Our Faith and our Hope are based on our Trust of Jesus and His Word

 

Homily Cycle B 6/27/202

Given at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Bethlehem, PA                              

Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062721.cfm

 

Today our readings tell us that our Faith and our Hope are based on our Trust of Jesus and His Word.  The healings in today’s readings are wonderful and powerful, BUT sometimes our prayers for healing are answered in confusing ways.   Then we question whether it is because Faith is lacking or weak.

Jesus extolled the synagogue official and the woman for their Faith.  They Hoped for a miracle - received it and were Joy filled.  Pope Francis reflected on Christian joy and likened it to the joy of a mother embracing her baby after childbirth, a joy “purified” by the suffering of labor.  Christian joy - is a joy in hope, it expresses God's kingdom— on earth. 

 

I want to share two [other] miracles with you today, one my daughter-in-law Laurie & the other a gifted musician Franz Welser-Most.  Franz was an extremely talented violinist, rare superstar musician, in 1978 at the age of 18 he was severely injured in an auto accident that was not his fault.  Nerve damaged his left hand ended his playing career but did not end his music career.  He became a top conductor & is currently the music director of the Cleveland Orchestra. [Embers in the Ashes]

My daughter-in-law Laurie suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm on July 4, 2018, she had successful surgery was in a coma for almost 8 weeks.  My son Brain has been her loving caregiver, they have two children, CJ 10 & Berkleigh 7.   Many of you have been praying for them, thank you and please continue.  Today she is very good cognitively and physically making slow but steady progress regaining movement, strength and dexterity.  Brain said, “It really is a miracle .…”  Her road is long but it is paved with prayer.  Trusting Jesus will increase our Hope and strengthen our Faith.

I pray that when you suffer you accept God’s grace in Trust and Hope.  Jesus calls us to an ever-deeper relationship with Him – You can pray There go I BUT for the grace of God, or There go I WITH the grace of God.  Brian and Laurie, Franz, The synagogue official, and the woman prayed, “There go I WITH the grace of God.”

Pray to God with Trust, in Hope, and then accept in Faith God’s answer believing that Jesus is with you.  Jesus calls us to an ever-deeper Trust in Him, accepting the hardships & crosses we face with Hope and Faith.  Christian Hope is based on the belief that our journey here on earth is a gift from God given to us to learn heaven’s ways.  We know that “… Jesus is the wellspring of life … [that] all are permitted on the Lord’s path….”  [Pope Francis, Angeles Sermon, 7/01/2018]

Your Faith is your head, in your heart, in your gut, in the decisions you make each day and in how you live your life.  Jesus wants us to know “God did not make death, nor does not rejoice in the destruction of the living.” [Wisdom 1:13]

Today I close with this poem,

“At Mass

Christ

is hidden

 

in bread

 

on the street

 

he hides

in the neighbor

 

helpless

alone afraid

 

he is all

around us

 

we must

attend him.”

[St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta – A Poem to Sit With, J. Janda Sunday Website: liturgy.slu.edu]

 

For a few minutes, in silence, think about your Trust, Hope and Faith in Jesus and Why you Trust, Hope and Believe in Him and How you attend Him?

 

May God Be Praised!