Given on the centenary of the death of St Benedict Menni on 25th October 2014 at Our Lady of Dolours, Fulham Road.
I must say, I’m deeply touched to encounter the story of St Benedict Menni and of the Sisters and Brothers who have been inspired to follow him in the 20th and 21st centuries. It seems to me your story has extraordinarily prophetic value for our times. Saint Benedict and Sister Josefa understood the need to care lovingly for people with dementia more than a century ago, while the rest of the world is only now waking up to this reality.
It is particularly moving to read of the Sisters’ first welcome to a patient in 1881, of how they welcomed her by kissing her feet. She was a woman suffering with severe dementia, who could have caused any of them serious injury. It makes me think of Pope Francis too, embracing people with all sorts of disabilities and disfigurements. He reminds us that when we embrace the poor and needy we touch the suffering flesh of Christ. In this he echoes of Sister Josefa herself who told the Sisters on the eve of her death that we are called to welcome especially those who inspire the greatest repugnance in us – precisely because they represent Christ.
She and the Sisters clearly understood what Jesus meant when he said, ‘I was sick and you visited me, naked and you clothed me, a stranger and you made me welcome.’ Jesus tells us, after he washes the disciples’ feet, ‘You will be blessed if you do this.’
As he says you will be blessed if you give a meal and choose not to invite your friends, those to whom you owe and invitation, but the poor and the sick, those who are unable to return your hospitality. Benedict’s followers understood this from the start, choosing a fo
urth vow of Hospitality. They had taken to heart St Paul’s
It is hard to learn that Benedict suffered so much for his kindness; that he had to endure so much misunderstanding; and worse, slander. It does seem that he was being refined in the refiner’s fire. He clearly found solace in setting himself close to Christ crucified. When Pope Pius X appointed him General of the order, Benedict declared himself to be ‘nailed to the Cross’. urging of Christians to make Hospitality your special care. They understood why Jesus says you will be blessed if you offer hospitality without condition – because when you welcome the least of these your brothers and sisters, you welcome him.
He had learnt to make his own those last words of Jesus nailed to the Cross, ‘Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.’
We see this early on in his life, when he was insulted by two young men on a train, who mocked him for wearing the habit. He put up with their insults in silence. But that only encouraged them. Sometime later, when Benedict was working in hospital admissions at Lodi, he admitted a young man with TB. Benedict recognised him immediately as one of the young men from the railway carriage. Seeing the young man’s horror, Benedict said to him, ‘Don’t worry; I’ve forgotten about all about it. Now, would you like absolution?’ After receiving the sacraments, the young man died in Benedict’s arms.
It was because he had formed such a heart early in life that Benedict could endure with equanimity the many slanders and accusations he was to endure later. He offered them to the Lord for the salvation of souls. His whole life he made a consecration of the order to God, setting the Hospitaller project at the foot of the Cross. And what a grace it has been for the world, for both the members of the order and for so many who have received help from its members.
God has brought to you many poor people. When you arrive at heaven’s door, they will be waiting there to thank you. ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me,’ they will say. ‘Now let me take you to meet the Lord.’