what remains

Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center

University of Kansas

17 January 2010

Year for Priests

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In the end there are three things that remain - faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love. In Haiti this weekend, the remains that we see on camera turn our stomachs and make our hearts ache. Rubble. Chaos. Bodies. There is a lot of sadness, for so much that is good has been lost. Even what little the people of Haiti had, seems to have been taken from them. It is unfair. Terribly unfair. It is senseless, and the couple of attempts to explain why this happened are ludicrous. God caused it. Sin caused it. Global warming caused it. None of this makes sense, and nothing will in the short term. The questions will haunt the world for awhile. Of all the places an earthquake could hit, why did it hit Haiti? Worse than that, how could a people be so defenseless, and so unprepared, given that man has the resources to avoid devastations like this one? Why, and how? These questions will be around for awhile.

What we have noticed however, and what we have a chance to do this weekend as we gather to pray, is that the unimaginable evil that has befallen Haiti has not destroyed everything. What we have noticed already, as tenuous as the situation is, is that evil will not have the final say. It never does. As St. Paul reminds us in a scripture even Catholics have memorized - in the end, three things remain. Faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love. In response to this horrendous tragedy, what have we seen? Are people cursing God and abandoning their faith? Not really. No, even as people are sad and angry and lack understanding, people are not cursing God. They are praying. Are people losing hope in a future for Haiti? No, people are wondering if somewhere on the other side of this tragedy lies a different and better future for this poor country. Are people closing their hearts to the plight of the people of Haiti? No, quite the opposite, despite the feelings of helplessness, everyone wants to do something, and to help in any way that they can. Nations are sending in resources and rescuers. Churches are taking up collections. Kids are asking parents if there is something they can do to help. What we see is not a closing of hearts, but an opening of hearts. In the end, three things remain, and they will remain after the last piece of rubble is picked up, and the last tear is dried from this unthinkable tragedy - three things remain, and are stronger than any evil that tries to destroy them - faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love.

It is our common struggle against evil, natural and moral, that so galvanizes man, and makes these supernatural virtues of faith, hope and love become all the more important for those who move forward in the face of evil. Going through evil, battling against evil, which always threatens but never succeeds in killing the human spirit, brings man into the greatest solidarity. Nothing brings us together like a common struggle against evil. It is through the cross of Jesus Christ as well, that we come into greatest solidarity with God, who as Isaiah prophesies wants to be married to us, his people. It is true, that we can get angry at God, and perhaps we should, when human life which is so good is so unfairly and arbitrarily taken. We can wonder why God who could stop this evil chooses not to, instead allowing us to over and over again bear the punishment that those who are are made to always love but who do not always love cannot always live. And yet, on the cross, this same God shows that He has not allowed us to suffer this punishment alone, but comes to suffer it with us, and in a sense before us. And in the paschal mystery we see revealed in Christ the truth that resides deep within each of us, that not even the evil of death, not even the death of the world's most helpless and innocent, can destroy the power of love. In the end, three things remain. Faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love.

Out of love for us, Christ suffered and died for us. For those of us who have come to pray, we come haunted by the question of why them, and not me. Who am I to be here, safe and well fed and blessed, and not there, in Haiti. Who am I? Those of us who have come haunted by this question go first to the cross of Jesus, where the mystery of human suffering finds a way out of despair. We go to the cross, and resolve once again to conform our lives to the mystery of the cross, choosing as did Christ to let ourselves be taken by evil, being baptized into the suffering of death and Christ, until evil destroys everything in us except what it cannot destroy - faith, hope and love.

Jesus in peforming his first public sign announces that because He is near, the supernatural virtues of faith, hope and love, which characterize our marriage to God and our real participation in his divine life that will last forever, will never run out. The best of wine, the wine of supernatural life, which evil cannot destroy, a life that is eternal, will not run out. It will never run out. We call on Jesus our refuge and our strength in every difficulty, who comes to us in our sorrow and difficulties, to allow the circumstances of this great tragedy to focus many hearts on the things that will last forever, and the things that will rise from the horrendous remains of this tragedy. Faith, hope and love will remain. They will not run out. And the greatest of these is love. +m