Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia
Today we celebrate the life of St. Conrad of Partsham often, especially in our modern age.
The saints are so often understood and so when we read some of the biographies of St. Conrad's life,
we read about his profound charity, how he served as a porter for several decades without complaint
and then it is thrown in almost as an afterthought that he had great devotion to the Mother of God
as if it were simply a matter of his own personal choice in a Protestant sense.
It was just one thing he did because it made him feel good and of course that is hardly a Catholic understanding
of the life of the saint for all the other things that are first said about St. Conrad.
St. Conrad can be said of him because of his devotion to the Mother of God
because he recognized full well that in order to be an authentic Christian,
one must embrace Mary as their mother and of course in today's gospel we see the very basis for that
for certainly in today's gospel our Lord says whoever seeks, finds, whoever knocks is admitted.
Certainly the Mother of God sought more than any other creature and knocked.
More than any other creature and in this we reflect upon the profound love the Mother of God had for humanity.
First of all that love was rooted in her love of God and so she was constantly knocking,
constantly beseeching that the Son of God would be admitted into the world,
that is come to the world as the Savior in the flesh and so she constantly besought God the Father
that he would have mercy on the human race and we know full well that on that faith,
on that faithful day the angel Gabriel would come to announce that she had been the chosen vessel
from all eternity to be the mother of the Savior and in this we see the profound love of the Mother of God
both for God and for humanity because she knew as God had taught that they are really the same love
because we cannot authentically love each other unless we first and foremost love God
and if we love God then we certainly must love each other because we recognize each and every human being
from the beginning of creation until the end of time was brought into existence out of the love of God.
What is striking in the case of Our Lady is that she had no reason humanly speaking to love humanity
for humanity would be the instrument by which her son would be impaled on the cross and suffer a terrible death
but it just shows the profound sacrificial love of the Mother that despite knowing this
she willingly and lovingly accepted the Savior knowing full well that he would eventually
go to his death for the sake of humanity and so she shows a true motherly love
and how often in this day and age is the example of the Mother of God needed in our society
for how many mothers would be willing to bring a child into this world
having them abandoning all human respect, all pursuit of worldly honors,
all pursuit of the pleasures of this world, the riches of this world
and yet the Mother of God with her eyes fully open willingly embraced
the Savior of the mankind knowing that he would not even have a stone to lay his head upon
and so we reflect upon the profound love of the Mother of God
which was the purpose of Saint Conrad's life.
He entrusted himself entirely to the Mother of God
and it was this reason that he would embrace all souls who would come to him
as he served as porter for almost 40 years in his convent
because he was imitating the Mother of God.
He was embracing everyone who would come to him.
He was embracing everyone who would come to him.
He came as the Mother of God embraced all of humanity on the night of the Incarnation
and most particularly when the Savior was delivered up for the sake of our sins
and so let us be thankful for Saint Conrad
because he gives us an example as to all the saints
of our need to completely and totally trust ourselves to the care of the Mother of God.
Indeed we cannot understand the life of any saint
unless we understand first and foremost
that they were children of Mary
And indeed it often is the saints who say the littlest about Our Lady
are the ones who profoundly live in that mystery of her maternal mediation for the sake of mankind.
And so St. Conrad knew that the Mother of God, loving him with a true mother's love,
was always after one thing, to form him into Christ crucified.
And so he would come to know, love, and embrace the cross because he had Mary as his mother
and he understood the value of suffering.
He cooperated most fully in that life of the Mother of God, the co-redeemer of the world
because he knew that Our Lady's suffering had merit
for she had no effects of original sin to make reparation for.
She had no effects of her own personal sins to make reparation for.
Her suffering was pure suffering and it was beneficial suffering for the sake of humanity.
And so even though hers was subordinate to her son,
she truly can be called the co-redemptrix of the world
and she wishes to form each and every one of us into little co-redeemers.
That is, that we may fulfill what St. Paul tells us,
that we may make up in our own suffering what was lacking in the suffering of her son.
And so let us turn to St. Conrad this day and ask him to beseech the Mother of God
that we may all come to know her and to love her as he came to know her and to love her
because he came to know and love full well,
that she was not merely some phantom, some veil by which we passed through Christ,
but it was entrusting ourselves entirely to her maternal care that we are given to Christ.
And so let us abandon ourselves to the hands of the Mother
because she can only do one thing with all souls who are willing to make that sacrifice.
The only thing she can do is to hand them to the Father at the end of their lives.
When dying in her arms, we too will be lifted up by the Mother
and embraced in the heavenly embrace of our Eternal Father
in which we can no longer suffer the pains of this world,
the trials and tribulations of this world,
the temptations and the machinations of the devil.
Let us turn to her especially in this day and age
so that she may intercede for our leaders,
that they may come to our senses and no longer, as it were,
seek to bring about the culture of evil, the culture of death
that has so saturated our lives.
And so she may work earnestly,
using us as her instruments to bring them to their senses
so they can again forge a society based on charity,
but not on any charity based on the charity of the Mother of God,
that charity she exercised towards the human race
when she accepted the sacrifice of our sins
and willingly delivered him up in union with the Eternal Father
for the salvation of the world.
Alleluia.