In Memoriam: Final Sermon by Monsignor Anthony La Femina (Rejoice Oh Pre-sanctified One!)

In Memoriam: Final Sermon by Monsignor Anthony La Femina 

(Rejoice Oh Pre-sanctified One!)

Introduction by Matthew Bellisario O.P.

On Feb 8th, I attended the Latin Requiem Mass for Monsignor Anthony La Femina at Christ the King in Sarasota, Florida. It was a bittersweet visit to Sarasota which was home to me for about 10 years. During that time I was privileged to become good friends with Monsignor. My spiritual life today as a Third Order Dominican was as a direct result of this friendship. I cannot stress how much I owe to him as a practicing Catholic today. 

His love for the Mass and our Blessed Mother was well known to those who befriended him. The text below was taken from a draft of a sermon he was preparing to give at a local parish which he often visited and gave talks. I have taken the liberty to make a couple of edits since it appears that it wasn't quite finished. I left in the underlinings and bold emphasis of the original text. Following the inspiration of his friend Dorothy Weimar O.P., one of the most important things he often wanted to convey was the importance of Our Blessed Mother Mary concerning our spiritual lives. He would often say, "Ignorance of Mary is ignorance of Christ!" This final sermon, which was sadly never given, is offered here for anyone who happens to come by it on the Internet. Monsignor was never short for theological content and his sermons were usually longer than this one. This one was intentionally brief and to the point, yet beautiful and inspiring. May we all be renewed in our devotion to Our Blessed Mother, for she always brings us closer to her Son!

Painting of Our Blessed Mother by Dorothy Anne O’Neill Weimar O.P.

Draft of Final Sermon by Monsignor La Femina

What is God’s greatest accomplishment? It would have to be more important than the creation from nothing of the whole universe, both visible and invisible.

When our first parents gravely sinned by pride and disobedience, they rejected for themselves and their posterity the possibility to be God’s children and enter into eternal happiness. However, God decided that He would once again give man the possibility to be His children. However, strict justice required that man make infinite satisfaction for his sins. However, no man is able to satisfy the demands of strict justice to repair any grave sin. On the one hand, strict justice requires that man make infinite satisfaction since he is the one who sinned. This is not possible for a mere human because only God could do something of infinite value. Moreover, to make satisfactory reparation, suffering and death are required as St. Paul teaches: “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” So how was God to realize His redemptive plan? Thus human redemption created an existential dilemma for God because God’s strict justice required a God-man for this role.

God, the second person of the Holy Trinity God the Son decided to take on the impossible task of human redemption. He would have to take on our human nature so that He could suffer and die as a man. God found the solution in a most singular woman. From her He would assume that human nature, so that He, though God, could suffer and die as a man. In fact, right after the fall of our First Parents, God commissioned this woman with her offspring to crush the serpent’s head. St. Anselm tells us: “He who could create all things from nothing would not remake His fallen creation without Mary.”

The first part of God’s plan for his redemptive plan was to prepare for himself this worthy woman whom He would take human nature and to whom, as her son, He would owe parental love and respect and to whom he would be subject.

God’s mortal enemy is Satan. God had to prevent him from infecting this very special woman who was to be His very own mother. All Adam’s children are conceived with original sin and born as part of Satan’s kingdom. But God kept this woman from his clutches. She never belonged to Satan. We learn of His divine preserving action from the Archangel Gabriel’s greeting to Mary at the Annunciation. Gabriel addressed Mary saying: Kaire Kecaritomene. Its accurate translation from the Greek is not “Hail full of grace”. Rather the greeting actually means “Rejoice Oh Pre-sanctified One.” (In other words: Rejoice you who have been made holy from your conception.) St. Luke’s gospel hastens to add that Mary was troubled, and asked herself what Gabriel’s greeting could mean. The Church teaches us that this greeting was God’s announcement that Mary was conceived free from all sin the womb of her mother. God announced Mary’s Immaculate Conception through Gabriel. God’s grace heals us from sin. This means that God, by the foreseen merits of Mary’s son, so filled His mother with His god-likeness, that she was forever free from all sin. Mary was impeccable.

As Catholics, we have, by God’s grace, the one true faith which teaches us that Mary is not an adjunct to the Catholic faith. Rather, she is essential to the true faith revealed by God and we must accept and openly and unashamedly profess the greatness of Mary. St. Maximillian Kolbe tells us to never fear that we love Mary too much because no one can love her more than Jesus. Mary is an essential part of God’s eternal plan for the redemption of all mankind. She is together with her Son, but subordinately to Him, Our Co-Redemptrix. As Adam together with Eve brought death to all mankind, Mary, together with her Son bring us the divine life so that we may be eternally with God.

Mary is God’s greatest masterpiece. In her, he finds all of His delight. He has placed her above all His creation, whether visible or invisible. All that God bestows He does through Mary His beloved mother: She is the one who most closely resembles God in His holiness. In defining Mary’s Immaculate Conception Pope Pius IX teaches that no created mind, whether human or angelic can possibly conceive of Mary’s holiness.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us poor sinners who have recourse to thee.