March 24, 2003
St. Peter's Catholic Church, LaGrange
Dear Friends in Christ,
The readings for today, Monday of the third week in Lent, teach us a very important lesson about the world we live in, and about how we must show our faith to the world.
In the story about Na'aman, the Syrian commander who was eventually cured of his leprosy, we see that no one really has any faith that the miracle can be done, except the least important of all the people involved - the little maid who had been carried of from her homeland and made a slave, and the servants of the great commander himself. The King of Syria, who wanted his general to be cured, thought that he had to offer rich gifts to the King of Israel in order to purchase the healing - the King of Israel himself, thought he was being asked to work this miracle, and scoffed at the request, interpreting it as a challenge from the Syrian King, a pretext for going to war. And then Na'aman himself, when he was told by the prophet Eli'sha what he should do in order to be cured, mocked the prophet and the holy waters of the river Jordan, and would have gone back home, still a leper, if it had not been for the love and the cleverness shown by his servants, who flattered his power, and persuaded him, saying, "Great warrior, if the prophet had asked you to do some great deed, you would not have hesitated - but since he asks only that you bathe in the river, why not do it, and see what happens." And so Na'aman did what the prophet said, and he was cured. N one had any faith in the words of the prophet except the little girl, and the humble servants - but in the end, it was their faith which won the day, and won back the health of the great general.
In the Gospel we hear about the day Jesus stood up in the synagogue of his hometown, and announced to the people that he was the Messiah, and that the age of favor had come at last. But the people had no faith - they mocked the Lord, and they drove Him away from the town - and these were people who had known Jesus all His life -they knew His goodness, they knew His wisdom - but they could not believe in Him, because they had no faith - they thought that things would never change, that their lives would go on being the same as they had been, and that He was crazy to tell them anything different. They were like the great general Na'aman, who in his pride, thought that miracles could not happen, and Jesus even reminded His friends, His people, about that story, and how foolish Na'aman had been, and how eventually, he was cured of his leprosy in spite of his pride. But it didn't make any difference - the people laughed at our Lord, and drove Him away from His own hometown.
Now the lesson for us to draw from the true stories that Scripture has given us, about Na'aman and about our Lord is very clear. It is the truth that all around us, throughout the world, many, many people have no faith - they do not believe that any miracle can happen - they do not believe that they can be saved and given eternal life, they do not believe that they can commit sin and cut themselves off from God, in effect, driving Him out of their souls, just as Jesus was driven out from His hometown - and as a result, these people without faith have no respect for anything that is precious, and especially, no respect for life itself, the first gift that God gives us, through the love of our parents, who create our body, and form His own love, when He creates our soul.
WE see this lack of faith, and its terrible consequences most clearly in the evil of abortion - the evil that tells people, "If you don't want the baby you have made, the little body you have created, and the soul that God has put into hat little body, then go ahead, get rid of it - it's just an "it", a few little cells, and in the history of the world, it doesn't mean a thing." And all the while, God is saying, "No - let this little baby live, and even though you think it means nothing, I will make it mean everything - I will make it change you, as you love it, and as you help it to grow into full life."
And where do we come into this struggle between God, and the people who have no faith? Well, we are like the little girl, who had heard about the great prophet Eli'sha, and who knew that Na'aman could be cured of his leprosy. And we are like the servants of that great general, who knew, if they just used the quiet and persistent power of persuasion that God had given them, then they could make the miracle happen. And finally, we are like the few people who followed our Lord at the beginning - the Apostles and disciples, who saw Him driven away from His hometown, but who gave the Lord a new hometown, within their own hearts.
But it is not enough just to say we have faith - we must also show our faith. It was not enough for Na'aman just to say, "Alright, I believe the prophet can cure me." He had to go down into the River Jordan and be washed. And it was not enough for people to say to Jesus, "I believe in you." They also had to let their lives be changed - and they had to follow Him. For faith will only survive in the world, if it is being tested, and if it is being shown as true.
We show our faith to be true, when we live the life of the Sacraments, especially Penance and the Eucharist - having our sins forgiven, and receiving the Body and Blood of our Lord. And we show our faith to be true, when we trust the power of prayer - when we understand, as our Lord taught us, that everything we need, we must ask for from "Our Father in HeavenÉ" And we show our faith to be true, by witnessing - by showing those in the world that have no faith, that we do.
Consecrating a memorial to the unborn is a sign to the world that we have faith - faith that it matters to God and to us that these millions of little children have died before they ever had a chance to see God's beautiful creation - faith that we believe he has taken them to a better place, a place where they will never know how they were rejected by unbelievers and people who thought they were a worthless collection of cells - and faith that if we keep on testifying to the power of God, and to the sanctity of life, then eventually, one by one, we will change the faithless into believers, that by our love, they will be drawn into the love of Jesus Christ, and that they will be cured from the leprosy of their doubt, and made clean by the waters of Baptism, the waters that give faith.
May God look down and see our faith today, strengthen it, and bring about the conversion of many souls as result of what we do. And in their peaceful abode, wherever that may be, may the souls of all these millions of unborn children, know, that they are loved, that they are remembered, that they are cherished.
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