember that Mary and St. Therese have gone through the passage of death to new life. They are perfect. For them it’s all about Jesus so they can handle having churches made in their honor. And God doesn’t mind it just like a parent doesn’t feel jealous when their child is praised. It is all a reflection on the Father because he is the one that has formed them into his new creation!
Here are some pictures from our church of ex-votos given in recognition of Mary as she shares in God’s work of building his kingdom! They are examples of Gods’ Kingdom piercing through into this world already.
And so we live in an "in-between" time. Christ has come to make all things new and he has given us a deposit of what is to come in the future - namely, the Holy Spirit! But we are in transition. In the greatest sense the victory has been won. Christ fulfilled the Torah and he overcame death! Yet things have yet to be made right. The Holy Spirit does that. Just like in Narnia when the earth begins to thaw from the long winter brought by the White Witch and spring comes, the Holy Spirit brings life to this world. Through this he continues to show how King Jesus overcame death and decay! And the Holy Spirit bears this fruit, this fruit of the new covenant, of the new kingdom, through the seeds he plants through baptism and fosters in his people through the sacraments! He works throughout history to make things right. Paul says in his first letter to the Thessalonians: "For what is our hope or joy or crown to boast of in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming if not you yourselves? For you are our glory and joy." (2, 19-20) And in his letter to the Philippians in 4,1 he says: "therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown." And so Paul holds up in the last day Christ - but HOW does he do it? Paul's "crown" in heaven is nothing other than the work he has done on earth because that work has been the Holy Spirit working in him. Paul's glory is Christ, and this glory is also Paul's and the Church's because Christ lives in him through the Holy Spirit. Christ gives Paul, Mary, Therese and all of the saints (including you and me!) the grace to be like him, to be lifted up too, to wear a crown that will never pass away. And so for us to lift up those whom Christ lifts up is to lift up Christ himself!
