Homily for the Rite of Imposition of the Habit of the Discalced Nuns of the Order of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel upon Sister Veronica of the Holy Trinity

March 28, 2026
Carmel of Jesus Crucified
Muenster, Texas

Ezekiel 37:21-28
Jeremiah 31:10, 11-12abcd, 13
John 11:45-56

We are now on the cusp of Holy Week. Juxtaposed with the figure of the innocent and generous Lord Jesus, the Gospel presents the figure of Caiaphas, the politically pragmatic and cunning High Priest of the Temple who clearly states his strategy in dealing with Jesus, “You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.” Thereafter, the plan to kill Jesus is put into effect.

Caiaphas intends only to protect his position and that of his party from further oppression by the Roman forces. Despite this intention, his very words prophesy to the truth of Jesus’ mission of saving every human person out of fidelity and obedience to the will of His Heavenly Father. Caiaphas intends his words and actions for evil, but Christ redeems them that they can be heard with the ears of faith.

As we enter Holy Week considering the words of Caiaphas, we would do well to reflect on our own words and actions, and to reflect on the words and actions of others who have hurt us and wounded us out of sinful intention. The merciful words and action of Jesus transform the sinful wounds perpetrated by Caiaphas against Him and they become His humble acceptance of the Father’s Will that He be wounded by love. Because of Christ’s call to each of you to receive His love as your Crucified Spouse, your humble acceptance of the world’s indifference, scorn, and mockery can become active expressions of your spousal love for Christ. It is this spousal relationship that unites your sufferings with His redemptive suffering and salvific mercy.

Your penitential lives as Carmelites, when offered freely and with loving gratitude to Christ, expands your love for Him. He spares you from being blinded by the cold and scheming calculation as exhibited by Caiaphas, despite his public commitment to a religious way of life. Caiaphas espouses and glories in religion but wants nothing to do with the suffering and love entailed in the Cross of Jesus Christ. We know by experience that if the Carmelite life becomes void of the Cross, void of sacrifice, void of love, it ceases to glorify God and ironically becomes a public scandal despite its enclosed hiddenness.

As Carmelites you have the special example and intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She stands completely vulnerable and trusting, unafraid, in love with God, as she receives the awe-filled invitation to accept God’s invitation to be the Mother of His Son, the Mother of our salvation, the Mother of God. Unlike Adam and Eve who hide and separate themselves from the Lord God, the Blessed Virgin Mary gives herself in trust and faith to complete love and full abandonment to God’s Will, including an intimate share in her Son’s suffering. She utters her fiat: “Let it be done to me according to your word.”  She is the instrument that is connected to the restoration of all creation in her Son, Jesus. She is not preoccupied with herself, but she is completely aware and at peace with God and with sinful humanity as redeemed by Her Son. This is why she is at times described as the “human race’s solitary boast as she stands powerless at the foot of the Cross.” 

The Blessed Virgin Mary is not wounded by sin but instead she is wounded by love. Through her “yes” to God, God becomes clothed in the mantle of humanity — the full humanity of her Son, Jesus Christ. You as Carmelites can say “yes” to God because of her “yes” to God. You become able not to hide in “shame” but to be enclosed in love because of Mary’s purity of heart in confidently “saying yes” to God. The selflessness required by Carmel can increase in you as your sinful condition decreases and you become less fearful and preoccupied with self, the preoccupation that is the bitter essence of sin. In a word, you become able to love perfectly beyond the capacity to love enjoyed by Adam and Eve in the original state of nature experienced before their sin. This selfless love of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the mantle of Carmel in which you are now clothed.

The habit of Carmel does not fit Sister Veronica of the Holy Trinity. Yet, through God’s loving care and attention Sister Veronica of the Holy Trinity will come to fit the habit of Carmel. In poverty, the habit always belongs to Carmel and not to Sister as her own possession. Your Holy Mother, Saint Teresa of Jesus, wrote, “All of us who wear this holy Carmelite habit, are called to prayer and contemplation. This is what we were founded for. We are descended from those holy fathers of ours on Mount Carmel, those who went in search of that treasure — the priceless pearl we are talking about — in such solitude and with contempt for the world.”

She, who was known in the world as Erica Carlson, is dead now lives in Christ as Sister Veronica of the Holy Trinity. The name “Veronica” means “true icon” of God: the true icon of the Holy Face that Saint Veronica received on her veil as Christ’s reciprocation for her small act of compassion and also the “true icon” of Christ that Veronica became through her courageous love.

The Holy Trinity in whose name you were baptized as Erica Carlson, is now so close to you that your name is attached to God under this Sacred Mystery. We enter into the Mystery of the internal life of the Holy Trinity, which is charity — through our invocation of the Holy Trinity as we make the sign of the Cross. “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” We can only enter the mystery of the Holy Trinity through the sacrificial love of the Cross.

It is the sign of the Cross and the confident invocation of the Holy Trinity that save us from idolatry. Our entrance into the loving Communion of the Holy Trinity is through the Sacrifice and Cross of Jesus Christ — be clear that there is no other entry into this mystery of love except the Cross; it is our only hope for salvation —“Ave Crux, Spes Unica.”  The Cross of Jesus Christ unites perfectly Divine Love and human love in one action. The Love is that of the Holy Trinity — a relationship among the Divine Persons that does not dissolve or enmesh into each other. It is also the Communion of the loving human obedience of the Son to the Father transparently manifested by the Holy Spirit.

We pray for Sister Veronica of the Holy Trinity today at this Mass as she is clothed, and named, and as she says “yes” to Christ. She will soon be forgotten by the world as Christ is too often forgotten. We ask God to bless her perseverance for what she has accepted as a Grace from Him out of love for Him and to pray for our salvation. We know that without priests there is no Mass; without the Mass there is no Cross; without the Cross there is no hope. In particular, as your bishop, I humbly ask you to follow the example of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face and pray for our salvation but especially to pray for priests.