Alone with Christ Alone – 10.23.22 (30th Sunday OT- C)

“Alone with Christ Alone”

By: Fr. David Schmidt

St. Bartholomew Parish - Bethesda, MD

Mass Readings- https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102322.cfm

There is this documentary on YouTube called “All or Nothing” and it is about this religious sister named Sr. Clare Crockett. Sr. Clare grew up in Ireland and she was an outgoing and funny girl. She was a talented actress and had a great desire to be famous. She didn’t have much of a faith growing up and lived a very worldly life going to parties and drinking and being caught up in vanity.

One day she was invited by a friend of hers to go on a trip to Spain. Clare thought they were going to Spain to party, however this wasn’t the case, as when they were about to leave, she realized that the group her friend was going with was a group going to Spain for a pilgrimage. God’s providence was clearly at work because even though she didn’t get to party in Spain as she had hoped, she ended up having a powerful conversion on the trip. On Good Friday, she went with the group to the Good Friday liturgy and as she went up to reverence the Crucifix, she had this profound sense of God’s mercy, and that it was her sins that nailed Jesus to the Cross. She was pierced to the heart and she felt sorrow for her sins. She then felt this calling to be a religious sister. However, she still had this desire in her heart to be famous, so when she felt this calling she jokingly said, “Well I’ll become a famous nun.”

What’s beautiful about the documentary is the transformation that occurs in her throughout. She grows from this young and immature girl who desires fame and to live a worldly life to someone who becomes profoundly humble as that desire for fame and attention slowly faded away, and she became this humble servant of Christ.

When we read today’s readings, humility is front and center. In the Gospel we see the contrast between the proud Pharisee and the humble tax collector. It is the humility of the tax collector that allows his prayer to be heard by God and God grants him forgiveness. While the proud Pharisee doesn’t go home justified because he wasn’t humble in his prayer.

In the first reading, we hear about how God hears the cry of the poor and oppressed. It says He “is not deaf to the wail of the orphan, nor to the widow when she pours out her complaint. The one who serves God is willingly heard; his petition reaches the heavens.” Then it says, “The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest till it reaches its goal, nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds, judges justly and affirms the right, and the Lord will not delay.”

We come to understand from these words that God eagerly desires to hear our prayers. God doesn’t play favorites, but He is a God of justice, and it is the prayer of the poor and lowly that He can’t help but hear and respond swiftly too. The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds and will not rest until it reaches our Lord, and He answers their prayer. We think about how when a little child makes a request, we stoop down to them to listen to their request and respond immediately to it.

These little children, whether it’s our son or daughter, niece or nephew, grandchild, whoever this little child is, they ask in such a way at times where we are like, “Yes, I’ll give you whatever you want. How can I say no to you?” Their littleness and weakness are what draws us to them. It is what captures our heart, and we can’t help but respond to any desire that they have.

This is how God is with us. It is our littleness and weakness that we express in our humility that draws God to us like a good Father who can’t help but listen to us, and respond swiftly to whatever we ask of Him. As a good Father He may not always give us exactly what we ask for because it may not be what is best for us, but He always answers our prayer and seeks to meet that desire in a deeper way than what we were requesting.

When Sr. Clare was making her final profession of vows to officially become a religious sister and give her life to God forever as His bride, she was the only one making her vows that year. The priest who was the celebrant and leader of this order that she was joining gave her the motto, “Alone with Christ Alone.” He gave her this motto because she was the only one who made her perpetual vows that year, and also because during her conversion experience on Good Friday with Christ crucified, she experienced herself alone with Him, and only with Him.

This motto “Alone with Christ Alone” speaks to the deep intimacy that the Lord desired to experience with her that began on that Good Friday. The Lord throughout her life had been slowly trying to win her heart by pulling her away from the world more and more. She began to use her talents to glorify God as she brought her humor and acting abilities into her ministry and had a profound effect on all those she ministered too especially the young school children.

It really is incredible to see the transformation that she went through as she matured in her vocation and as she fell more in love with the Lord. She sought to be alone with Christ alone. And the Lord was leading her into deeper intimacy and love with Him. And this love and intimacy with the Lord that she was experiencing at deeper levels was brought about due to her increasing humility. As she grew in humility she grew in love of God.

On April 16, 2016, at the young age of 33, Sr. Clare was serving in Ecuador when an earthquake hit, and the school building that she was in collapsed, killing her and a few of the students she was with.

Sr. Clare had lived her religious life with the motto, “Alone with Christ Alone,” and the Lord, after spending the entirety of Sr. Clare’s life doing everything possible to draw her away from the world to win her heart, finally led her to the fulfillment of all her desires- to be truly “Alone with Christ alone” in heaven forever.

This is Christ’s desire for all of us. He is doing everything possible to win our hearts. To draw us away from the ways of the world and into the depths of His Most Sacred Heart. The goal of our prayer lives should be Sr. Clare’s motto for her religious life, “Alone with Christ alone.” We should seek to be alone with Christ alone. This should be the desire of our hearts. The Lord desires to draws us into deeper love and intimacy with Himself as He did with Sr. Clare and has done with so many others. The key to all this is humility.

Our humility causes God to be drawn to us like a magnet. Like a father to their child who eagerly desires to listen to and do whatever the child asks of him. God hears the prayer of the poor and lowly. He hears the cry of their hearts.

As the Gospel says, “for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Sr. Clare is such a powerful example of this. As I mentioned she had a great desire to be a famous actress. But she was led to become a religious sister instead. However, again, when she felt the call to become a religious sister she joked saying, “Well I’ll become a famous nun.”

And a famous nun she became. Not because she pursued it but because in her increasing humility she lowered herself so low before our Lord that the Lord couldn’t help but exalt her. Her YouTube documentary “All or Nothing” now has over 2 million views between the original video and the extended version. And she is impacting people all over the world.

Sr. Clare is a powerful witness for us all of humility, of deep prayer and love for our Lord, and seeking to be “Alone with Christ Alone.” May we ask for this grace of deep humility and love for our Lord that we too may strive to forever be “Alone with Christ Alone” and that He may stoop down to us in our humility and exalt us in the heavenly kingdom for all eternity.