Great is Your Faith

Jesus and the Canaanite Woman

 In the Gospel according to Matthew, an assertive mother from Canaan seeks out Jesus. She wants her daughter healed and she'll do whatever it takes. This Gentile woman begs Jesus to heal her demon-afflicted daughter. 

At first Jesus seems to treat this mother harshly. Then the mother utters a prayer: “Lord, help me.” Jesus replies: “Great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you wish.” And the daughter was healed. 

This faith-filled woman segues into the many heroes and heroines in Christianity who can coach us about our spiritual life. St. Augustine, whose feast day we celebrate this month, is one of these many heroes. After many detours in his life he met Ambrose, bishop of Milan, whose persuasive homilies led Augustine to focus on the direction of his life. 

Augustine went into his garden and just sat. He heard a voice say, “Take and read, take and read.” He picked up the Bible. His autobiography, Confessions, notes: “I seized, opened, and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: ‘Put on the Lord Jesus Christ...' instantly... all the darkness of doubt vanished.” 

Augustine found his purpose in life. “God, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” That’s our purpose too:  be in relationship with God.

A question that haunted Augustine his entire life, even as he pursued a relationship with God was the problem of evil. How can I have a relationship with a supposedly all-good God when there's such incredible human suffering. The universe, the work of God, he came to believe, is essentially good. A provident God guides this universe to the fullness of the kingdom at the end time. The disciples of Jesus throughout the ages, the one Church, is holy, yet it’s made up of saints and sinners. 

Human beings need God's grace to live the kind of life God wants them to live. But some people choose evil over good, falsehood over truth. Why? Because there's a tendency or pull to choose our worse rather than our better selves. Augustine called this “original sin.” Human beings had fallen from grace and cry out for salvation.

Augustine praised an all-good God who became “one of us” in Jesus so that all who believe in hime might have eternal life. This Jesus Christ is alive by the power of the Spirit.  By God's grace, Augustine argued, humans are in relationship with God but still must struggle to choose right over wrong.

The quality of our life and our soul’s destiny ultimately will be measured by our character: going the extra mile; being faithful in our relationships and responsibilities; and trusting always in an all-good and compassionate God who is ever near and who will guide us safely to our heavenly dwelling place

Lent: a Time to Draw Nearer to God

Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness

Our Lenten journey from ashes to Easter has begun. Last Wednesday we heard, “Remember, you are dust and to dust you will return.” Dust represents human life: transitory and fragile. But the sign of the cross with ashes on our forehead symbolizes that Jesus Christ has redeemed our “dust.” God lives within us and we live within God.

Lent is a forty-day retreat: a time to ask again what are our most important priorities.  Yes, it time to follow Jesus into the wilderness, not only to get our priorities straight in light of our ultimate purpose in life but to replenish ourselves with the gifts of the Spirit (for example, wisdom, intelligence, good judgment, courage). Lent is a time to recall how the Hebrews of old saw the desert: not only as an abode of wild beasts but a place where a person encountered God and where God encountered the person.

In today’s busier-than-ever world, with its many distractions and temptations, we need this retreat more than ever.

So, what are we bringing into the wilderness. Maybe we feel dissatisfied. Things are OK, maybe you're building an impressive resume, but what does it all mean in the end? Maybe you’re facing challenges, have to make tough decisions. Listen to Jesus's response in the wilderness when He confronts the devil: God instead of material things, a God-centered instead of a self-centered life, service instead of power.

In the beginning, the Book of Genesis says, God fashioned a magnificent universe and created man and woman to enjoy it. Enter the snake, setting people against one another and against God. The man and woman wanted divine status, to be self-sufficient. They lost their friendship with God; they fell from grace.

Ever since, although we are intrinsically good, we have a tendency to choose evil. Human beings have cried out for God’s healing power.

And then, God became one of us in Jesus, so we could experience God's friendship anew. Paul observes that, just as we fell from grace through the first Adam, so now through the crucified and risen Christ, we have God's friendship again.

In the Gospel according to Matthew, would Jesus simply satisfy his physical hunger at the expense of his mission in life? No. Would he work signs and wonders simply so people would puff up his ego? No. Would he seek power so that people would kowtow to him? No. Jesus will not make a god out of material goods, celebrity status or political power.

Lent reminds us that it is time to ask God for the grace to get our priorities straight. It's a time for prayer; a time to do without unnecessary things so that the needy can have necessary things; a time to reach out with a helping hand through volunteer service or charitable giving or whatever.
For hundreds of years, Lent has focused on these three disciplines: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Re-discover and re-treat yourself to these age-old disciplines again this Lent.

Where There's Darkness, Bring Light

Caravaggio's Doubting Thomas

Jesus Christ lives, and because he lives, we live.

We continue to celebrate the Easter miracle.

And we can help create little miracles for others. A depressed person resurrected to hope; an alcoholic resurrected to sobriety; a troubled marriage resurrected to renewed love; an angry man resurrected to forgiveness; an estrangement bridged; an alienated person brought back to faith and kindness. Make miracle an action verb.

In the book of Acts, the disciples work signs and wonders, and a vibrant faith community is emerging and growing. That should inspire us to worship together and share, especially our time and talents in service.

The book of Revelation describes a Christian’s visionary experience of the God-man Jesus, risen and alive. The author encourages readers to persevere in their faith despite hardships, because good ultimately will triumph.

In the Gospel according to John, we have a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus in a Jerusalem house where the disciples hide behind locked doors. Jesus bestows upon the disciples the energizing Spirit, the abiding inner peace, and the overwhelming mercy of God. But the skeptical Thomas wasn’t there. Lo and behold, a week later Jesus appears again. Thomas then makes that awesome declaration of faith “My Lord and my God.”

Thomas the doubter is easily identifiable with many people. They're doubters, questioners; they demand to see compelling evidence that there's a God.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Every human being is made in the image of God. But we are fallen or flawed human beings.  And that is why we cry out for healing and mercy.

We seek God's mercy and forgiveness, and the forgiveness of one another. Jesus, through the mystery of his dying and rising, freed us from death and nothingness so we can live with God forever. God created us for a purpose; gifted us with life eternal; and reconciled us to Himself.

There are all kinds of indicators pointing to God: the order in the universe presupposes an orderer (e. g., a watch presupposes a watchmaker); hope presupposes a future; moral outrage presupposes a judge; and so forth.

Of course, there are also indicators that there’s no God—for example, evil or senseless violence. But faith in God is a calculated risk. The 17th French mathematician, inventor, and philosopher Blaise Pascal captured this risk in his famous wager or bet.  The bet goes like this:
One doesn't have certainty that God exists.
Not believing in God is bad for one’s eternal soul if God indeed does exist.
Believing in God is of no consequence if God does not exist.
Therefore, it is in my interest to believe in God. Think about that bet.

At a funeral mass, we hear the words, “For those who believe, life is not taken away, life is merely changed.” Let us pray that the gift of faith will empower us, like Thomas, to proclaim every day, “My Lord and my God.”

Finding our Way to God

Doing good as long as ever you can

GPS apps are a splendid way to navigate, and to route around obstacles. It’s a powerful spiritual metaphor. We have a “voice” to guide us: our conscience, informed by the bible, the guidance of the church, and the wise counsel of holy women and men.

As I have learned to trust the GPS electronic voice while driving, so I need to learn to trust my informed conscience, as I navigate to my ultimate goal: eternal life with God.

Sunday’s word of God carries us back to a defining moment. Moses experiences the awesome presence of God in the image of “fire flaming out of a bush.” God reveals himself as the creator of this universe: “I am the one who causes to be all that is,” as one biblical author translated this mysterious phrase. And then God empowers Moses to free the Hebrews from their oppressors.

St. Paul, in his letter to the Christian community in Corinth, compares the Hebrew Exodus experience to our baptismal experience; just as God was a rock in the wilderness, out of which flowed life-giving waters, so too Christ is our rock, from whom comes our salvation, eternal life.

In the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus deals with the question of evil. There is of course no satisfactory answer. Why mindless killings in New Zealand, why so many people suffering violence? Evil is ultimately a mystery.

And then Jesus speaks about a barren tree. The point of the parable: yes, God is patient, but God will hold each of us accountable for our life, our attitudes, and our behaviors. Jesus urges us to repent now, to turn to a God-centered/other-centered life. Yes, live in light of your ultimate purpose, life in relationship with God here and beyond.

Often people live in the future. Some imagine, My life will begin when I get a new job, when I rebuild my home, etc. Life will begin in the future? Naomi Levy, in her book Hope Will Find You, wondered, while caring for her critically ill daughter, when could she realize her dreams and goals. She wrote: “… just then something snapped inside my soul:…all of us have to learn to live inside the imperfect lives we have here and now.”

Lent is a time to re-assess our lives again, to decide what we believe to be truly important, and then act on these priorities now.

Our Christian faith proclaims that life has meaning, that there is indeed an all-good, compassionate, and merciful God who seeks us out in our everyday experiences. This God became incarnate in Jesus, and renewed God’s covenant with us through his death/resurrection and thereby opened up to us life beyond this earthly life. This same God is alive among us today by the power of the Spirit.

We can participate in God’s triune life: by regular prayer, by fasting from attitudes and behaviors that jeopardize our relationship with God and one another, and by living a life of generous service.


 

Hidden in Good Friday was Easter Joy

Rubens, the Resurrection of Christ

In the Gospel according to Mark, two disciples, James and John, argue over the privilege of status in “the age to come” without realizing the cost of discipleship here and now. Jesus says: “Can you drink the cup that I drink?” That is, the cup of suffering. Jesus concludes: to be a disciple is to serve others. Serving, not lording, is what leadership is all about in our faith community. Good leadership, many would argue, is a potent combination of good strategy and moral character, that is, working to achieve goals for the greater common good and at the same time preserving one's integrity.

Jesus, completely divine and yet completely human like ourselves, through his horrific death and glorious resurrection, re-established our relationship with God. Our relationship with God and one another is at the heart of Christianity.

Hidden in every Good Friday can be Easter joy. Think about it.

Someone loses a job or home, or is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, or sees a relationship unravel, or realizes a loved one has an addiction. The family tries, as best it can, to deal with this “cross” and thereby brings hope, healing, forgiveness and resurrection to their life.

Or a student can’t understand a calculus problem. The teacher, who wants to go home after a long week, patiently walks the student through the problem. After a lot of work and patience, the “lights come on.”

The point is we sometimes find ourselves stuck in a situation – our problems may batter and even overwhelm us. Yet faith challenges us to remember that good ultimately will conquer evil, love transforms hate, light shatters darkness. The ministry of Jesus did not end in the tragedy of the cross but in the triumph of the Resurrection.

In his book “The Night,” a memoir of his experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, Elie Wiesel describes how the SS marched all the inmates outside and there hung a youngster – as a warning not to try an escape. As the youngster hung dying, Elie Wiesel, a youngster himself, heard a voice say: Where is God now?

This is an eternal question. The entire planet yearns for God’s healing grace. There is of course no satisfactory answer to the mystery of suffering and evil. Suffering does sometimes result from immoral behavior, from the misuse of freedom, and from a universe in progress, to paraphrase St. Paul’s letter to the Romans.

But ultimately, how respond to suffering? First, remember that God is always near us, forever bringing us to fuller life. Chisel in our memories the words of Isaiah, “Can a mother forget her infant…and, even if she does, I will never forget you.”

Second, remember that the mystery of suffering can have healing and redemptive power. Why do I say that? Because Jesus, through the mystery of his own passion in Gethsemane, death on Calvary, and resurrection from the tomb, re-established the relationship we had at the beginning with God.

Yes, our inescapable aches and pains, borne with love, can be redemptive, can bring forth new life in ourselves and in others. The sufferings of Jesus did precisely that.

We can bring Easter hope to someone's "Good Friday" by reaching out with a helping hand, a listening ear, or an encouraging word.