Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time - October 9, 2016

Homily for Ordinary Time 28

October 9, 2016

Sacramentals – Seeing Is Believing

 

            Let’s go back to the first reading today. The prophet Elisha does an amazing miracle, healing Naaman, the Syrian, of his leprosy by bathing in the Jordan River seven times. Naaman, being a rich official of the Syrian king, offers fine gifts, but the prophet refuses. So Naaman asks for a very strange thing – he wants to take back two mule-loads of earth back to Syria.

            Why would he want hundreds of pounds of dirt? It’s very simple – God did something amazing in his life, and he wanted some way to remember God’s incredible works.

            Think about it – don’t we often take souvenirs from awesome experiences? If I go to a baseball game, I always hope to bring home a foul ball, which helps me remember the great game. If we go to the Eiffel Tower, we bring back photographs, postcards, maybe a little statuette of the landmark. Why do we do this? Because we want to remember the great places we’ve been, the amazing experiences that we’ve had.

             So Naaman wanted to remember all of God’s works – hence, he brings home some of the Holy Land.

            We, too, need things to help us remember the great works of God. Christ gave us seven specific ways in which we remember the great works of God – we call them sacraments. But many of the Sacraments are limited in time and space – we only get baptized once, and we have to come to church to encounter the Eucharist. We need more frequent reminders of the Lord’s mighty deeds!

            Thus, the Church gives us sacramentals. Sacramentals are things that remind us of our Faith. They include things like crucifixes, holy statues, the Rosary, holy water. These sacramentals can be used by all of us, anytime, to remember God’s mighty deeds.

            Many non-Catholics think that these sacramentals are superstition. And, certainly, they are not meant to replace faith and a righteous life. But we recognize the old truism: “Out of sight, out of mind.” If we aren’t constantly reminded about God’s great works, we will forget about Him!

            For example, the crucifix reminds me of Christ’s death on the Cross, and how His death purchased my salvation. Having holy water in my home reminds me of baptism, and how His Spirit now dwells within me. Seeing a statue of Our Lady reminds me that she is always ready to intercede for us. Wearing a scapular reminds me of God’s constant presence as my Creator.

            We all need things to remind us of “God’s wondrous deeds,” as our Psalm puts it. St. Jerome, for example, used to keep a skull on his desk at all times to remind him of the shortness of life (whose skull was it? I wonder!). St. Francis of Assisi was praying before a crucifix when he heard God’s call to “rebuild His Church.” St. Padre Pio would tell his friends, “Bring me my weapon!” when referring to his Rosary, as the Rosary is a powerful weapon against evil.

            We, too, ought to fill our homes and our lives with blessed Sacramentals. Every room in the house should have a crucifix and holy pictures in it. Consider this: let’s say you have a bad day. You come home from work or school and you crash on your couch. If you have an ocean landscape on your wall, you may start to dream about your next vacation, which is fine…but it doesn’t help you in the long run. But if you have a crucifix on your wall, you will be reminded that Christ loves you and is with you in your suffering, and you are able to offer your suffering up to Him as a sacrifice and thereby grow in holiness. All because of a sacramental!

            My friends, fill your lives with sacramentals – reminders of God’s mighty deeds!