Ephesians 2:19-22
Psalm 117:1-2
John 20:24-29
St. Thomas the Apostle is remembered primarily for two things: that he was the one who did not believe in the Resurrection, and that he brought Christianity to India. Doubting Thomas is a bit of an unfair reputation. So far as we know, none of the Apostles believed before seeing Jesus except St. John who saw the empty tomb and believed. It is simply that his doubts are recorded in such a powerful fashion as we read today. He immediately believed. He experienced many hardships and went to a faraway land to preach the Gospel. There he was killed for the faith. Many people might have seen the same thing and still doubted. St. Thomas received his faith not by investigation. St. Thomas received his faith from the Father. Before he saw Jesus, God allowed him to doubt for the sake of generations to come, but when he saw Jesus, he received the gift of faith.
Faith is not a human accomplishment. Faith is a gift. Faith is not gritting our teeth and insisting that we will believe. Faith is a gift. Faith is not something we should be proud of as if we were better people than those who do not believe. Faith is something we ought to be grateful for because it is a gift. Faith is something that we ought to ask God for every day. And if we begin to doubt, there are two mistakes we can make: trying to fight the doubts on our own or accepting the doubts as wisdom. If we begin to doubt, we must turn to God and ask for more faith.
We receive knowledge from our parents and the Church. We know about Christianity because of them and the books we read. But faith is something different. If the whole world abandoned Christianity, and it was just you alone with no support, if they all told you that it was pretend, that it was just another story like Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, is there something within you that would still believe? Is there something within you right now that believes in God without consideration of any argument or reason? That is faith. It will not seem strong if we test it ourselves; it will fall apart quickly because God will not defeat our free will. The true test of our faith comes from the outside: persecution, suffering, martyrdom. That is when we find out how strong faith really is.
Daily Homilies
Showing posts with label Doubt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Doubt. Show all posts
May 20, 2013 - Monday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Sirach 1:1-10
Psalm 93:1-2, 5
Mark 9:14-29
“Why could we not drive the spirit out?”, the disciples asked Jesus. If they had asked us, they would have gotten a different answer. If someone had asked us why this boy could not be healed, we could have spoken about the meaning of suffering in this world. We could explain how God’s will is not our will and his ways are not our ways. We could say that there is a time for everything. Our only problem is that standing against us, disagreeing with us, is Jesus.
It is not only in this passage that Jesus says things that are embarrassing for us Christians. Here he says, “Everything is possible to one who has faith.” In another place he says, “For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” In another place he says, “If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” These and other quotes are embarrassing for Christians because we know that they are not true. We ask and do not receive. We believe that God will help us, and then he does not. If we Christians really had the kind of power that Jesus suggests we should have, we would be a lot more convincing to the world.
What is the problem? Is God unable to fulfill his promises? No, he can do all things. Was Jesus mistaken about how prayer would work for his disciples? No. Jesus is never mistaken. The problem must be ours. Something must be standing in the way of miracles. Jesus calls it a lack of faith, but this faith must not be simply confidence. There is no shortage of arrogant confidence in this world. The faith that Jesus is talking about is a humble faith, a gift from God, inseparable from hope and love. Every sin is a sin against faith because every sin doubts God in some way. It is popular to think that some act can only be a sin if it is hurting somebody, but if every sin is blocking our way to God, than every one of our sins is hurting people because our sins are preventing us from working miracles. We will never be totally free from sin on this earth. The prayer of the boy’s father is a good example for how we should pray, “I do believe, help my unbelief!” We stand always with some faith but in need of more.
Psalm 93:1-2, 5
Mark 9:14-29
“Why could we not drive the spirit out?”, the disciples asked Jesus. If they had asked us, they would have gotten a different answer. If someone had asked us why this boy could not be healed, we could have spoken about the meaning of suffering in this world. We could explain how God’s will is not our will and his ways are not our ways. We could say that there is a time for everything. Our only problem is that standing against us, disagreeing with us, is Jesus.
It is not only in this passage that Jesus says things that are embarrassing for us Christians. Here he says, “Everything is possible to one who has faith.” In another place he says, “For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” In another place he says, “If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” These and other quotes are embarrassing for Christians because we know that they are not true. We ask and do not receive. We believe that God will help us, and then he does not. If we Christians really had the kind of power that Jesus suggests we should have, we would be a lot more convincing to the world.
What is the problem? Is God unable to fulfill his promises? No, he can do all things. Was Jesus mistaken about how prayer would work for his disciples? No. Jesus is never mistaken. The problem must be ours. Something must be standing in the way of miracles. Jesus calls it a lack of faith, but this faith must not be simply confidence. There is no shortage of arrogant confidence in this world. The faith that Jesus is talking about is a humble faith, a gift from God, inseparable from hope and love. Every sin is a sin against faith because every sin doubts God in some way. It is popular to think that some act can only be a sin if it is hurting somebody, but if every sin is blocking our way to God, than every one of our sins is hurting people because our sins are preventing us from working miracles. We will never be totally free from sin on this earth. The prayer of the boy’s father is a good example for how we should pray, “I do believe, help my unbelief!” We stand always with some faith but in need of more.
January 28, 2013 - Monday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
Hebrews 9:15, 24-28
Psalm 98:1-6
Mark 3:22-30
When Jesus and the Pharisees have their conversations, it is amazing, almost fun, to see how Jesus can give an answer that silences them. They are the know-it-alls who get taken down at their own game. Sometimes though, as in today’s Gospel, it is necessary to better understand Jesus’ answer in order to truly appreciate his wisdom.
At first it seems like Jesus does not understand their accusation. The Pharisees claim that Satan is being sneaky the way that Satan is sneaky. We can imagine a false prophet who can cast out demons with an evil power. It would convince people to follow him, like a cunning general who retreats in one place so as to lead his enemy into a trap. Jesus is not contradicting this possibility.
We must be aware that not everyone who heals people or tells the future or even seems to cast out demons is from God. Until the end of this world, when Satan’s power is destroyed, there will always be two sources of supernatural power in this world. To the extent that any supernatural power in this world is real, we must judge the source, whether it is from God or the evil one.
Jesus, however, was no magician. He did not go around working a few tricks for money or out of pride. How many miracles are written down for us! And still St. John tells us there could never be enough books in all the world to record everything that Jesus did. To accuse Jesus of using a few magic tricks to win power in the end for Satan is ridiculous. If the Pharisees did not know that their accusation was ludicrous, then they are guilty of greatly underestimating the work of Jesus. The Bible does not give us an exact number of people whom Jesus healed during the three years before the Cross, but any number measured in less than tens of thousands would not be faithful to the descriptions we have.
I sometimes wonder, what if I were a Pharisee when Jesus came? Would I have thought about him as the Pharisees did, as we do about cult leaders today? Jesus gives us a convincing defense: he simply did too much. How many prostitutes and tax collectors turned their backs on sin? Too many for Satan to be pleased. How much suffering was removed from the world? Too much for it to have been Satan’s work.
Psalm 98:1-6
Mark 3:22-30
When Jesus and the Pharisees have their conversations, it is amazing, almost fun, to see how Jesus can give an answer that silences them. They are the know-it-alls who get taken down at their own game. Sometimes though, as in today’s Gospel, it is necessary to better understand Jesus’ answer in order to truly appreciate his wisdom.
At first it seems like Jesus does not understand their accusation. The Pharisees claim that Satan is being sneaky the way that Satan is sneaky. We can imagine a false prophet who can cast out demons with an evil power. It would convince people to follow him, like a cunning general who retreats in one place so as to lead his enemy into a trap. Jesus is not contradicting this possibility.
We must be aware that not everyone who heals people or tells the future or even seems to cast out demons is from God. Until the end of this world, when Satan’s power is destroyed, there will always be two sources of supernatural power in this world. To the extent that any supernatural power in this world is real, we must judge the source, whether it is from God or the evil one.
Jesus, however, was no magician. He did not go around working a few tricks for money or out of pride. How many miracles are written down for us! And still St. John tells us there could never be enough books in all the world to record everything that Jesus did. To accuse Jesus of using a few magic tricks to win power in the end for Satan is ridiculous. If the Pharisees did not know that their accusation was ludicrous, then they are guilty of greatly underestimating the work of Jesus. The Bible does not give us an exact number of people whom Jesus healed during the three years before the Cross, but any number measured in less than tens of thousands would not be faithful to the descriptions we have.
I sometimes wonder, what if I were a Pharisee when Jesus came? Would I have thought about him as the Pharisees did, as we do about cult leaders today? Jesus gives us a convincing defense: he simply did too much. How many prostitutes and tax collectors turned their backs on sin? Too many for Satan to be pleased. How much suffering was removed from the world? Too much for it to have been Satan’s work.
July 3, 2012 - Feast of Saint Thomas, Apostle
Ephesians 2:19-22
Psalm 117:1-2
John 20:24-29
St. Thomas the Apostle is remembered primarily for two things: that he was the one who did not believe in the Resurrection, and that he brought Christianity to India. Doubting Thomas is a bit of an unfair reputation. So far as we know, none of the Apostles believed before seeing Jesus except St. John who saw the empty tomb and believed. It is simply that his doubts are recorded in such a powerful fashion as we read today. He immediately believed. He experienced many hardships and went to a faraway land to preach the Gospel. There he was killed for the faith.
He was not a lifelong doubter once he saw the evidence with his own eyes, but it cannot be said simply that Thomas believed because he saw. Many people might have seen the same thing and still doubted. St. Thomas received his faith not by investigation. St. Thomas received his faith from the Father.
Faith is not a human accomplishment. Faith is a gift. Faith is not gritting our teeth and insisting that we will believe. Faith is a gift. Faith is not something we should be proud of as if we were better people than those who do not believe. Faith is something we ought to be grateful for because it is a gift. Faith is something that we ought to ask God for every day. And if we begin to doubt, there are two mistakes we can make: trying to fight the doubts on our own or accepting the doubts as wisdom. If we begin to doubt, we must turn to God and ask for more faith.
We receive knowledge from our parents and the Church. We know about Christianity because of them and the books we read. But faith is something different. If the whole world abandoned Christianity, and it was just you alone with no support, if they all told you that it was pretend, that it was just another story like Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, is there something within you that would still believe? Is there something within you right now that believes in God without consideration of any argument or reason? That is faith. It does not seem strong because if we test it ourselves, it will fall apart quickly. The test of our faith comes from the outside: persecution, suffering, martyrdom. That is when we find out how strong faith really is.
Psalm 117:1-2
John 20:24-29
St. Thomas the Apostle is remembered primarily for two things: that he was the one who did not believe in the Resurrection, and that he brought Christianity to India. Doubting Thomas is a bit of an unfair reputation. So far as we know, none of the Apostles believed before seeing Jesus except St. John who saw the empty tomb and believed. It is simply that his doubts are recorded in such a powerful fashion as we read today. He immediately believed. He experienced many hardships and went to a faraway land to preach the Gospel. There he was killed for the faith.
He was not a lifelong doubter once he saw the evidence with his own eyes, but it cannot be said simply that Thomas believed because he saw. Many people might have seen the same thing and still doubted. St. Thomas received his faith not by investigation. St. Thomas received his faith from the Father.
Faith is not a human accomplishment. Faith is a gift. Faith is not gritting our teeth and insisting that we will believe. Faith is a gift. Faith is not something we should be proud of as if we were better people than those who do not believe. Faith is something we ought to be grateful for because it is a gift. Faith is something that we ought to ask God for every day. And if we begin to doubt, there are two mistakes we can make: trying to fight the doubts on our own or accepting the doubts as wisdom. If we begin to doubt, we must turn to God and ask for more faith.
We receive knowledge from our parents and the Church. We know about Christianity because of them and the books we read. But faith is something different. If the whole world abandoned Christianity, and it was just you alone with no support, if they all told you that it was pretend, that it was just another story like Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, is there something within you that would still believe? Is there something within you right now that believes in God without consideration of any argument or reason? That is faith. It does not seem strong because if we test it ourselves, it will fall apart quickly. The test of our faith comes from the outside: persecution, suffering, martyrdom. That is when we find out how strong faith really is.
May 15, 2012 - Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Acts 16:22-34
Psalm 138:1-3, 7-8
John 16:5-11
We know that our relationship with God is found in prayer and in contemplating his creation, but it would be nice if it were more tangible, like in our readings today: the relationship that the apostles had with Jesus sitting at table with him; the relationship that Paul and Silas had with God so that when they were in prison an earthquake came and opened the doors; the relationship that Jesus is talking about with the Holy Spirit whom he will send, who will be our advocate.
We must not get a false idea though. Paul and Silas were beaten and wounded and locked up before God came to the rescue. The apostles were close to Jesus, but they had to suffer through his leaving them, even those who ran away suffered fear and doubt. Mary herself, who had a relationship with God that we could never fathom, suffered greatly because of her son.
Even in Eden man's relationship with God was distant. It is written that God would visit Adam each evening, but he was alone all day. God said to that it was not good that man should be alone so he created woman, Eve, to be with Adam. Still the question remains: why did God not just spend more time with Adam? It is not as if he is busy. If God had been visibly present next to Eve, would it have been possible for her to reach out and take the wrong fruit?
We do not have daily visits from God every evening anymore. And we do not get to follow Jesus wherever he goes anymore. And our relationship with the Holy Spirit is not one of constantly felt encouragement. We know and sympathize with the cry of Jesus from the cross “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Not only in distress, but pretty much every moment of every day we feel the fact that God is not present to us as we wish he would be.
Some versions of Christianity attract people with the promise that God will be present in their lives if only they would sing a certain way or pray like this but the feeling never lasts. That is what heaven is: the perfect and constant sense of God's presence, and we cannot have heaven here on earth. Here on earth we are left reaching, stretching, grasping, for something out of reach. That is fine. The thing is to keep reaching, to keep stretching forward. Never fill that desire with the lesser things of earth in such a way as to forget that it is really a desire for heaven, a desire for God.
Psalm 138:1-3, 7-8
John 16:5-11
We know that our relationship with God is found in prayer and in contemplating his creation, but it would be nice if it were more tangible, like in our readings today: the relationship that the apostles had with Jesus sitting at table with him; the relationship that Paul and Silas had with God so that when they were in prison an earthquake came and opened the doors; the relationship that Jesus is talking about with the Holy Spirit whom he will send, who will be our advocate.
We must not get a false idea though. Paul and Silas were beaten and wounded and locked up before God came to the rescue. The apostles were close to Jesus, but they had to suffer through his leaving them, even those who ran away suffered fear and doubt. Mary herself, who had a relationship with God that we could never fathom, suffered greatly because of her son.
Even in Eden man's relationship with God was distant. It is written that God would visit Adam each evening, but he was alone all day. God said to that it was not good that man should be alone so he created woman, Eve, to be with Adam. Still the question remains: why did God not just spend more time with Adam? It is not as if he is busy. If God had been visibly present next to Eve, would it have been possible for her to reach out and take the wrong fruit?
We do not have daily visits from God every evening anymore. And we do not get to follow Jesus wherever he goes anymore. And our relationship with the Holy Spirit is not one of constantly felt encouragement. We know and sympathize with the cry of Jesus from the cross “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Not only in distress, but pretty much every moment of every day we feel the fact that God is not present to us as we wish he would be.
Some versions of Christianity attract people with the promise that God will be present in their lives if only they would sing a certain way or pray like this but the feeling never lasts. That is what heaven is: the perfect and constant sense of God's presence, and we cannot have heaven here on earth. Here on earth we are left reaching, stretching, grasping, for something out of reach. That is fine. The thing is to keep reaching, to keep stretching forward. Never fill that desire with the lesser things of earth in such a way as to forget that it is really a desire for heaven, a desire for God.
May 4, 2012 - Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Acts 13:26-33
Psalm 2:6-11
John 14:1-6
A lot of people have been saying that the world will end in December this year because the Mayan's calendar cycle resets then. It is really nonsense, but people do like getting excited and having something to talk about. As for the end of the world, I am not going to say that the world will not end in 2012. Jesus tells us in the Gospel today, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” We are indeed waiting for Jesus. He will come. The world will end. It might be December 21st, but it might be tonight or it might be 10,000 years from now. If one fact about the end of the world is clearly written in Scripture it is that we cannot calculate when it is going to be.
The response of some doubters to all this talk of the world ending tomorrow has been rather illogical. They say things like, “people have been saying that the world is going to end for 2000 years now”, as if that were any argument against the world ending. We Christians are clear that the world is going to end, but we also are clear that it is not going to end before it ends.
St. Paul talks about this from another perspective in our first reading today. Moses, speaking the Word of God, told the Israelites that Jesus would come. He said this about the year 1500 BC. During the next millennium and a half, many people doubted if Jesus would ever come. Even up to the day before Jesus came, people doubted. Then he came. As St. Paul says, “We ourselves are proclaiming this good news to you that what God promised our fathers he has brought to fulfillment for us, their children, by raising up Jesus.”
It has been almost 2000 years since Jesus promised that he would come back for us. Up until that day when he comes, the world is going to go on the way it has been going on so far. Then, one day, tomorrow, today, or 10,000 years from now, Jesus will come. Just be sure you are ready to welcome him whenever it might be. The end of the world is not a cause of fear for us Christians. We are anxiously awaiting the day when the sky opens and Jesus appears.
Psalm 2:6-11
John 14:1-6
A lot of people have been saying that the world will end in December this year because the Mayan's calendar cycle resets then. It is really nonsense, but people do like getting excited and having something to talk about. As for the end of the world, I am not going to say that the world will not end in 2012. Jesus tells us in the Gospel today, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” We are indeed waiting for Jesus. He will come. The world will end. It might be December 21st, but it might be tonight or it might be 10,000 years from now. If one fact about the end of the world is clearly written in Scripture it is that we cannot calculate when it is going to be.
The response of some doubters to all this talk of the world ending tomorrow has been rather illogical. They say things like, “people have been saying that the world is going to end for 2000 years now”, as if that were any argument against the world ending. We Christians are clear that the world is going to end, but we also are clear that it is not going to end before it ends.
St. Paul talks about this from another perspective in our first reading today. Moses, speaking the Word of God, told the Israelites that Jesus would come. He said this about the year 1500 BC. During the next millennium and a half, many people doubted if Jesus would ever come. Even up to the day before Jesus came, people doubted. Then he came. As St. Paul says, “We ourselves are proclaiming this good news to you that what God promised our fathers he has brought to fulfillment for us, their children, by raising up Jesus.”
It has been almost 2000 years since Jesus promised that he would come back for us. Up until that day when he comes, the world is going to go on the way it has been going on so far. Then, one day, tomorrow, today, or 10,000 years from now, Jesus will come. Just be sure you are ready to welcome him whenever it might be. The end of the world is not a cause of fear for us Christians. We are anxiously awaiting the day when the sky opens and Jesus appears.
April 14, 2012 - Saturday in the Octave of Easter
Today's Readings
In the Gospel according to Mark, the apostles often doubt Jesus, who constantly exhorts them to have more faith. In our reading today, we see this theme repeated. The apostles do not believe Mary Magdalene nor the two disciples who saw Jesus in Emmaus. Only when Jesus appears to them personally do they finally believe. Even then, as we know, Thomas was not with them, and he would not believe the testimony of the others.
This reaction seems very natural to us, certainly more natural than the crazy theories of those who claim that the apostles invented the Resurrection. The Resurrection is not something easy to believe in. Having seen the body of Jesus, tortured, dead beyond doubt, it is not easy to believe that he could be alive. Still, Jesus rebukes them for their lack of faith. Should they have been gullible? Should they have just believed whatever unbelievable stories they heard about Jesus rising from the dead?
Sometimes it seems as if that is exactly what faith requires of us. We have to believe without seeing, or even in spite of what we see. The doubt comes along: What if this is all false? Is it possible that billions of people have been tricked into believing a lie? Are we wasting our time with something that does not matter? If the only response that our religion can make to such doubts is an exhortation to have faith, how does that differ from a cult leader who insists that no one question the lies he is telling?
Yet the Church does not say that we should just believe. Jesus did not say that we should just believe. Against our doubts, what is recommended to us is an act of faith. An act of faith is not shutting off our brains. An act of faith is absolutely not trying to believe with our own strength, angrily shouting at anyone who would dare to express doubts. An act of faith is the prayer of the man who asked Jesus to heal his son, “I do believe; help my unbelief.”
God will not force us to believe in him, but we cannot believe the unbelievable without supernatural faith, a gift of God. We must ask. Pray for faith, and pray sincerely, and pray unceasingly, and your Father, who gives good gifts to those who ask, will surely give you the Holy Spirit.
In the Gospel according to Mark, the apostles often doubt Jesus, who constantly exhorts them to have more faith. In our reading today, we see this theme repeated. The apostles do not believe Mary Magdalene nor the two disciples who saw Jesus in Emmaus. Only when Jesus appears to them personally do they finally believe. Even then, as we know, Thomas was not with them, and he would not believe the testimony of the others.
This reaction seems very natural to us, certainly more natural than the crazy theories of those who claim that the apostles invented the Resurrection. The Resurrection is not something easy to believe in. Having seen the body of Jesus, tortured, dead beyond doubt, it is not easy to believe that he could be alive. Still, Jesus rebukes them for their lack of faith. Should they have been gullible? Should they have just believed whatever unbelievable stories they heard about Jesus rising from the dead?
Sometimes it seems as if that is exactly what faith requires of us. We have to believe without seeing, or even in spite of what we see. The doubt comes along: What if this is all false? Is it possible that billions of people have been tricked into believing a lie? Are we wasting our time with something that does not matter? If the only response that our religion can make to such doubts is an exhortation to have faith, how does that differ from a cult leader who insists that no one question the lies he is telling?
Yet the Church does not say that we should just believe. Jesus did not say that we should just believe. Against our doubts, what is recommended to us is an act of faith. An act of faith is not shutting off our brains. An act of faith is absolutely not trying to believe with our own strength, angrily shouting at anyone who would dare to express doubts. An act of faith is the prayer of the man who asked Jesus to heal his son, “I do believe; help my unbelief.”
God will not force us to believe in him, but we cannot believe the unbelievable without supernatural faith, a gift of God. We must ask. Pray for faith, and pray sincerely, and pray unceasingly, and your Father, who gives good gifts to those who ask, will surely give you the Holy Spirit.
April 12, 2012 - Thursday in the Octave of Easter
Today's Readings
In the Gospel today, Jesus appeared to his disciples and testified to himself, showing the wounds on his hands and his feet, but the disciples were "incredulous for joy.” “Incredulous for joy.” This was a thing too good to be true! The Lord Jesus is risen from the dead. Why do the disciples disbelieve him? Obviously he is not lying. They see him with their own eyes and hear him with their own ears, but some things just seem too good to be true. Our eyes must be lying; our ears must deceive us.
There is a natural pessimism behind this attitude. We see the world full of suffering, but we cannot see the world full of joy. We live in a world with water falling from the sky, with food growing up from the ground. We live in a fairy tale. Then the first tragedy comes along. We see imperfection in the world, and we are forever cynical. This pessimism tells us that we do not belong in this world. If we belonged to this world, we would see the events happening around us as natural. We would enjoy life when it is good and not be surprised when it is bad. Yet we are surprised, we are astonished by suffering. We expect the world to be perfect even though it manifestly is not. So when the world is only mostly perfect, we consider that it is very, very bad.
The disciples had just suffered such a blow in the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. They had started to become optimistic when they saw the work of Jesus Christ, so they fell all the more when he was killed. If something is good, someone will ruin it. Some things are too good to be true. In the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the perfection that we have been expecting our whole lives. We are afraid to believe, because our hopes have been disappointed before. Whenever things seemed to be good, something had to come along to ruin everything. Instead, in Jesus Christ, we find a good that nothing can take away. It is so very good and absolutely true.
The Resurrection is what we have been waiting for since we lost Eden. It is time to leave pessimism behind. This world is disappointing, and every time we begin to put our hope in it, it will disappoint us again, but we have a new hope: Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.
In the Gospel today, Jesus appeared to his disciples and testified to himself, showing the wounds on his hands and his feet, but the disciples were "incredulous for joy.” “Incredulous for joy.” This was a thing too good to be true! The Lord Jesus is risen from the dead. Why do the disciples disbelieve him? Obviously he is not lying. They see him with their own eyes and hear him with their own ears, but some things just seem too good to be true. Our eyes must be lying; our ears must deceive us.
There is a natural pessimism behind this attitude. We see the world full of suffering, but we cannot see the world full of joy. We live in a world with water falling from the sky, with food growing up from the ground. We live in a fairy tale. Then the first tragedy comes along. We see imperfection in the world, and we are forever cynical. This pessimism tells us that we do not belong in this world. If we belonged to this world, we would see the events happening around us as natural. We would enjoy life when it is good and not be surprised when it is bad. Yet we are surprised, we are astonished by suffering. We expect the world to be perfect even though it manifestly is not. So when the world is only mostly perfect, we consider that it is very, very bad.
The disciples had just suffered such a blow in the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. They had started to become optimistic when they saw the work of Jesus Christ, so they fell all the more when he was killed. If something is good, someone will ruin it. Some things are too good to be true. In the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the perfection that we have been expecting our whole lives. We are afraid to believe, because our hopes have been disappointed before. Whenever things seemed to be good, something had to come along to ruin everything. Instead, in Jesus Christ, we find a good that nothing can take away. It is so very good and absolutely true.
The Resurrection is what we have been waiting for since we lost Eden. It is time to leave pessimism behind. This world is disappointing, and every time we begin to put our hope in it, it will disappoint us again, but we have a new hope: Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.
August 1, 2011 - Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, bishop and doctor of the Church
Today's Readings
Walking on water is a symbol of the spiritual life. We wish it were otherwise; we wish that we could find solid ground, a place where we could stand on our own, but such a place does not exist in the spiritual life. The boat is a symbol of the simplistic spiritual life, the life of spiritual infants. To grow up in faith requires stepping out of the boat onto the water, leaving behind every support except faith.
Jesus asks Peter this key question: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Peter does not answer because there is no answer. He was standing on the water. He sees the strong wind, but what does that matter? A stormy sea is no more difficult to walk on than a still one. The wind is a symbol of temptation. There is no reason why we should fall for temptation, but we do. When we stand on the water, invited out there by Jesus, we have many temptations to doubt that we can live the spiritual life, but the essential fact remains: we are. It is not until we begin to doubt that we begin to sink.
No matter how fiercely the winds blow, we should remember the simple tautology: so long as we stand on the water, we are standing on the water. So long as we are faithful to God, we are being faithful to God. Questions like, “How long can I keep this up?” are meaningless. It only matters that we are being faithful right now. The future and the past are relatively unimportant in the spiritual life. “How long have I been faithful?” and “How long can I be faithful?” are not appropriate questions.
Peter, even in the moment of doubt, teaches us what we ought to do when we begin to sink into sin. “Lord, save me!”, he screams. He said this as soon as he was “beginning to sink”. In other words, he did not fall into the water right away. The temptation tells him that he cannot stand on water, and it is a self-fulfilling temptation. The water begins to cover his feet; he could have despaired, but he immediately calls out to the Lord.
While we stand on the water, we should laugh at the lying wind. When we have believed the lies and begun to sink, we should not wait until we are underwater but turn immediately to the Lord and call for help.
Walking on water is a symbol of the spiritual life. We wish it were otherwise; we wish that we could find solid ground, a place where we could stand on our own, but such a place does not exist in the spiritual life. The boat is a symbol of the simplistic spiritual life, the life of spiritual infants. To grow up in faith requires stepping out of the boat onto the water, leaving behind every support except faith.
Jesus asks Peter this key question: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Peter does not answer because there is no answer. He was standing on the water. He sees the strong wind, but what does that matter? A stormy sea is no more difficult to walk on than a still one. The wind is a symbol of temptation. There is no reason why we should fall for temptation, but we do. When we stand on the water, invited out there by Jesus, we have many temptations to doubt that we can live the spiritual life, but the essential fact remains: we are. It is not until we begin to doubt that we begin to sink.
No matter how fiercely the winds blow, we should remember the simple tautology: so long as we stand on the water, we are standing on the water. So long as we are faithful to God, we are being faithful to God. Questions like, “How long can I keep this up?” are meaningless. It only matters that we are being faithful right now. The future and the past are relatively unimportant in the spiritual life. “How long have I been faithful?” and “How long can I be faithful?” are not appropriate questions.
Peter, even in the moment of doubt, teaches us what we ought to do when we begin to sink into sin. “Lord, save me!”, he screams. He said this as soon as he was “beginning to sink”. In other words, he did not fall into the water right away. The temptation tells him that he cannot stand on water, and it is a self-fulfilling temptation. The water begins to cover his feet; he could have despaired, but he immediately calls out to the Lord.
While we stand on the water, we should laugh at the lying wind. When we have believed the lies and begun to sink, we should not wait until we are underwater but turn immediately to the Lord and call for help.
July 18, 2011 - Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
The scribes and Pharisees want to see a sign from Jesus. What exactly were they looking for? Water to wine? Check. Healing thousands of people? Check. Casting out demons that no one else could? Check. None of his many signs up to that point were enough for them; what could he do that would satisfy them? I do not know what they had in mind, whether one of the plagues of Egypt or dividing the Red Sea. Perhaps they did not have anything particular in mind, only that they wanted Jesus to do something to convince them, something greater than what he had already done.
Jesus responds that he will give them a sign: the sign of Jonah. None of the miracles of Jesus were enough for the Pharisees, so Jesus points to his greatest work: the Cross. Perhaps a great magician could have worked some of the miracles that Jesus worked, or at least convince a crowd that he had done so, but no one could accomplish the Cross except Jesus. On the Cross Jesus was tortured, but he forgave his tormentors. He was killed, but he rose from the dead. That was not the work of an illusionist. No human person could fake the Cross.
So the Pharisees will have their perfect sign, and, for the most part, they will still not believe. This is because faith does not come from signs but is an interior gift of the Holy Spirit. Real faith, the kind that does not rely on anything but is itself the bedrock of life, can only be a gift from God. If faith were something we created by our own judgment of the signs, then faith could never be stronger than our own judgment.
When Jonah walked through Nineveh and the whole city repented, it was not because of the eloquence of the preacher. God put repentance in their hearts and they needed nothing more than the small encouragement of Jonah. If God gives you faith, the smallest sign, seen with faith, will be more convincing than any proof ever done. If God has not given you faith, the greatest sign, feeding thousands with a little bread, making the sun dance across the sky, dying on a cross without complaining, will still leave room for doubt. So do not ask for signs from God; ask for faith, for perfect, invisible faith.
February 21, 2011 - Monday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
“Why could we not drive the spirit out?”, the disciples asked Jesus. If they had asked us, they would have gotten a different answer. If someone had asked us why this boy could not be healed, we could have spoken about the meaning of suffering in this world. We could explain how God’s will is not our will and his ways are not our ways. We could say that there is a time for everything. Our only problem is that standing against us, disagreeing with us, is Jesus.
It is not only in this passage that Jesus says things that are embarrassing for us Christians. Here he says, “Everything is possible to one who has faith.” In another place he says, “For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” In another place he says, “If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” These and other quotes are embarrassing for Christians because we know that they are not true. We ask and do not receive. We believe that God will help us, and then he does not. If we Christians really had the kind of power that Jesus suggests we should have, we would be a lot more convincing to the world.
What is the problem? Is God unable to fulfill his promises? No, he can do all things. Was Jesus mistaken about how prayer would work for his disciples? No. Jesus is never mistaken. The problem must be ours. Something must be standing in the way of miracles. Jesus calls it a lack of faith, but this faith must not be simply confidence. There is no shortage of arrogant confidence in this world. The faith that Jesus is talking about is a humble faith, a gift from God, inseparable from hope and love. Every sin is a sin against faith because every sin doubts God in some way. It is popular to think that some act can only be a sin if it is hurting somebody, but if every sin is blocking our way to God, than every one of our sins is hurting people because our sins are preventing us from working miracles. We will never be totally free from sin on this earth. The prayer of the boy’s father is a good example for how we should pray, “I do believe, help my unbelief!” We stand always with some faith but in need of more.
January 24, 2011 - Memorial of Saint Francis de Sales, bishop and doctor of the Church
When Jesus and the Pharisees have their conversations, it is amazing, almost fun, to see how Jesus can give an answer that silences them. They are the know-it-alls who get taken down at their own game. Sometimes though, as in today’s Gospel, it is necessary to better understand Jesus’ answer in order to truly appreciate his wisdom.
At first it seems like Jesus does not understand their accusation. The Pharisees claim that Satan is being sneaky the way that Satan is sneaky. We can imagine a false prophet who can cast out demons with an evil power. It would convince people to follow him, like a cunning general who retreats in one place so as to lead his enemy into a trap. Jesus is not contradicting this possibility.
We must be aware that not everyone who heals people or tells the future or even seems to cast out demons is from God. Until the end of this world, when Satan’s power is destroyed, there will always be two sources of supernatural power in this world. To the extent that any supernatural power in this world is real, we must judge the source, whether it is from God or the evil one.
Jesus, however, was no magician. He did not go around working a few tricks for money or out of pride. How many miracles are written down for us, and yet St. John tells us there could never be enough books in all the world to record everything that Jesus did. To accuse Jesus of using a few magic tricks to win power in the end for Satan is ridiculous. If the Pharisees did not know that their accusation was ludicrous, then they are guilty of greatly underestimating the work of Jesus. The Bible does not give us an exact number of people whom Jesus healed during the three years before the Cross, but any number measured in less than tens of thousands would not be faithful to the descriptions we have.
I sometimes wonder, what if I were a Pharisee when Jesus came? Would I have thought about him as the Pharisees did, as we do about cult leaders today? Jesus gives us a convincing defense: he simply did too much. How many prostitutes and tax collectors turned their backs on sin? Too many for Satan to be pleased. How much suffering was removed from the world? Too much for it to have been Satan’s work.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)