Jesus spoke to the people of his day, particularly to the people of the Israelite villages where he spent a lot of time proclaiming God’s kingdom and performing miracles. However, many in those villages did not heed this message. Jesus provides those villages a warning. This message, nevertheless, is relevant for us today. How often do we ignore our faith or make excuses for not participating in our parish as much as we should? Are the teachings of Christ reflected in the words and actions of non-Christians more than they are reflected in us?
Today’s feast day celebrates a special devotion and apparition of Mary as we commemorate the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. We think of our beloved Carmelite sisters here in Jackson, for which Our Lady of Mount Carmel is a special feast day. In the Old Testament, Mount Carmel was a place of refuge. In the Christian era, Hermits lived on Mount Carmel in northern Israel beginning in the 12th century, dedicating a chapel there to Mary. They soon celebrated a special mass and office of readings dedicated to Mary. Since the 15th century, popular devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel has centered on the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, also known as the Brown Scapular. Traditionally, Mary is said to have given the Scapular to an English Carmelite monk named Saint Simon Stock in the 12th century.
The feast day was officially recognized by the Church in 1726 under the title of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. This group of hermits at Mount Carmel evolved into the religious order of the Carmelites, the religious group that has given our Church the great saints & mystics Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux, and John of the Cross, all three doctors of the Church.
In the different ways Mary appears to the faithful, she always points us to her son in a very special way. May the intercessions of Our Lady of Mount Carmel lead us to her son, Jesus Christ. May we find meaning and significance in our burdens as we unite them to the sufferings of Jesus.
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