HOMILY WEEK 13 04 – Year I
Walking in the Presence of the Lord:
Optional Memorial of St. Maria Gorretti
(Gen 22:1-19; Ps 116; Mt 9:1-8)
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Today’s psalm response extends to us an important invitation to, “Walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living.”
That raises the question – how does one do that? The answer, arising out of the readings, is simple. To walk in the presence of the Lord involves faith, forgiveness, healing and sacrificial love.
Faith figures strongly in both readings as a first way of walking in the presence of the Lord. In the gospel we see Jesus impressed by the faith of the community more so than that of the paralytic himself. To be surrounded by a faith community is such a blessing, one that can even facilitate healing.
In the first reading, it is once again the astounding total faith and trust of Abraham to be willing to sacrifice his only son that is before our eyes. Of course, that whole episode is prophetic: the wood of the altar laid upon Isaac’s shoulders poignantly prefigures Jesus carrying the wood of the cross, while the lamb caught in the bush invites us to place our faith in Jesus as the true Lamb of God whose sacrifice saved the world.
Forgiveness is a second way to walk in the presence of the Lord. The fact that the first action of Jesus, when asked to heal a man who is physically ill, was to extend forgiveness to him, gently reveals what is deepest in the heart of our God – to share God’s love with us through mercy and forgiveness, setting us free from guilt and fear. This initial action of Jesus also underlines the need that we all have for forgiveness of our sins and wrongdoing.
“Forgiveness is a powerful thing,” is the message that Jonathan, who was forgiven by the mother of a youth that he murdered at a party, shares with the groups he addresses now as a motivational speaker. As Pope Francis often points out, God never tires of forgiving – we are the ones who fail to repent and come to receive that forgiveness, especially through the sacrament of reconciliation.
Healing is a third way to walk in the presence of the Lord. To show that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, Jesus heals the paralytic. We are all also in need of healing for our sinfulness – that which makes us sin. Not to ask for healing is to run the danger of simply acting out of our pain, of repeating the hurtful action that flows out of our painful emotions, negative attitudes, defects of character, and even our addictions that beg for healing.
This brings to mind the two-fold mission of Jesus as the Messiah – to redeem and sanctify, to forgive and to heal. Cary Landry had it right in his hymn Lay Your Hands, when he sings, “Let them bring your forgiveness and healing.” The two go together, like a pair of hands.
Finally, a fourth way of walking in the presence of the Lord is sacrificial love. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his only son out of love for God. Jesus himself taught there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for others. And God our Father modeled that teaching by allowing the sacrifice of his only Son to demonstrate the depth of the Father’s love for our wounded humanity. Certainly, our willingness to make sacrifices for the sake of others and to do what we can to serve them is critical to walking in the presence of the Lord.
The 12 Step program of Alcoholics Anonymous is tailor made to live out these passages of scripture for those who work them. Steps 2, 3 and 11 are all about faith in God and a prayerful relationship with God. Steps 4 & 5 are all about receiving forgiveness from God, our selves and one other person. Steps 8 & 9 are all about receiving forgiveness from those we have hurt and hopefully also experience reconciliation with them. Steps 6 & 7 are all about healing – praying that God will take away our character defects and painful emotions by transforming them into forgiveness and good grieving. Finally, Step 12 is all about sacrificial love – giving our selves away in service to others.
St. Maria Goretti
The story of St. Maria Goretti, whom we honor today, and that of her mother is one of mercy and forgiveness. Maria was third of seven children in a poor family in the province of Ancona, Italy. Her father died in 1900 when she was ten. When Maria was twelve, she rebuffed the sexual advances of an eighteen-year-old neighbor, Allesandro, who threatened to kill her if she did not submit to him. Enraged by Maria’s refusal, he stabbed her fourteen times. She was taken to a hospital seven-miles away on a horse drawn ambulance with her entrails hanging out, operated on for two hours and lived for twenty-four hours. She became a Child of Mary, was anointed, received communion and forgave her murderer. She died in the afternoon of July 6, 1902. Alessandro was almost lynched, tried and sentenced to thirty years hard labor. He was cynical and defiant for the first seven years, but then repented, with dreams of her figuring largely in his conversion. After his release in 1928, he sought – and received – forgiveness from Maria’s mother. Maria was beatified in 1927. Alessandro and Maria’s mother received Communion side by side on Christmas day 1937 and spent Christmas together. Pope Pius XII canonized Maria in 1950 for her defense of Christian virtue. Her mother was present at the ceremony, a first. Alessandro spent the last years of his life in a Capuchin monastery. He died in 1970.
The Eucharist brings together all these ways of walking in the presence of the Lord: it is an act of faith; a source of forgiveness; an experience of healing, and a commitment to live it out through selfless Christian service.
May our celebration today empower us to walk in the presence of the Lord through faith, forgiveness, healing and sacrificial love.
