Homily
12th Sunday in Ordinary Time
21 June 2009 Father's Day
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center
St. John Vianney, patron of priests, pray for us!
JMJ + AMDG
Whether it's an actual storm, like Katrina or a tornado or a tsunami, or a crisis of grand scale, like a war, global poverty and hunger, the priest sex abuse scandal, the killing of an abortion doctor, or a storm of a much more personal nature, a crisis of faith brought on by death or disease, a relationship in danger of being broken, a sin that continues to rear its ugly head - whatever it is that most has our attention, it is usually true, even on our best days, that the storms are all around us. They will continue to be all around us. Kansas has tornadoes. Florida has hurricanes. Minnesota has ice. Phoenix has drought. California has wildfires. The storms are everywhere. We will always be in the middle of them. We see Jesus in today's Gospel leading his disciples right into the middle of a storm, to test their faith. To see where they are with knowing who He is and how He is to be trusted. There are times when Jesus takes His disciples away from the storm. But there are times when He allows Himself, and His disciples, to remain right in the middle of the storm. The God of Israel says as much to Job in today's first reading. God is reminding Job that if Job finds Himself in the midst of the storm, it is not because God has lost power over storms. No, quite the contrary, God Himself set the limits of storms, and promised through the sign of a rainbow after the Great Flood that He would never again let the floods overtake the earth, out of love for His people. Still, God, the Lord of all creation, obviously still allows storms, big ones like Katrina, moral storms like those facing the world today, and personal storms like the unexpected news of a tragedy or crisis that hits us when we least expect it.
When too many storms come our way, or storms that confound our expectations of how things should be and how things should go, storms that cause us to re-write our autobiography according to a new set of circumstances, our first assumption is that God has fallen asleep. This is the response of the disciples in Mark's Gospel. When the storm hits, and they notice that Jesus is asleep, they do not immediately respond in faith, or see in Jesus' calmness an example of trust in God. No, their first assumption is quite the opposite - they assume that God does not care. They do not respond in faith, remembering that God sees them and knows them and loves them, and wishes their good, nor do they see the storm as a means by which their faith in God could grow stronger. No, they respond with fear and assume betrayal, and jump to the conclusion that God has forgotten them. They do not say - everything will be all right - which is our common ordinary expression of faith when things seem to be going badly. No, they respond with fear and dismay.
There are times, to be sure, that our faith in God takes us away from storms and gives us a peace that is like a beach vacation. No worries. Be happy. Everything is perfect. Our faith in God gets us out of many storms that others find themselves in, since through obedience to God we take ourselves out of the world, and live in this passing world with our hearts set on the world that will never end. There is a peace that comes from this, from knowing that this world is not our final home, nor do we have to expect that things go perfectly or go our way, nor do we have to squeeze every ounce out of this world that we can. This is the peace that comes from being apart from the world, which a Christian is, living a life of faith that enables us to grow younger toward the eternal life God has promised even as we grow older in this world.
But our faith does more than simply make us separate from the world. Our faith allows us to be in the world, and to endure the world's storms, confident that God our Heavenly Father knows us and sees us and loves us, and desires what is ultimately good for us. What is more, we do not pray that God will leave us alone and deliver us from every storm; no, we pray that God's will be done, even if that will be that He leads us right into the midst of a storm where our faith will be tested and purified and grow deeper. And even when we agree to allow the Lord to lead us, and He ends up leading us to a place where we did not intend to go, nor would we ever have gone on our own, even there we are able to respond with faith as did Jesus in the midst of the storm.
As we gather to celebrate Father's Day, we look first to the example of Abraham, our father in faith, who did not understand why the Lord would ask Him to sacrifice His only son Isaac, as a prefigurement of the love God the Father would eventually show us by giving us His only Son. Abraham did not understand why He was in the midst of a storm, and yet He remained fixed on the will of God, knowing that God alone knows what is good. Through the example and intercession of Abraham, we pray for all fathers today. With their wives they are the first teachers of children in the ways of faith. May they continue to be the best of teachers, bearing witness to our faith, by what they say and do in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. May our Fathers be the first ones to imitate the love that God the Father showed us His children by refusing to spare even His only Son, and may our fathers be always the first to respond with faith, reminding us all that everything will work out for the good for those who love God. May they be the first always to console us and to assure us that everything is going to be all right, for God is never asleep. God our heavenly Father sees us, and knows us, and loves us, and desires what is best for us, and will not let the worst kind of evil triumph over us. May our fathers teach us how to trust God, and to love Him in return with all our hearts, and all our minds, and all our strength. Amen. +m
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