Card Becciu: Blessed Conchita, a
faithful echo of the Sorrowful Mother
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| Portrait of Blessed Conchita as a young woman |
In his homily for the beatification of Maria Concepcion
Cabrera de Armida, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints
portrays the new Blessed as wife, mother, widow – and an inspirer of religious
institutes and apostolic initiatives like no other.
By Vatican News
Maria Concepcion Cabrera de Armida knew to choose God with
an absolute love, and put Him at the centre of her life, while caring for her
family and her home. How was the new Blessed able to do all that was required
of her? Cardinal Angelo Becciu said she succeeded because “she did not follow
her own inspirations, however holy, but conformed to God’s plan for her”.
Faith and imagination
Cardinal Becciu said in the homily for her beatification
that Cabrera’s secret was “to live ‘in’ this world and not ‘of’ this world”.
Blessed Conchita (as she is familiarly known by her devotees) lived a life of
“profound faith and boundless charity”; but also with a characteristic we might
not immediately associate with sanctity: namely, imagination. “Her tireless
zeal, together with her fervent creative imagination would bring her to raise
up new families of consecrated life within the Church”, the Cardinal said.
A leader with the sweet face of a mother
It is difficult to imagine silence in a house full of
children, but it was precisely this, along with devout prayer in adoration of
the Most Holy Sacrament, that was her nourishment, “her spiritual strength”.
Such a great mother could not help but become the mother of all; Cardinal
Becciu recalled her concern for the poor, her care for the material and
spiritual needs of the sick and dying, and her constant commitment to assisting
the poor and needy. Her heart was open to all those she encountered.
From here, the Cardinal said, it was an easy step for
Blessed Conchita to dedicate her life to supporting those who “live their
vocation every day in fidelity and self-denial”. And so, Conchita became not
only a mother but also an example for priests of all times. In her own day, she
became a leader in society and in the Church, “a magnificent synthesis”, as
Cardinal Becciu described her, “of contemplation and action”. In her, he said,
“the evangelical figures of Martha and Mary are fused and synchronized”.
The “science of the Cross”
But all this was possible only by accepting and offering up
her own suffering, Cardinal Becciu said. He concluded his homily by speaking
about how Blessed Conchita was able to understand “the science of the Cross”.
As an echo of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Sorrows, she “was aware that
ever sorrow, great or small, had already been experienced by Jesus on the
Cross; and in Him she was able to find strength and meaning”.
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