HOMILY SUNDAY 12 – Year A
Living the Pattern of Faith, Hope and Love
(Jeremiah 20:10-13; Psalm 69; Romans 5:12-15; Mt 10:26-33)
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The phrase “every hair on your head is counted” in today’s gospel arouses a bit of envy in me towards those who have a full head of hair. It is also a reminder of the saying that if we are bald in the front, we are great thinkers; if we are bald in the back, we are great lovers, and if we are bald all over, we just think we are great lovers!
Most of the beautiful works of beadwork that I have received over the years were carefully based on a pattern. God has also given us a pattern by which to live our lives – FHL – a faith, hope, love pattern.
That pattern, coming out of the readings today, invites us to fearlessly proclaim a message of faith, hope and love to a doubting and fearful world.
The pattern works quite simply: the gift of faith allows us to live in hope, and hope in its turn empowers us to love. In the first reading, the prophet Jeremiah affirms that the Lord is with us, like a warrior. The psalm informs us that God hears the prayers of the needy. Paul, in the second reading, rejoices that the free gift of God’s grace abounds on many. And finally, Jesus in the gospel encourages us not to fear anyone or anything, not to be afraid, for God has our back! All we need do is acknowledge him, truly believe in him, and live these theological virtues of faith, hope and charity in our lives.
This pattern gives us an infinite horizon, a bigger picture, a meta-narrative into which we can situate the events of our lives. We are like the woman who wanted to be buried with a fork in her hands, because her mother always used to tell her, “Keep your fork, the best is yet to come!” The old Baltimore Catechism gave us that infinite horizon with the very first question, “Why were we created?” and the simple answer, “To know, love and serve God in this life, and to be happy with him forever in the next.” There is it – an infinite horizon, a bigger picture, a meta-narrative into which we can place the especially painful events of our lives.
Like Jesus, we need not even fear some inconvenience of suffering in our lives, in what is often a “valley of tears” as the old prayer realistically put it. And we will find ourselves sharing our faith with others as a way to help them along life’s journey.
Sr. Helen Préjean, whose work with death-row criminals was featured in the movie Dead Man Walking, sang the hymn “Be not afraid” to the young prisoner she befriended as part of her ministry. On the night before Matthew Poncelet was scheduled to die, she proclaimed God’s tender mercy and compassion to him by singing, “Be not afraid, I go before you always. Come, follow me, and I will give you rest.” She was sharing her faith with him and giving him the gift of hope and a sense of being loved by someone, and by God.
Unfortunately, there is another all too prevalent pattern at work all around us in our society – DDD – the pattern of doubt, despair and death. When we lose our faith, we begin to doubt. And when we lose our ability to hope, we begin to despair. And when we lose our ability to love, we begin to die.
A young Oblate priest who worked with university students observed that they have no hope. The reason they have no hope is that they lack precisely that infinite horizon and meta-narrative into which they can situate the events of their lives. As a result, all they see is what happens to them that day, and if their girlfriend breaks up with them, it is the end of the world and some even take their lives.
Jason, a forensic investigator and coroner, is called to one scene of death after another. He tries to bring his faith with him and prays for the victims, some who took their lives as young as the age of twelve, youth who overdosed on drugs, or elders who ended their lives prematurely through physician assisted suicide. He sees the suicide notes and doctor’s certificate which saddens him. He observes many are just lonely, feel abandoned and lack support. Even the rich are not immune, seemingly unhappy with their riches.
Permeating all this is a great fear – fear of rejection, of change, of the unknown, of failure, of people who are different than us, and especially a fear of inconvenience and suffering. Children are seen as an inconvenience, so we terminate pregnancies (in stating this I do not want to judge anyone, as there are many complex reasons why some may have done so). Old people may suffer, so we help them end their lives with physician-assisted suicide. Our society has lost its way, and in its lack of faith, can no longer see any purpose or meaning in suffering. One psychologist writing in Maclean’s Magazine stated, “We used to think the enemy was death; now we know it is suffering.”
This negative attitude shuts out any possibility of redemptive suffering full of purpose, meaning and even blessing. When we can accept some inconvenience and suffering in our lives with a strong faith as Jesus did, without resentment or bitterness, our suffering become redemptive, connected to the suffering of Jesus, full of meaning and purpose, and assures us that we are already in the kingdom of God.
There are some who in the face of all the violence and negativity in the world are tempted to become cynical or just give up. These toxic elements of human life are not new – other times in history were just as toxic. We can be guided by people of strong faith like Julien of Norwich, a 14th century mystic, who put it this way just before the bubonic plague decimated Europe: “All will be well, all will be well, and in the end, all manner of being will be well.” Like her, we are called to be beacons of light, a source of faith, hope and love, in a dark, doubting and fearful world. And all the darkness in the world cannot overcome one small candle.
The Eucharist is certainly an act of great faith making present the love of Jesus on the cross, and fills us with hope. May our celebration also empower us to be beacons of light, and proclaim Gods mercy and love to a dark, doubting and fearful world.
