Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent

Homily for Second Sunday of Lent

March 17, 2019

Believing is Seeing

            Growing up close to Washington DC, my family would sometimes take trips to the Smithsonian. My favorite was the Natural History Museum, with its dinosaur fossils and gemstones. One of the exhibits there are rocks from the moon – purportedly.

            I mean, how can you and I prove that they are from the moon? I personally haven’t been there. I look at it and it sure looks like rocks I’ve found outside in the dirt – how do I know that it’s really from the moon?

            Truthfully, I believe it because I believe that the people who said they have landed on the moon really did land on the moon! Just like I believe that Julius Caesar existed because I trust the people who wrote about it.

            Faith is not believing a myth or a legend. Rather, faith means that we believe that God has revealed certain things to people in history, we believe that God is faithful to His word, and these people who encountered Him were trustworthy in what they wrote and said about God’s revelation.

            We see a major revelation in today’s first reading. God takes Abraham outside and tells him to count the stars. We usually think that this is because the Milky Way has so many stars that the night sky is just awash with millions, too many to be counted. But no – Abraham is taken outside by God during the day. This is clear because the reading ends with “the sun was setting”. So God brings Abraham outside on the sunniest of days and tells him to count the stars.

            Well, how many stars can he count? Only one – the sun. And likewise, Abraham lived to see only one descendent – Isaac. But how many descendants does he have? Today over two billion people on this earth call Abraham their spiritual father – Christians, Muslims, and Jews. He only lived to see one son – but he trusted that God was faithful when He promised that He would have billions, as many as the stars.

            Faith, then, is “the evidence of things unseen.” During the day, even though we don’t see them, there are actually billions of stars in the sky. God’s promises may be hidden from our sight right now, but they are trustworthy and true because God made them – and He can never lie!

            What are some of His promises? He promised that He would never leave us. Is that sometimes hard to believe? When we are suffering and we cry out to God, do we feel abandoned by Him? Even St. Mother Teresa wrote to her spiritual director, “In my soul I feel just that terrible pain of loss—of God not wanting me—of God not being God—of God not really existing.” But in the end, she trusted that God was real and was with her daily, even though she couldn’t feel it.

            God also promised that “all things work for good for those who love God.” That promise is about all things – whether easy or difficult, pleasant or suffering. So that promotion, that good grade, making the right baseball team, getting a raise – all of that God can use for good. But it’s harder to believe it when we get diagnosed with cancer, or our husband leaves us, or we get bullied at school, or we crash our car. Then, we are tempted to ask, “Really? Can God use this for good?” But this is when we have to say, “God, I don’t sense Your presence right now. But I trust that Your promises are true – and You promised that You would use even this for my salvation and for Your glory.”

            God promised that Heaven awaits for those who have loved God in this life. None of us have seen Heaven, but hopefully all of us eagerly look forward to it! It can be hard to keep this in mind when it seems like the pleasures of this world are so easily accessible, everywhere around us, but we must keep it in mind! St. John Vianney, when he was a boy, would often stop his work in the field and say to himself, “Time passes, eternity approaches.” A simple quote – “Time passes, eternity approaches” – but this thought kept Heaven at the forefront of his mind, and made him a saint!

            My friends, our faith means that we believe that God exists, and that He is faithful to His promises. We can believe in these promises because we have testimony of many people, such as Abraham, who encountered the Lord and who have seen Him fulfill these promises. If we keep our faith in God, His promises will be made fulfilled for us, as well.

            As St. Augustine put it, “Faith is believing what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.”