There is a good chance that if you read the title to this week’s column, many of you are anticipating something negative to follow. The idea of the privileged few has roundly become used to describe injustice in the world and to refer to the wealthy or those who don’t have to abide by the same laws as we do. But to be privileged is a gift. I always say that it is a privilege for me to celebrate the Mass of someone’s funeral, to be with someone at that monumental moment of their life and to be the one standing at the head all of their friends and loved ones as we present him to our heavenly Father. A privilege is a grace and blessing that is bestowed upon us. But like so many other words of blessing and virtue, the world has sought to turn something good into something bad. If I were to walk into a crowd and shout: Thank God that I am privileged! We all know what the likely reactions would be from people around me.
This Thursday, July 16th is the annual memorial of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, whose brown scapular many Catholics wear, and what was made more well known when it slipped out from underneath Harrison Butker’s jersey as he was kicking the Super Bowl winning field goal. In bestowing her scapular upon St. Simon Stock and all of the Carmelites, our Blessed Mother said:
“This shall be the privilege for you and for all the Carmelites, that anyone dying in this habit shall be saved.”
The “this” she is referring to is the Scapular itself. It is a privilege to wear the clothing that marks us as belonging to and now under the protection of the Mother of God. It is not a right. Many of you are also likely hearing some variant of echoing words of your own father or mother, after having taken something for granted. A privilege is a gift from our heavenly Father and something that warrants due appreciation and love.
In their beginning, as pilgrims to the holy land and some fighters in the crusades, gathered around the spring of Elijah on Mt. Carmel, they sought a life of quietness and devotion to our Lord and began calling themselves the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mt. Carmel. They sought to draw closer in union to our Lord, through her. They, like Elijah, saw her in the coming cloud that promised rain and an end to the drought. And so, to St. Simon Stock, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel came and offered her scapular, a garment that represented both the Order’s love and devotion to her, and her promises of protection and faithfulness to them. Throughout the centuries, many of the laity also wanted to share in the same devotion and promises to her, and so the Order began sharing this privilege through the donning of the small scapular.