If there had
been such a thing as psychological testing when Sister Mary Ethel Burley
entered the monastery of Mount St. Scholastica in 1942, she surely would have been
scored high on on the “accepts responsibility” metric. As the oldest of six
children on a farm in Beaconsfield, Iowa, and later as an elementary school teacher
and a principal for almost 50 years, she shouldered the responsibility of
caring for, educating, and guiding others with determination and good humor.
It is no wonder
that as Sr. Mary Ethel entered her late 90s, long after she had been retired
and was living in Dooley Center, she still talked about needing to go out and
milk the cows and get to school. Highly responsible people do not let go of
their duties easily. It was telling, then, that a few days before her death,
she told a sister, “I don’t have to go to school today” and “I guess the cows
have already been milked this afternoon.” On February 20, she who had accepted
the yoke of Christ found rest for her soul and was surely met with the words, “Well
done, good and faithful servant!”
I’m grateful
that we were able to celebrate Sr. Mary Ethel’s diamond jubilee in May 2019. We
need to acknowledge the people among us who quietly and effectively toil to
bring the kingdom of God to fruition. Sometimes we don’t appreciate their steadfast
work until they die, but even then, their love and faithfulness live on. As it
says in one of Sr. Mary Ethel’s favorite scripture passages from Psalm 52, “But
I am like an olive tree growing in the temple court; I trust in God’s love
forever.”
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