Take and Go Into My Vineyard
(Note: As an alum of Cabrini University, I was asked to preside at the college’s Alumni Mass during this final year of its storied history)
“It’s not fair.”
When it comes right down to it, this entire Gospel is the story of hired workers who feel cheated out of what was owed to them, at least as they perceived it.
They were hired first and worked long, brutal hours. They toiled in the vineyard with very few obvious perks or bonuses from the landowning Boss. They noticed as they worked that others came to join them during the day; of course, at the time, it was good to get the help.
Finally, nearing sundown, it was quitting time. As it turns out, the ones who began working an hour or two beforehand were given the same amount of pay as the ones who broke their backs laboring in the punishing heat of the day since the sun first came up. Twelve hours versus two, at the most.
And those first workers kept repeating to anyone who would listen, including the Boss: “It’s not fair.”
I’ve no doubt that many of us are thinking and feeling the same sentiment right now. As alumni of a school that means so much to us for so many different reasons, we wrestle with all the emotions that come with a death, for make no mistake – we are experiencing a deep and profound loss.
And it is okay to say “it’s not fair.”
It isn’t fair that Cabrini doesn’t have another 67 years or more of educating future generations …
It isn’t fair that many of us heard the news in such a surprising way …
It isn’t fair that students attending Cabrini now can’t graduate from here … that professors whom we respect and love won’t finish their teaching careers here …
And I’ll just say it: it isn’t fair that all the other local Catholic colleges in the Delaware Valley seem to be surviving and thriving, and yet here we are …
Obviously, there are lots of “it’s not fair.”
I’m fascinated, though, by the Landowner-Boss’s response when word reached him of worker unrest: “My friend, I’m not cheating you. I’m free to do as I wish with my money. Take now and go.”
In some ways, I have always heard that response of his as harsh and unfeeling. Sort of a verbal: “Shut up and stop complaining.”
But maybe I have been hearing the Boss’s voice incorrectly all along.
What if his words were not meant as a verbal tongue-lashing but as a moment of profound encouragement?
After all, think about what is really being said: I see that you have worked hard. I appreciate it. You’ve done what I have asked. Now go.
Not go as in “get out of my sight, kid, you bother me.” But go, as in: Live the work you have started here. Live that work beyond the vineyard that was really my work to begin with.
It would be fair to say that Mother Cabrini, as well as Mother Ursula – who began Cabrini College for Women back in 1957 – spent their lives and hearts embracing that firm-but-loving command from the Master Landowner: Take and go.
Take the gifts you’ve been given and go use them to build the Kingdom.
Take my Word and go share it with immigrants and young people, the sick and the impoverished.
Take the gift of Catholic education – one of the Church’s greatest gifts – and go inspire.
If God wants it, He will make it happen. It’s His vineyard, after all. We are just entrusted for a short while with our part of the cultivation.
Mother Cabrini embraced that mission always. She trusted that throughout her life. When doors opened, it was God who allowed it. When doors were shut, He was in that, too. She placed everything in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, where she herself found her strength, her confidence and her humility.
Mother Ursula, who was a novice by the name of Anna Lawrence Infante during St. Frances Cabrini’s last years, wrote this at the time of Mother’s death: “Hers was a life lived for God alone. No task too great; no labor too hard; no journey to long and fatiguing. No sufferings were unbearable when the saving of souls and comforting of suffering humanity were called into question.”
I hold onto these words now, at this present moment, when “it’s not fair” tries to crowd them out. I ask: What would the Mothers say to us? How would Frances Xavier and Ursula speak to us now?
Firstly, they would remind us to thank God for this gift we’ve received. The college may not have been perfect in every way, but by God, it shaped our hearts and minds and lives, did it not?
How incredibly visionary both women were for believing Catholic education was the way to conquer poverty in its many forms: materially, spiritually, and socially. In their many apostolates of education, they lived Jesus’ command: “Take and go.”
And lest we forget, how incredibly bold was Mother Ursula, founding a college to educate women on the cusp of a world and church about to radically change in the 1960s. It was Mother Ursula and Cabrini College that told women their gifts, their voice, their strength in its many forms are needed and valued in the world, and most especially the Church. That was always a key to our mission here in Radnor.
Mother Ursula and her college -- named for a saint and entrusted to the Sacred Heart of Christ – changed the world, and our own place in it, forever.
So yes, while it is sad to have to say goodbye to the university we have loved, let us strive to remember that in God’s Will, this hallowed institution did what God needed it to do.
We were given a great gift, but one that was always His to offer the world in the first place.
And in the “it’s not fair” moments that still might cling to our hearts, please hold onto this thought: perhaps the laborers hired first here at Cabrini laid the beautiful foundation for those that would follow, helping those who come after to be more confident and less afraid. Perhaps Cabrini University’s mission has always been that the first come to take care of the later ones.
We are but God’s faithful servants; we have done what He has asked us to do. Mothers Cabrini and Ursula lived those words in their religious vocations, and they never doubted God’s providence and His mercy. Gratefully, they taught us how to do this, as well.
I’ll end with this, the actual words of Mother Cabrini herself, as she was establishing schools throughout the United States. She told the Sisters as they went out on mission:
Fashion the hearts of the students to a love of their religion and practice of virtue. Let your example speak louder than your words. Seek to form character and correct patiently. Never speak of another’s defects. Treat everyone with dignity according to the gifts they have received from God.
Then she sent them: Take and go, trusting in the Sacred Heart.
It’s up to us now to continue that legacy.
Far from being unfair, I can’t think of a more noble mission moving forward, we alumni of Cabrini U. The vineyard awaits …