Sister Mary Rozanne of Jesus, O.C.D.
Funeral Homily – March 20, 2006
Saint Anne Church, Long Grove
Rev. Edmond J. Dunn
“As the deer longs for running water, so my soul longs for you, my God.”
When I first heard of Sister Rozanne’s death, those words from Psalm 42 ran through my mind. “ My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?
In some ways that sums up the life of Sister Rozanne: An intense thirst for the living God. That thirst for the living God is what drew her from the farm where she grew up to the Sisters of Humility where she became a professed sister at the age of twenty-one. After years of teaching, many spent at the Saint Vincent School and Orphanage where our chancery is now housed, and after having touched so many young people including a considerable number who became priests, including our Vicar General, Monsignor John Hyland, but other too, who always seem to be anxious to let us know what Sister Rozanne taught them in fourth grade – like how to divide a circle into three parts, as Father Dan Mannhardt mentioned yesterday at the visitation – still after those years of active ministry in the world (so to speak) the intense thirst for God drew her to the contemplative life of Carmel.
When Sister Rozanne became a Carmelite sister, a contemplative, she truly did leave “the things of the world” behind her – not, of course, her beloved family nor her many friends. But as an example, I was her spiritual director and confessor for many years, and when I walked into the visitation yesterday and saw that she had received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota, and her thesis was sitting there, well, I had never know that. Not that I needed to know it, but she never once mentioned it. She left behind those “things of the world.”
Saint Teresa wrote, concerning living the Christian life and growing in Christian virtue that there are three prerequisites – and it isn’t possible to be much of a contemplative without them, and furthermore those who think they are [contemplatives] without them are badly deceived. “The first thing,” Teresa says, “is love for one another.” Sister Rozanne truly did love her sisters in Carmel . She may have had doubts at times at how seriously some of them were taking their commitment to reach perfection in the life of the Spirit, but she still loved them. And they loved her.
“The second is [emotional] detachment from all created things.” Perhaps that is why she never mentioned the Master Degree she had earned. In the life of contemplation, an M.A. didn’t really make that much difference. But on the other hand, and I am sure Teresa would agree, she had a great love for nature and the beauties of nature. If there would be one photo image that sticks in my mind about Sister Rozanne, it would be when I stepped up to the window in a break between in confessions and looked out to see Sister Rozanne, well into her eighties and moving rather slowly, pushing the big wheelbarrow with the tools for caring for the flowers, and walking just a few steps behind her with nose pointed and tail lifted, as if aware that this was a solemn processsion, was Cocoa, the one dog that had endeared himself to Rozanne. She did rejoice in God’s creation and did a wonderful job with flowers and plants.
For anyone to live the Christian life and grow in Christian virtue, and especially one who wishes to be a contemplative – that is to live with the awareness of the immediate presence of God – one must first have love for one another, one must detach oneself [emotionally] from attachment to created things, and finally one must have the virtue of “true humility.”
Humility, contrary to popular conception, is not walking around with eyes cast down and hands folded rigidly with fingers pointing to heaven, but rather a true and honest assessment and acceptance of oneself – both of ones strengths and ones weaknesses. Sister Rozanne had first become a part of a community dedicated to the humility of Mary. Mary, who at the Presentation said, “Let it be done to me according to your will.” was also the Mary who earlier questioned the messenger of God, Gabriel, “How can this be, I have not had relations with a man?” Both are signs or components of humility – to question . . . and to concur. If there is some lesson that I sense Sister Rozanne would want to give us, now that she has achieved the satiation of the thirst for God that she experienced in her life – to behold the face of God – it would be this:
Some of the sisters questioned me when I asked that the gospel story used for this Mass of Resurrection celebrating Rozanne’s life be that of Mary and Martha. The usual interpretation of that Gospel passage from Luke is that to choose to sit at the feet of Jesus, to be a contemplative, as Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus chose, is so much better than a person who is active in the life of the world. Many of the Sisters of Carmel, including Sister Rozanne, were in fact involved in the “active ministry” before being called to the contemplative life. Was not their life and dedication in that ministry also very worthwhile for the coming Kingdom? Of course! And I believe there is, and there must be some of both in all of our lives. Both the Martha and the Mary. Both action and contemplation.
We in the Catholic tradition, who live by the “both/and,” rather than the “either/or,” also believe in the sacramental principle, in which we take a particular aspect or activity of our lives, and encourage certain people who are called to it, to be models, examples, and magnifiers of certain charisms. So the contemplative life reminds all of us of our need for time of prayer and contemplation, but the Carmelites hold that out to us in “capital letters” one might say. The life of celibacy for the sake of the kingdom reminds us of our dedication to love everyone, while married life reminds us of Christ love for his church in the oneness of husband and wife, and the importance of children and families, of which we are all a part. So we are all a part of the both/and. Both Martha, who does the daily tasks of preparing and serving and cleaning; and Mary who wants to hear what Jesus is saying and clings to his every word – forgetting the practical necessities without which she wouldn’t survive at the feet of Jesus. When I first mentioned the Gospel of Mary and Martha to Sister Mary Jo, she said, “That is Teresa, Saint Teresa” While the sisters in the monastery may not be “serving in the world,” (and we know that many, many people will insist, they serve in the world powerfully by their prayer) still in the monastery they have that responsibility to serve one-another, to keep the garden, the kitchen, the flowers, and the grounds and building in shape. Otherwise they will not have a place to live the life of contemplation.
But my real reason for choosing this passage about Martha and Mary is something else. The message that I sense Sister Rozanne would want to send us from her new life in the presence of God – as least according to our faith in the goodness and mercy of our loving God.
The great twentieth century Protestant theologian, Karl Barth, has said that one of the most difficult things in living the Christian faith is “accepting acceptance.” In other words, accepting in faith that God loves us absolutely and unconditionally – period! Sister Rozanne, finally having come to sit at the feet of Jesus, as Mary did (not ignoring the work of Martha, indeed) Rozanne always worried that she was not doing all that she should do. “With all that we are given here, the opportunities, the call to prayer and contemplation, I don’t believe I am doing all that I should do.” (And I sense that she was worried that some of her sisters were not doing all that they should do!) She worried.
And I would say to her, “But God loves you no matter what. Just rejoice in that.”
The point of the passage of Martha and Mary, in addition of the “both/and” in all of us, is that I suspect that Sister Rozanne, now able to behold the face of God, and to behold God’s marvelous on-going creation, will hear the Risen Christ , the very Word of God say to her – and to us, not “Martha, Martha.. you are concerned about many things. . . “ but “Mary, Mary, [Rozanne, Rozanne], you worry about many things, but all you need to do is to accept that I love you! That, my friends in Christ Jesus, is the message that Sister Rozanne wishes to convey to her sisters in Carmel , and to us: God is Love.
We thank you, Sister Rozanne, for a full life of faithful service in the vineyard of the Lord. Enjoy now, what you always knew but had a hard time to accept: God loves you unconditionally, for God is Love.
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