I know that my Redeemer lives!

TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

9 September 2018 – Bruder Klaus

Is 35:4-7a

Jas 2:1-5

Mk 7:31-37

Praised be Jesus Christ!

“Be strong, fear not! Here is your God…”

These days I am reading a book by an investigative reporter on the opioid epidemic raging in small town USA. It talks about the small towns where you have young people from rather ordinary families, who are hooked on painkillers and even heroin and about the ever-increasing number of them who are dying from overdosing on these drugs. Besides these deaths and all the crime, one of the great tragedies in the whole story involves the frustration of the parents with children addicted to these drugs is that the justice system, especially the law courts, do not seem to respond to their need for help in fighting the problem. They have no recourse. They are alone and cannot seem to protect their children. No one seems to come in answer to their cries.

Tragic as this situation is it comes as no great surprise to those of us who as Catholics really understand what we are all about. As believing people, we may not suffer any less than others do from injustice here in this world, but we should know at least what we are about. No judge, no court, no law enforcement agency is a sufficient guarantee that we will see justice done here below. In this world and in its authorities is not where we ultimately find our refuge.

“Be strong, fear not! Here is your God…”

We have no other option really than but to look soberly at the “this world side” of our lives. While we as good citizens of this world, especially if we live in a democracy, have to do all we can to contribute to building up the nation wherein we find ourselves, we need to remember that here on earth there is no ultimate justice. Regardless of whether we are in our country of origin or in our country of adoption, or let us say our country of sojourn, as believing people we must be mindful that ultimately justice comes from God’s Hands alone. Here on earth we are but strangers and guests; nobody out there is going to look after us. Nobody on earth can fill the bill ultimately as our vindicator, as our redeemer. Surely, we are destined for much more than what this world and its institutions can provide. God alone is our loving Father, the only One Who can and does answer all our needs.

“Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you.”

Isaiah prophesied in this sense and the Lord Jesus, by His teaching and miracles, like healing the deaf man and correcting his speech, Jesus witnesses, Jesus fully reveals just who and how God is for us.

“He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Believing people will say when faced with hard times: our lives are in God’s Hands. It is hard to say whether they really believe that. Perhaps better one can rightly ask, just what does that mean: our lives are in God’s Hands? People who do not believe in God or who will not own Him as central to their lives are generally classed as materialists, because they cannot seem to get beyond what you can taste, touch or smell. Truth to be told, materialism just plain sounds wrong-headed. It is much too little and cynically so. Before the good news of the Resurrection of Jesus, before news of His victory on our behalf over sin and death, there must have been a terrible anxiousness in the world. Everything must have been somewhat wrong, perhaps sad, and oftentimes terribly tragic.

With Christ’s coming among us, with His embrace of our humanity, with His ultimate sacrifice for the sake of our salvation, we have our judge who can make everything right, albeit in His own good time, when all others have failed. But you say, I want justice now; I want satisfaction for suffering endured now! At least you say, I want to be healed maybe! You know like in the Gospel: “Ephphatha!”—that is, “Be opened!” Elsewhere in the New Testament and in the Tradition we face the challenging question of why Jesus healed some but not all. The response is that His miracles have witness value; they are our confirmation or assurance of the ultimate or what will be long-term, beyond this world’s trajectory for our lives.

What does it mean to be a true believer in Christ in hard times? For one thing, our freedom and dignity demand that we consciously, deliberately place our lives and the lives of those entrusted to our care in God’s Hands. The challenge of figuring out how that is supposed to work comes easier, I think, for children of believing parents. God is closer to children who have seen mom and dad pray and where mom and dad pray with them. It is good and essential even when that prayer is very simple, imperfect even. Yes, imperfect: I can remember as a child when with a bit of a heavy heart mom would say to us children that the night before the angels had to finish her prayers as she had fallen asleep on her knees by her bedside. A confidence or confession on her part to her young children that absolutely confirmed where she placed her hope!

We can fight and discuss about all sorts of things that should be better in the Church, about Sunday worship, about religion classes and pastoral care, even about the quality of preaching, but nothing, but nothing is more important than understanding from home, from the witness of our parents that our lives are in God’s Hands.

“Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!