My dear friends,
I am very happy to be here today, along with Bishop Curlin and
Bishop Thompson, we are all grateful to our brother, Bishop Boland,
and to the people of Savannah, for the gracious hospitality that we
have experienced during our meeting here.
It is a good thing that the bishops of a certain area get together
once in a while to discuss the matters that effect the Catholic Church
and all her people. Even if nothing substantive comes out of the
meeting, it still has value. For it gives us, as your leaders in the
Church, the chance to recall our sacred duty, to Jesus Christ, the
Lord, and to you, the members of His Church. But even more important,
it gives the four of us the opportunity to be here at this Mass, and
to confess, with you, our absolute dependence on the will of the Lord.
Since we are busy people, even at this very moment, our thoughts
might actually be elsewhere - on this afternoon’s schedule, or
this evening’s menu, or tomorrow’s appointments - or
possibly on the sole and all consuming topic back in Atlanta, the
Olympics. And we must admit, that if our thoughts do continually stray
towards the business of our lives, it is because we are fulfilled by
activity, and comforted by the thought, that if we are clever enough,
if we are careful enough, if we are productive enough, all
eventualities can be taken care of - that perfect solutions can be
though of beforehand, that no catastrophe can escape the safety net of
our devoted advanced planning.
But right now, at this moment, let us put the brake on any such
wanderings of our intellect - let us throw off momentarily the strong
and pulling ropes which bind us to the world outside this church - and
let us sever ourselves from all but the word of God.
For in this word today, a strong lesson is taught - the lesson of
humility before God, and of the necessity for total surrender to His
Son, and to His Son’s Spirit.
In the first reading from Isaiah, we hear, in the words of the
prophet, the reaction of God to the political intrigues of the Jewish
Kings had intrigued to protect themselves and the people by forming
alliances with Assyria to the north. In the end, it was Assyria which
rose up, and invaded the kingdom of Judah, and laid siege to the holy
city of Jerusalem. For Isaiah, all this happened because the rulers of
the people had though to protect themselves and their charges by
conspiring to form unholy alliances. They had forsaken their trust in
God - the God of their Fathers, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - they had
pout their trust in their own plotting, and ultimately, they were
confounded and conquered. God did not stand in the way of their plans
- but He certainly showed that without divine cooperation, the plans
of mankind often go far astray, and wide of the mark, as the saying
goes.
But this is part of the lesson we are to learn - the necessity for
putting our trust in God - and often enough the only way we learn it
is by failing - by seeing our well-laid plans come apart at the seams.
And this is what Isaiah means to convey of God’s chastisement
when he says:
Therefore. . . the Lord of hosts, will send among his fat ones
leanness, and instead of his glory there will be kindling like the
kindling of fire.
For the Jewish people who had to face the invading Assyrians, the
time of leanness had indeed come upon them, and many were to see in
the fires that burned around besieged Jerusalem, the first steps
towards a cleansing and a revitalization of their former faith.
But the words of Isaiah have a meaning that is not limited by the
passing of time - and they speak to us as well, of the time in which
we live - the time after Christ has come - and they speak of this new
era of leanness - the leanness of the Gospel, the plain utter truth of
Christ’ words and actions - and they speak to us as well of the
kindling of a new fire - not the fire of destruction, but the fire of
creation - the fire of the Holy Spirit’s love. “Enkindle in
us the fire of your love,” the Church prays - we pray - and by
that prayer, we seek to be cleansed, to be purified, to be made worthy
to approach God, not encumbered by our own wills, but drawn by His
almighty love, and propelled by our finest gift - our total trust.
It is this simple gift of trust that our Lord speaks about in the
Gospel, when He says:
Father. . . what you have hidden from the wise and the learned you
have revealed to those who are like children.
And Christ’s response to this gift of trust - this gift which
must come from that part of us which is like a child - pure,
unbeguiled, and offered under the impulse of love - Christ’s
response is the answer we all wish to hear:
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you
rest.
My brothers and sisters, on this beautiful day in Savannah, touched
as we are by the special event of the Olympics, and in the midst of
the normal hurly-burly of our lives, let us cherish this Mass - for in
it we are given the rare opportunity, motivated as we are by the
Scriptures, to reveal ourselves to God, with the leanness of truth and
the fire of our love - to reveal ourselves to Him and to offer Him
that one gift, important-above-all-other-things - the gift of our
trust - individually, and together, the gift of our trust.
The Catechism reminds us that faith means “trusting God in
every circumstance, even in adversity.” As we now continue our
Mass, let us ask for the strength to become ever more trusting
servants of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we may know the
comfort which is ours for the asking, and which inspired St. Teresa to
utter these famous words:
Let nothing trouble you. . . let nothing frighten you
everything passes. . . God never changes
Patience obtains all
Whoever has God wants for nothing
God alone is enough
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