HOMILY FOR MASS FOR THE FEAST OF OUR LADY OF MT CARMEL
OUR LADY OF MT CARMEL PARISH, MT PRITCHARD, 13 JULY 2025
Today I am wearing the pallium, a three-finger-wide band of lambs’ wool, intimating the Good Shepherd carrying the lost lamb on His shoulders. The six black crosses and three nails are a call to holiness and Christlike self-sacrifice. Originally peculiar to the papacy, the popes decided to send one to the metropolitan archbishops to wear as a symbol of their jurisdiction. St John Paul II decided to call the new archbishops to Rome so he might confer it in person on the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul—a practice Pope Leo restored a fortnight ago. The pallium highlights the role of the pope and bishops in maintaining communion between the local churches as one universal Church. You might say the pallium is a kind of scapular for popes and archbishops!
Which brings me to another scapular, not black and white but brown. In 1251, the Virgin Mary appeared to an English Carmelite, St Simon Stock, and held out to him the brown scapular of that Order. She said that friars, nuns and enrolled lay people who wore it devoutly would escape the fires of hell, promising to intercede so that their purgatory, if any, would end on the first Saturday after their death. Devotion to Our Blessed Mother as Flower of Carmel grew in the centuries that followed, and in 1726 it became a Feast for the Universal Church.
What are we to make of this devotion to a bit of brown cloth, its heavenly seamstress, and her big promises? Is it magical thinking, a superstition that one can cheat death or hell fire simply by wearing an object? Well, if the scapular were about that, it would be nonsense, even dangerous nonsense, but it would not a feast of the Church. So, what is it really about?
Well, the first thing to note is that it’s not about dying in the scapular so much as living in it! To obtain the promises, the members of the Scapular Confraternity pray, fast and live chastely according to their station in life, imitating Our Lady’s virtues in contemplation and action.
We imitate Mary’s contemplation. Traditionally, when the angel announced the Incarnation to her (Lk 1:26-28), she was contemplating the Scriptures. St Luke records that Mary “marvelled” and “treasured in her heart” what she heard and saw regarding her little one (Lk 2:18,33,48,51). She accompanied Him through His ministry, all the way to the cross (e.g. Jn 2:1-12; 19:25-27; Lk 8:1-3). She was there praying again in the lead up to Pentecost (Acts 1:14). Hers was a life of pondering what God had done, was doing, and would do, and its implications for her life and ours. The brown scapular calls us to imitate the Virgin in her contemplative spirit.
We also imitate Mary’s action. Having discerned God’s will for her, Mary gave her fiat—her great “yes” (Lk 1:38)—and ‘immediately’ got down to work, serving her cousin Elizabeth (Lk 1:39,56), singing God’s praises (Lk 1:46-55 etc.), journeying with Joseph and Jesus to Bethlehem, Egypt, Nazareth and Jerusalem (Lk ch. 2; Mt ch. 2). She did all that was humanly and religiously required for her boy (Lk 2:7,21-52), and cooperated in His ministry.[1] “My Mother,” Jesus said, “is one who contemplates the word of God and then does it!” (Lk 8:21) While we won’t carry or nurse the Baby Jesus, we can join Mary in saying “yes” to our mission, carrying the Word of God to others and enfleshing it in our lives.
So to be a true member of Mount Carmel Parish, to wear her brown scapular not just around our bodies but around our souls, is to hear the voice of God and obey His commands, as our first reading exhorted us (Dt 30:10–14), to live a radical and selfless love as our Gospel parable also pressed (Lk 10:25–37), to be Christ’s mother and siblings by hearing His words and doing them.
Many people today are practical atheists. Not professed atheists: it’s not that they positively believe there is no God. But practical atheists, living as if there were no god, so He has no purchase on their lives. For them to wear a brown scapular might be pointless. But for true believers like make up this community, we must heed the Flower of Carmel’s call to hear and do God’s will. After all, the only commandment Mary ever uttered in public revelation was “Do whatever Jesus tells you” (Jn 2:5). It’s such an obedient response to divine grace, not wearing particular clothes, that makes us saints; like Mary, we give our wholehearted consent and, in our words and deeds, fulfil that consent day by day.
Which is not to say external symbols are useless. God could have redeemed us without taking on human flesh and all bodily life involves including clothes. Jesus could have saved us by a mental act or simple decree, without living and dying as we do. But God knows we are not pure spirits: we are enspirited bodies, embodied minds, and the physical universe impacts on us in many ways. What we wear does matter: it affects how we feel and behave, communicates things to others about who we are and what we value. You come to Mass in our ‘Sunday best’ not a pair of ‘budgie smugglers’. So, too, the brown scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel serves as a private reminder and public acknowledgment of our mission and identity. Living Mary’s way, we dress our souls in the woollen yarn of contemplation, with the cotton fibres of good works, per the silken threads of God’s word and sacraments, and this is indeed the best of formulas for our lives and deaths.
As Jesus was preparing to leave this world, He gave us three parting gifts: the Eucharist, as our journey food; the Holy Spirit as our inspiration; and His mother Mary to be ours also. Her little brown habit is a token of that maternal protection. But can her prayers really prepare us for our deaths?
The great American Catholic novelist, Flannery O’Connor, told the story of a dying man, who was determined to go out with no regrets. A hardened sinner, he refused to repent, regarding deathbed conversion as weakness or hypocrisy. So, he rebuffed every encouragement from his family to receive the priest and the Last Rites. Meanwhile, O’Connor tells us, the Holy Spirit hovered above the scene, a mysterious presence waiting patiently. And just as the man breathed his last, he momentarily let down his guard. The Holy Spirit then swooped down through the crack in his resolve and filled his heart with contrition and love. He was ready for God, the God who has wanted us from all eternity, who will give Himself to us and receive us into His heavenly court if only we will let Him.
Hail Mary, full of grace; hail our Life, our Sweetness and our Hope! Holy Mary, Mother of God, Flower of Carmel, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen!
[1] Pope St John Paul II, ‘Mary had a role in Jesus’ public ministry’, L’Osservatore Romano 19 March 1997, 11.
INTRODUCTION TO MASS FOR THE FEAST OF OUR LADY OF MT CARMEL
OUR LADY OF MT CARMEL PARISH, MT PRITCHARD, 13 JULY 2025
Bienvenidos, Gidday, Benvenuti, Chào mừng, Benvindu… welcome to our Mass celebrating the Feast of your parish patron, Our Lady of Mt Carmel, in this Jubilee Year of Hope. I am delighted to be with you all on this joyous occasion!
Concelebrating with me today are Fr Ignacio Gutierrez CS, Provincial Superior of the Scalabrinian Missionaries; Fr Delmar Silva CS, Parish Priest; along with Fathers Anthony Regolent CS, John Mello CS and Marcelo Hernandez CS.
A very warm welcome to representatives of Our Lady of Mt Carmel Primary School, of the other ministries of the parish, and of the Spanish, Italian, Timorese, Vietnamese and other ethnic groups of our area. Mass in Sydney can be a foretaste of that heaven where “every tribe and language, people and nation” will gather to worship the Lord of all nations (Rev 5:9-10; 7:9; cf. Mt 28:18-20; Acts 2:5-12).
To all joining our special celebration, a very warm welcome to you all!
