Sr Ashwini's Solemn Profession

Sr Ashwini, you are given to speaking in code.  You have been leaving clues about the place as to the contents of your heart as you approach this day of final commitment.  I found the first clue on the back of the Paschal Candle in the form of the Latin words: Desiderio desideravi.  A second clue is on your profession card, which bears the Greek words: Ἐπιθυμία ἐπεθύμησα – Epithumia epethumesa.  Your chosen gospel reading cracks this code, by revealing the context of Jesus’ words at the Last Supper: “With great desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Lk 22:15).  God’s “passionate desire” for you, expressed primarily in the Eucharist, lies at the root of what you are about to do today.

Yet there are more codes to crack.  How about some Marathi: अर्पितो मी प्रभूला – Arpite mi prabhula?  It is worth pondering your translation of this treasured song:
 
I offer to the Lord
 all of my life.

 Receive me, Lord,
 into Your Heart.

 As a flower
 may my life be always.
 As soon as it blossoms,
 may it fall at Your feet, Lord.

 As a lamp
 may my life be always.
 Lord, in Your temple
 may I burn always.

 As the holy ones,
 may my life be always.
 May I be absorbed,
 Lord, in Your work.

Your clue speaks of an offering and a being received; a flower whose blossoms fall at his feet; a lamp that burns in his temple; a holy one, absorbed in his work.  This interprets once again what you will be doing today, in both active and passive modes – offering yourself to the Lord through your profession of Vows; calling on the Lord to receive you in the Suscipe; laying yourself down bodily for the prayers of Consecration by which the Lord claims you for himself.

The final code, and the defining image of your consecrated life, is that of the incense censer.  You seem to be fascinated by the image of incense billowing up from the censer in your hands – the censer which you are – as a symbol of your life totally given and received by God.  Incense is a rich symbol in the Scriptures.

Exodus tells of the High priest’s daily routine of worship: “Morning after morning, when he prepares the lamps, and again in the evening twilight, when he lights the lamps, he shall burn incense. Throughout your generations this shall be the regular incense offering before the Lord.” (Ex 30:7-8)

Wisdom speak of Aaron as one entrusted with a special office consisting in worship on behalf of the people: “For the blameless man hastened to be their champion, bearing the weapon of his special office, prayer and the propitiation of incense; He withstood the wrath and put a stop to the calamity, showing that he was your servant.” (Wis 18:21)

And the book of Revelation points to praise and adoration the defining work of the heavenly Jerusalem: “… the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each of the elders held a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the holy ones.” (Rev 5:8)

The Psalmist puts his desire before the Lord most simply: “Let my prayer come before you like incense; the raising of my hands like an evening sacrifice.” (Ps 141:2)

A theological codebreaker came in your chosen reading from Pope Benedict XVI, read at Vigils this morning: “Christian sacrifice does not consist in a giving of what God would not have without us but in our becoming totally receptive and letting ourselves be completely taken over by him.  Letting God act on us – that is Christian sacrifice.” (BXVI, Introduction to Christianity, p. 215)

Today, Sr Ashwini, you are offering God an invitation to act on you, to take over your whole life, to let it all rise up to him like incense.  Not just moments of explicit worship in church, but every ordinary, obscure, and laborious moment of your life.  The moments of riding bicycles and flying kites, eating breakfast, doing chores, even brushing one's teeth – the moments of daily life depicted in your profession booklet.  All of this is to be offered up in your censer.  All of it – delightful and difficult – belongs to God.  All of it will be rendered holy and satisfying to his great desire and yours for communion.