Feb. 26, 2013: Divine Mercy Novena Week 4

Here is a very ordinary question for you: How much did your last haircut cost you? Mine, which I got yesterday, cost $20. They say that women typically pay more than men for their haircuts, figuratively and literally. In some way, each time ladies entrust their hair to a hair stylist, they risk losing the look they have come to enjoy. In the case of St. Clare of Assisi, her haircut cost her dearly. On this fourth week of the Divine Mercy Novena, we are spending one extra week in the City of Assisi to encounter St. Clare, who founded an order that still continues on strong to this day. (Those of you who watch EWTN, should appreciate the fact that Mother Angelica belongs to the Poor Clares, the order founded by St. Clare). It was during Lent that teenager, Clare, heard a sermon in the streets of Assisi given by St. Francis. She felt a fire stir within her soul and became determined to live the gospel in a radical way. On the evening of Palm Sunday, at the age of 18, she secretly left her parent’s home, never to return. In the dead of night lit only by torches, Clare met Francis and his friars at the Porziuncola. There, in the little chapel, Francis cut her long blond hair and Clare laid aside her fine clothes, choosing to clothe herself in a simple dress of sackcloth and a thick veil. She vowed from that moment on to give herself totally to God, her eternal spouse. At her final profession before the altar of the chapel of Porziuncola she said, “I want only Jesus Christ, and to live by the gospel, owning nothing, and in chastity.”


Clare gave up her long, beautiful hair (which everyone in the town, especially young, eligible men, admired so much), to take seriously the invitation from Jesus to live a simple life dedicated to him alone. Asking our young people to give up their favorite things--Hollister clothing, Miss Me Jeans, iPhone--and to take on sackcloth clothing and live a life of secluded prayer may be asking too much. Can we adults also live without some of the things we have come to enjoy, to live a life of simplicity? We can, only if we realize who we are giving it up for. We can learn from St. Clare what compelled her to give it all up. She said to her sisters, “Love Him totally, who gave Himself totally for love of you.” The message of Divine Mercy is not so much of duty and obligation to pray, but to come to love with our whole heart the one who gave Himself totally for our love.