Homily
5th Sunday of Ordinary Time B
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
5 February 2012
Thank goodness we have Mario's miracle to sustain us at KU. Denmon's multiple miracles in last night's game would sting all the more if we didn't have our own miracles to fall back on, including our miracle that led to the national championship. Missouri can have the last game at their place. They hit big shots to win it. But we have 7 straight championships, 17 out of the last 21 against them, and a miracle that led to a national championship to boot. See you in Lawrence Tigers.
Of course when we talk about Mario's miracle, none of us actually believe it is a miracle. It was nearly impossible, but not a miracle. Mario's miracle is great aliteration, but not entirely accurate. He hit a huge shot. Nothing more.
Which brings us to the miracles of today's Gospel. Real miracles. Yet are they? Has our use of the word miracle become so loose so as to equate the improbable with the miraculous? Were Jesus' healings and exorcisms real, or the wishful stories of the uneducated who lived before the scientific era?,
There are some who would throw each and everyone of us who come to Church today into this category of the naive, the superstitious, and those afraid to face reality. Yet have those who accuse Catholics of such things looked at the science department of any Catholic school or university? Have such people looked at the scientific analysis that takes place at the Congregation of Saints, which confirms miracles in our Church today? Or are they themselves too naive or lazy to admit that the Church is not afraid of science, and instead welcomes her discoveries with open arms? To hear some of them speak, you would think that the Church stopped teaching physics in her universities in the medieval area, or at the time of Galileo. It's hogwash, and lazy prejudice to assert such things.
We should find it interesting that the same Church which confirms miracles like miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and countless others that confirm the sanctity of the Church's saints, teaches science at the highest levels in most all her schools and universities. Anyone who wishes to say that there is a divorce between faith and science, between what God wishes to reveal about Himself, and what man is able to discover about created reality, has this to contend with. For the Church, the question is never a simple either, or, but a profound both, and. The Church seeks to understand both spiritual reality and created reality, both metaphysics and physics, with great vigor. In looking into miracles, the Church uses the highest known standards of science, before confirming a miracle.
Still, the Church is able to confirm that real miracles still do take place. In fact, to be a Christian is not to believe that the miracles of Jesus were just for a time, but to believe that our Lord is as intimately involved in the world today through His Spirit as he ever was, including the time of great signs that we hear about in today's Gospel. The Church of course is willing to listen to any scientist who thinks he can disprove the miracles presented, but the Church will not pretend that the miraculous intervention of God belongs to a superstitious past. While the Church as no right to demand or control such miracles, nor is it her charism to say definitively why some miracles happen and others do not, it is her charism to teach against a deism which allows God only to be the author of the laws of nature, and disallows his miraculous intervention in the world. Against this, the Church is proud to proclaim a God who is not distant but passionately in love with the world he created, and who both allows the laws of nature to do their work but also shows forth his power and care through miracles which can be confirmed. The Church has always seen the miracles of her saints to be a sure sign of the Lord's presence and a confirmation that the Church though filled with sinners is also holy.
It is not hard to find scientists today who say that Newtonian physics which govern things in the macro will give way to quantum physics, which perhaps has greater promise of unlocking the mysteries of reality and the beginning of the universe. Which is to say that what seems to be impossible by Newtonian physics may prove to be explainable by quantum physics. You can take this two ways - first, that science has a long way to go before it will understand physics well enough to disprove miracles, or two, that the Church is going to have a harder and harder time proving her miracles in the face of a rapidly advancing science. One thing is for sure, the standard of what is a miracle and what is not will not change. A miracle is that which cannot be disproven by science, and so it is a reliable sign of the action and presence of God. The Church's faith cannot endure forever on superstition, but only on God who is being and existence in Himself. So the Church will continue to teach science to the chagrin of those who accuse her of naivete, and use science to rule out anything that is not truly miraculous, so that her faithful can put their faith not in the gaps, but in what remains - the good, the true, the necessary, the beautiful, the eternal; namely God himself. Amen.
5th Sunday of Ordinary Time B
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
5 February 2012
Thank goodness we have Mario's miracle to sustain us at KU. Denmon's multiple miracles in last night's game would sting all the more if we didn't have our own miracles to fall back on, including our miracle that led to the national championship. Missouri can have the last game at their place. They hit big shots to win it. But we have 7 straight championships, 17 out of the last 21 against them, and a miracle that led to a national championship to boot. See you in Lawrence Tigers.
Of course when we talk about Mario's miracle, none of us actually believe it is a miracle. It was nearly impossible, but not a miracle. Mario's miracle is great aliteration, but not entirely accurate. He hit a huge shot. Nothing more.
Which brings us to the miracles of today's Gospel. Real miracles. Yet are they? Has our use of the word miracle become so loose so as to equate the improbable with the miraculous? Were Jesus' healings and exorcisms real, or the wishful stories of the uneducated who lived before the scientific era?,
There are some who would throw each and everyone of us who come to Church today into this category of the naive, the superstitious, and those afraid to face reality. Yet have those who accuse Catholics of such things looked at the science department of any Catholic school or university? Have such people looked at the scientific analysis that takes place at the Congregation of Saints, which confirms miracles in our Church today? Or are they themselves too naive or lazy to admit that the Church is not afraid of science, and instead welcomes her discoveries with open arms? To hear some of them speak, you would think that the Church stopped teaching physics in her universities in the medieval area, or at the time of Galileo. It's hogwash, and lazy prejudice to assert such things.
We should find it interesting that the same Church which confirms miracles like miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and countless others that confirm the sanctity of the Church's saints, teaches science at the highest levels in most all her schools and universities. Anyone who wishes to say that there is a divorce between faith and science, between what God wishes to reveal about Himself, and what man is able to discover about created reality, has this to contend with. For the Church, the question is never a simple either, or, but a profound both, and. The Church seeks to understand both spiritual reality and created reality, both metaphysics and physics, with great vigor. In looking into miracles, the Church uses the highest known standards of science, before confirming a miracle.
Still, the Church is able to confirm that real miracles still do take place. In fact, to be a Christian is not to believe that the miracles of Jesus were just for a time, but to believe that our Lord is as intimately involved in the world today through His Spirit as he ever was, including the time of great signs that we hear about in today's Gospel. The Church of course is willing to listen to any scientist who thinks he can disprove the miracles presented, but the Church will not pretend that the miraculous intervention of God belongs to a superstitious past. While the Church as no right to demand or control such miracles, nor is it her charism to say definitively why some miracles happen and others do not, it is her charism to teach against a deism which allows God only to be the author of the laws of nature, and disallows his miraculous intervention in the world. Against this, the Church is proud to proclaim a God who is not distant but passionately in love with the world he created, and who both allows the laws of nature to do their work but also shows forth his power and care through miracles which can be confirmed. The Church has always seen the miracles of her saints to be a sure sign of the Lord's presence and a confirmation that the Church though filled with sinners is also holy.
It is not hard to find scientists today who say that Newtonian physics which govern things in the macro will give way to quantum physics, which perhaps has greater promise of unlocking the mysteries of reality and the beginning of the universe. Which is to say that what seems to be impossible by Newtonian physics may prove to be explainable by quantum physics. You can take this two ways - first, that science has a long way to go before it will understand physics well enough to disprove miracles, or two, that the Church is going to have a harder and harder time proving her miracles in the face of a rapidly advancing science. One thing is for sure, the standard of what is a miracle and what is not will not change. A miracle is that which cannot be disproven by science, and so it is a reliable sign of the action and presence of God. The Church's faith cannot endure forever on superstition, but only on God who is being and existence in Himself. So the Church will continue to teach science to the chagrin of those who accuse her of naivete, and use science to rule out anything that is not truly miraculous, so that her faithful can put their faith not in the gaps, but in what remains - the good, the true, the necessary, the beautiful, the eternal; namely God himself. Amen.
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