Homily for August 10, 2014
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
A couple
centuries ago, an old man was riding in a public carriage through the streets
of Paris with some others, when another man got in and began to ride with the
group. Upon seeing the old man silently praying the Rosary, the beads flowing
through his hand, the young man struck up a conversation with him.
The
younger man began to say, “Why are you still praying the Rosary? Such
superstition! Science is beginning to prove that religion is useless.
Technology is the new religion – we won’t have any need for God in the future!”
The young man continued for quite some time to explain why science made faith
obsolete.
The
older man listened patiently, and when it came time for him to disembark the
carriage, he gave the younger man a card with his name and address, saying, “I
would love to discuss this further with you. Please come and visit me.”
When the
older man had gone, the younger man looked at the card and was speechless…he
had been speaking with Blaise Pascal, one of the greatest scientists in
history, and a man of deep religious faith.
Why did
Jesus do so many miracles in the Gospels? It was to encourage us to have faith
in Him – to believe that He really is the son of God. You see, Jesus was not
just a good man. Some people would have us believe that Jesus was just a nice
guy, who taught us how to love and was kind to children. But Jesus could not
have been a nice guy – because nice guys don’t claim to be God. And besides,
nice guys don’t get killed on a bloody cross.
Jesus
claimed to be Someone unique. He claimed to be God. He did this by doing things
that only God could do – like forgiving sins, performing utterly astonishing
miracles, changing the Jewish Sabbath laws. He even said that He and the Father
are one – a completely amazing claim. So if He claimed to be God, then there’s
only three options of who He could be – He is either Lord, liar, or a lunatic.
He either is who He says He is, or He is lying about being God, or He’s just
plain crazy. So which one is it – Lord, liar, or lunatic?
Let’s
look at the evidence. His greatest miracle, above all else, is His Resurrection
from the dead. No one else in history, before or since, had risen himself from
the grave, after he had been dead for three days. We have the testimony of the
Apostles who saw the risen Jesus – and eleven out of the twelve were put to
death for their faith in the Resurrection – so we know that they weren’t lying.
Jesus really did rise from the dead, proving that He truly is God. Even before
the Resurrection, the Apostles recognized that Jesus was divine – at the end of
today’s Gospel, they declare that this was “truly the Son of God!”
So what does all this mean for
us? We didn’t see the Resurrection, but it is my hope that we have the gift of
faith. Faith, as the book of Hebrews tells us, “is the evidence of things
unseen.” But that doesn’t mean that faith is blind. We should examine our faith
to try to understand it, but it DOES mean that some mysteries are beyond our
human understanding, like the mystery of Christ’s divinity.
And the fact is, faith changes
everything. If Jesus really was God, then God has invaded human history in
order to have real relationships with His creatures. Of course, since Jesus is
God, and God eternally lives, then we can still have a personal relationship
with Jesus.
Really, if our faith is true,
then it’s earth-shattering. History rises and falls on the reality of Jesus.
Even our calendars are based on Him – this is the 2,014th year after
Jesus’ birth. Everything we do, everything we are, everything we possess,
should revolve around Jesus Christ. If we have a God who is so madly in love
with us that He would take on flesh, die on a cross, rise again on the third
day, and invite us to spend eternity with Him, then this should change
everything! No longer can we live for ourselves, for our selfish wants and
desires, for this world alone.
I think Jesus’ complaint in the
Gospel is one that He could make with us. He seems pretty frustrated when He
says to His disciples, “Oh you of little faith! Why did you doubt?” If Jesus
Christ does not have a daily impact on our lives, then we too have little
faith! If we do not have an overwhelming desire to get to Heaven, then our
faith is weak! If we do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ,
then we don’t really know Him, because He has been thirsting for your love in
return for His immense and infinite gifts to us!
My friends, faith is both a gift
and a choice. Today, we ask God to increase our faith in Him, and we choose to
follow Him more radically, with more passion, more wholeheartedly. What else is
there to live for? He alone has the words of life.
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