The canonization of Mary MacKillop is an event that all Australians can celebrate. Not just Catholics. Men and women of every faith and none can rejoice in the life of this extraordinary Australian.
A canonization is not the religious equivalent of winning an Olympic Gold Medal, although many, including some Catholics, speak as if it is. In an age of individualism, it is perhaps difficult to understand that Mary was motivated by a profound commitment to community and the common good.
Over the past few weeks, many claims have been made on Mary. She was a feminist before her time. She was a rebel against a clerical church. She was a pioneering social worker. She even has been claimed as a model for the independents in the Federal Parliament!
Mary MacKillop was a gifted woman, a strong-willed and determined leader, a builder of schools, homes for the poor, and congregations. But she was more than all these characterizations.
Her long-running disputes with various Bishops have been well rehearsed in recent weeks. It was real and painful for her, but she was no rebel. She always accepted the authority of the church hierarchy, praying constantly that the work of her sisters would be able to prosper.
Her prayerful perseverance was rewarded, as previous decisions were reversed, including her ex-communication. At her passing, Archbishop Moran observed: “Today I believe I have assisted at the death bed of a Saint.”
Mary was an immensely practical woman. Her sisters, young women in their late teens and twenties, left the cities for the hardship of small towns and rural communities. Preparing them for the task was uppermost in Mary’s mind. They “must be trained spiritually and in the worldly knowledge necessary to enable them to take the stand the Church in Australia requires of them.”
The work not only included teaching in the schools she founded, and caring for the poor and homeless, but begging when necessary for the funds to live on. Her practical Christianity attracted support from Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
While motivated by faith, she was also a woman of the world. When women gained the right to vote, and to be elected to Parliament, she encouraged her congregation to participate.
“It is the duty of all of us to vote,” she wrote to her sisters in 1903. “Find out who are the members proposed for election and vote for those who are considered most friendly to the Church and to Religion. Every so called Catholic is not the best man.”
We can learn from Mary MacKillop that clear vision, perseverance and determination will overcome obstacles. But most of all, we learn that faith is not a relic.
To claim Mary for some current political cause is to miss the essential meaning of her life. She was motivated through her love of Christ to bring about a better future for hundreds of thousands of Australians.
In an era that often seems besotted by vice, she reminds us that hope and courage are enduring virtues.
In 50 years, the small school she founded in 1866 at Penola with Fr Julian Woods had grown to 106 houses, 12 institutions sheltering over 1,000 people at a time, and 117 schools with more than 12,000 pupils.
Her life was an exemplar of the call ‘to love one another as I have loved you.’
A few weeks before her death in 1909, having previously suffered a stroke, Mary wrote: “Whatever troubles may be before you, accept them cheerfully, remembering whom you are trying to follow. Do not be afraid. Love one another, bear with one another, and let charity guide you in all your life.”
It is a fitting epitaph – and a worthy commendation for us all.
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