Bride of Christ: Intimacy & Mission

Every bride dreams of her wedding day (at least most of us). That day may include the ceremony itself, family, and of course, the bridegroom coming on a white stag. 🙂

Yesterday, December 13th, 2023, we celebrated the Perpetual Promises of Sr. Alison Weber, SC. In the presence of Archbishop Marcel Damphousse, Sr. Alison promised to live out our mission of evangelization through her gift of chastity, simplicity of life, and obedience, for the rest of her life. Wow!

We gathered around her family, our Community, as well as our many friends and benefactors. Her family braved the Canadian winter to celebrate this beautiful day. Though, I think the Lord held back any winter storms. Praise God! They came from Texas and Colorado to witness their daughter and their sister give her life entirely to Jesus.

As someone who has never attended a final profession of my Community, I was touched to be present for this one especially. One of the rules of our Community includes being in share group together. Sr. Alison and I have been in the same share group for four years. It has been beautiful to see the Lord’s gentle grace pouring into her heart and life, persevering through the many challenges that came her way.

Like the Shulamite woman in the Song of Songs, I have seen how Sr. Alison has embraced intimacy with Jesus. The Shulamite woman was hesitant to let the Bridegroom take her to the high places. She felt unworthy of his love. But once he convinced her of his call and love for her, she joined him saying “Yes, I will be your bride” (Song of Songs 4:6, passion translation).

Part of what Sr. Alison recites outloud during the ceremony of  her promises is very similar:

 “I ask for perseverance in following Christ my Bridegroom in the Community of the Servants of the Cross all the days of my life.”

Sr. Alison, like the Shulamite woman, has heard and responded to the voice of the Bridegroom calling her to intimacy with him, to be his Bride forever.

But not only has Sr. Alison heard this call to intimacy with Jesus, but also the call to mission with him, as the Shulamite woman did. As it says at the end of the Song of Songs, “Now I have grown and become a bride…I am now a firm wall of protection for others, guarding them from harm” (8:10). Her total “YES” is a gift, not only to myself, but to the whole Church, as she lays down her life in union with Jesus, for the sake of others. She has been called by Jesus to mission out of her vocation, out of her special relationship with Jesus, firmly rooted in him.

As we rallied around Sr. Alison and as she humbled herself before the Lord, we embrace the Cross of Christ together. She has committed herself permanently to the Community and we rejoice together that we are consecrated to this vast mission of evangelization. As it says in our Constitutions:

“It is precisely through humbling ourselves and embracing the Cross that God will draw near to us and carry out his plans through us, even if they are vast.”
~Constitutions of the Servants of the Cross

I was touched by these words of joyful surrender as we stand still beneath the Cross, that special place of intimacy with the Lord. As we are available for the Lord to accomplish his plans, he is able to do much more than we could ask for or imagine. And it all starts with intimacy with him.

May Mary, our Mother and Star of the New Evangelization, continue to pray for us as we persevere in our vocations. May she continue to guide us in our mission of sharing Jesus with others, so that each person we meet may encounter the living Jesus, our bridegroom and spouse, so that they too may grow a personal relationship with him.

How could the Lord use you to accomplish his vast plans? Know that whatever and whoever he calls you to be, that intimacy with him is the source of your mission. He seeks to draw close to you as we go out together with him.