Homily for Ordinary Time 29
October 20, 2024
The Gift of Life, Part 3
Many of
us have visited Yale’s campus in New Haven. If you have, you’ve probably seen
the statue of Nathan Hale, the first American spy. He’s often held up as a
hero, but he was kind of a fool because his first spy mission didn’t go so well
– due to his own fault. At the young age of 21, he volunteered himself to
George Washington to spy on the British. He did so for a couple weeks, but one
night he was out relaxing at a tavern in New York, a British soldier approached
him and pretended to be a Patriot. Lubricated by more than a few beers, Hale
told him everything and boasted about his spy mission. It didn’t take long for
Hale to be arrested and found guilty of espionage. But he is perhaps best
remembered for his immortal line right before his execution: “My only regret is
that I have only one life to give for my country.”
An
inspiring thought! The entire point of this life is to give it away – Pope St.
John Paul II said so powerfully, “Man can only find himself in a sincere gift
of himself.” In other words, we only truly live when we find something to die
for.
This
month of October is known as Respect Life month, when we consider the dignity
and sacredness of all human life. I’d like to reflect upon the dignity of human
life in light of our ultimate destiny – Heaven.
In
Greek, there are three words for “life”. There is bios, as in “biology”,
meaning physical life – living, breathing, walking around. There is psuche,
as in “psychology”, meaning the life of the mind – we are conscious, sentient
beings. But then there is zoe, meaning fulfillment, joy, living out our
purpose. There are an awful lot of people who are walking around, living,
breathing, going to work or school – who have absolutely no idea why they were
put on this earth. Earlier this year I started my Confirmation classes with the
question, “What is the meaning of life?” I got some strange answers – “To live
it…to have fun…” or just blank stares. As that famous line from the movie “The
Sixth Sense” put it, “I see dead people walking around…and they don’t even know
they’re dead.” I see a lot of people who are physically quite healthy – but are
spiritually dead, and don’t even know it.
The best
medical practitioners recognize that we are a unity of body and soul, and that
our physical life and health is good only insofar as it gives us strength to
serve God. I think of the great St. Rene Goupil, a French doctor who traveled
to America in the 1600s to serve as a missionary along with several other
Jesuit priests. Rene was able to help the priests tremendously by offering his
medical services to the native Mohawk peoples in upstate New York – once the
natives experienced physical healing, they were more open to receiving the
Gospel. However, not everyone was in favor of the missionaries’ presence, and
the chief eventually forbade the Jesuits from teaching about Jesus Christ. One
day, however, Rene was walking through the woods when a young Mohawk boy asked
him to teach him about Jesus. So Rene taught the boy how to make the Sign of
the Cross – and an older Mohawk brave saw it, reported it to the chief, who
ordered Rene to be martyred. St. Rene Goupil realized that, as good as it was
to take care of the physical health of the Mohawk people, they more urgently
needed the spiritual health of Christ.
We see
this same dynamic in the Gospel. Bartimaeus receives a physical healing, but
that is the least important miracle in the Gospel. More importantly, he
receives the grace of faith and becomes one of Christ’s followers. One day his
body went into the ground, but his soul still lives to this day – hopefully in
Heaven, although the Church has never declared Bartimaeus a saint.
So what
are our takeaways? I’d like to mention three. First, we must always prioritize
spiritual over physical health. Both are good, but more important is the soul
which is eternal. So if it’s the end of the day and we have only twenty minutes
left and we can either pray or work out, we ought to choose the prayer. If we
have to choose between worshipping God at Mass and taking our kids to their
sports, we need to prioritize Mass. It is good to pray for physical health for
our family and friends – but it is better to pray for their conversion and
sanctification. Our body is good, for it is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and
we should care for it. But our soul is better, for it will last into eternity,
while the body…as the saying goes, “No one makes it out alive.” So prioritize
the soul over the body!
Second,
any health care or medical research must respect God’s law and the dignity of
the human person. Unfortunately much of the medical research community is
focused on “can we do it?” instead of “should we do it?” Science isn’t a
free-for-all where we should do everything that is theoretically possible – the
limits of the free inquiry of science should be the eternal Law of God and
respect for His plans. Research that is done upon embryos or health care that
violates our Catholic teachings must be avoided, and when we are involved in
beginning-of-life or end-of-life issues, we should form our consciences well by
studying what the Church has taught on those matters, so we know the Mind of
Christ.
Finally,
the last takeaway is that life is not absolute, and there are reasons to
sacrifice life and health – for Christ, and for others. I know of a priest who,
during Covid, decided to continue providing Last Rites to patients dying of
Covid – and because of this, the priest was on perpetual quarantine, never left
his rectory except to anoint the dying, and caught the disease several times
(thankfully, he survived and is fine now). I think of St. Damien of Molokai,
the Belgian priest who spent his life ministering in a leper colony in Hawaii,
eventually catching and dying of the disease. I think of Bl. Stanley Rother, a
priest from Oklahoma who was ministering to the people of Guatemala during
their civil war back in the late 1970s. He was threatened by the rebel
insurgents so often that his bishop called him back to Oklahoma to save his
skin, but he convinced the Bishop to let him return, saying, “How can a
shepherd run away when the wolf is at the door?” He was eventually martyred for
his faithfulness to his people. There have been many saints who preferred to
suffer and die rather than commit sin. The entire point of life is not to
preserve it indefinitely – it’s to give it away to Someone worth the sacrifice.
I was very inspired when Msgr. Sabia was here in July for his 90th
birthday Mass and, at great personal cost, genuflected during the Consecration.
Surely it was difficult and painful to genuflect, as his knees are not good (at
90, whose would be!). But he knows that Jesus Christ is worth the pain.
My
friends, in the midst of Respect Life Month, we remember that life is a sacred
gift from God that should be cherished and protected, for ourselves, our
families and neighbors, and the most vulnerable in society. But we also
acknowledge that the divine life of grace in our soul is infinitely more
valuable, and that our human life is given to us so that we can serve
God faithfully here, and someday possess Him for eternity.
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