By Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB
The B.C. Catholic

Excerpt from a homily given at Holy Rosary Cathedral Aug. 27.

This evening we give thanks to the Lord and bid farewell for the shining witness and generous service of the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement in the Archdiocese of Vancouver. For 85 years they have been a gentle, yet determined, presence of God's love in our midst. We are so very grateful that you shared your life and ministry to God's people among us, with us, and for us.

Since your arrival in what was then the small city of Vancouver in 1926, you have turned your Franciscan charism of serving the poor to many different apostolic endeavours. You carried out all of them with simplicity and joy, responding to the needs of the Church and society as dictated by the "signs of the times" and always with a keen sense of being instruments of God's justice and peace.

Here in the archdiocese you have ministered to the sick, clothed the naked, fed countless of the hungry, visited the imprisoned, taken in orphans and the homeless, taught the young and the old, and met the needs of immigrants, especially the Japanese community whom you accompanied in their time of great trial during the Second World War.

Your doors were open to all, and everyone was always awarded the dignity, respect, and love worthy of God's children. That is why you have been so dearly loved, and that is why your memory will long be cherished by the people of British Columbia.

I would also like to thank you for giving voice to the poor, the marginalized, and all those who are victims of greed and injustice. Again and again you have reminded us that the path of reconciliation - of being "at one" with God and our brothers and sisters - entails a passionate commitment to justice in our striving to build in our world at least a glimmer of a civilization of love and a culture of life.

Indeed, your message has been that of St. Paul in his Letter to the Romans: "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect."

Dear sisters, we are all saddened that your mission among us is coming to an end. It is, no doubt, as painful to you as it is to us. Yet we give thanks to God that, in His merciful Providence, He led you to Vancouver to be for Him and for us "a living sacrifice" of praise and service. In the great community of God's family, each of us, individually and with others, has a definite mission to carry out in the Body of Christ.

But no particular mission has a claim to permanence. We are all pilgrims journeying to the Father's house, with no "lasting city" in this world. You have done as the Lord asked you to do.

Like St. Paul, you have fought the good fight, and now, here at least, you have finished the race; above all you have kept the faith and shared it with us. So it is in the communion of saints; so it is in the life of the Church. We thank the Lord for letting you serve Him and us as He desires.

Your mission - like the Church's - will, however, endure. What you have planted will continue to bear abundant fruit. Your mission of being with and serving the poor in the Downtown Eastside is not being abandoned. By no means! Franciscan brown will be followed by the blue and white of the sisters of the Missionaries of Charity, who are themselves dedicated to serving the "poorest of the poor." And - after a period of evaluation of how best to continue which of the many ministries you have carried out in our local Church - the Archdiocese of Vancouver is committed to strengthening its presence in this area of the city.

Jesus said, "I came that they might have life and have it abundantly."

This is the paradox: we gain our "life" by giving it away - just as Jesus did, and just as the Franciscan sisters have done in our midst.

Let us thank the Lord for making our lives "more abundant" by the presence of the Sisters of the Atonement, thanking Him mightily for sharing their gifts and mission with us and asking that we might all become more faithful disciples of Jesus by giving our lives entirely to Him.