HOMILY EASTER SEASON 03 03 – Year I
Our Lady of Good Counsel
(Acts 8:1-8; Ps 66; Jn 6:35-40)
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Gabor Maté, renowned psychologist from Vancouver, BC., speaks of addiction in terms of a Buddhist legend of people with huge stomachs and scrawny necks, never able to satisfy their hunger. In the book, A Spirituality of Imperfection, addiction has been described as the belief that “whenever there is something wrong with me, it can be fixed by something outside of me.”
Today’s liturgy reminds us that our deepest human hunger and thirst is ultimately only quenched and filled through faith in Jesus Christ, and also through reverence for Mary, Our Lady of Good Counsel.
The late Dr. Richard Glasser speaks of the powerful influence of met or unmet human needs of freedom, love, power, laughter, etc. I have boiled those needs down to three basic, core human needs – the need to be loved, the need to belong, and the need to be valued and appreciated.
When these needs are unmet, we try to fill those needs in all kinds of sometimes unhealthy ways, turning possessions, prestige, power and pleasure into false gods to which we can become addicted. One way to put it is that when we lose our faith in a God who loves us, we place our trust in false gods that don’t love us, that will eventually addict us and destroy us.
On the other hands, when our needs are met, we are well situated to enjoy a life of wellness, wholeness, relationship, peace and joy. In today’s gospel, Jesus speaks powerful words that can transform our lives, and need to be unpacked: “all who see the Son and believe in him have eternal life.” Again, “all who see the Son and believe in him have eternal life.”
According to scripture scholar Raymond Brown, the word to see used by Jesus is a powerful word meaning to “experience, encounter, and participate in.” It brings out more clearly the relationship of the kingdom to the revelation brought by Jesus, revelation that has to be seen, accepted and believed.
To be seen is to be fully accepted and acknowledged as a fellow human being. Some African tribes say “I see you” as a greeting. So, we are invited to “see” Jesus in the sense of encountering him at a deep level, to believe in who he is – Son of God and Son of Man, fully divine and also Word made flesh. It means believing that he is Risen Lord, Kyrios, the resurrection and the life, reigning over all of creation. It means to believe in him as the Messiah, the one who came to redeem and sanctify, to forgive and to heal. It invites us to come to him to experience forgiveness of all our sins, and healing of all our sinfulness, that which makes us sin. It means to accept him as our Saviour, the one who takes us from darkness into light.
That light is the eternal life Jesus offers those who see and believe in him. That eternal life is, for St. Paul, the peace, joy and justice of the Holy Spirit. Peace is not a passing emotion, but a sense of serenity and wellness that is a priceless gift of the Holy Spirit we can claim no matter what is happening in our lives. And joy is not a passing emotion, but a powerful inner energy of delight and fullness that is also a gift of the Holy Spirit, which we can claim no matter what is happening in our lives.
Interestingly, in terms of addictions awareness mentioned already, Gabor Maté does a wonderful job of connecting faith and life. What addiction produces in the human brain is dopamine, a chemical that gives us a rush, an artificial high, that medicates the pain people may be experiencing and will do anything to avoid. On the other hand, what grace (or the Holy Spirit) produces within the brain is seratonin, which is a feeling of wellness, of fullness, of serenity, of contentment, a feeling of not needing anything else. We cannot get addicted to that, because we don’t need more of it – we are satisfied, our hunger and thirst is quenched. That is a gift of the Holy Spirit that cannot be purchased, as it is freely given to those who see and believe.
It is that energy, that drive we see in the first reading, that propelled the early disciples out from Jerusalem when facing persecution, to boldly proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ as the Messiah, risen from the dead and now Kyrios, risen Lord reigning over all of creation.
And today, we honour Mary, who was the first and perfect disciple, who “saw” Jesus from his conception within her womb, to his death and resurrection. She was the first to truly believe in him at Cana, with her words, “Do whatever he tells you.”
The title of Our Lady of Good Counsel honouring Mary appears early in Christian history. In return for financial assistance in renovating the church of St Mary Major in Rome, Pope Sixtus III (432-440) granted land to the people of Genazzano, Italy. Eventually, a church consecrated to Our Lady of Good Counsel was built there and entrusted to the care of the Augustinian Order. Mysteriously, an Albanian icon, Our Lady of Shkodra (Good Counsel), arrived at this church in April 1467. The image depicts Mary and the Christ Child. Numerous healings and miracles have been attributed to the intercession of Our Lady of Good Counsel. She is a patron of many women’s groups, including the Canadian CWL.
The Eucharist we celebrate now is a celebration of seeing and believing; of seeing Jesus as the Bread of Life, and believing that these humble gifts of bread and wine are transformed by the Holy Spirit into the body and blood of Jesus.
May our celebration help us to see Jesus for who he is, continue to deepen our faith in him, and experience the eternal life he alone can offer us, which alone can quench the deepest thirst of all humanity.
