HOMILY FOR THE 29TH
SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, 2013 YEAR C
There was a hit song by the Rascals many years ago
called, “How Can I Be Sure.” The beginning lyric of the song is, “How can I be
sure, in a world that’s constantly changing? How can I be sure, where I stand
with you?” The song is about two lovers. The male wants desperately to trust
his love to his girlfriend. He admits that he is only happy when she is around,
without her he wants to die, however, can he really trust his love to her? Can
he really trust her love for him? This never gets resolved in the song. At the
end of the song, he asks the
question, “How can I be sure, I’ll be sure with you?”
Does
this describe our relationship with God? Do we really trust our love to God? Do
we really trust that God loves us back?
We hear
about trust in the story of the Israelites going into battle. Moses is told by
God that the Israelites will win the battle over their enemies as long as he
raises his hands high. Military generals and strategists would look at this
battle plan of Moses with abject horror. Moses is not an ignorant man. In spite
of what military wisdom would dictate, Moses trusts in the wisdom of God, even
when it seems like utter folly. So he goes to a hill overlooking the
battlefield, raises his hands and Joshua engages Amalek in battle. As long as
he keeps his hands raised the battle goes well for the Israelites. But, Moses
is an old man and after a while, his arms tire and his hands begin to drop and
the battle turns against the Israelites. So Aaron and Hur quickly come to his
aid and have Moses sit on a large rock and standing on either side of him,
supports his hands in the air until the battle is finally won by Joshua. Moses
had faith in God and in having faith, trusted what God told him.
In the
gospel Jesus tells the parable about the widow who harangues a corrupt judge
until he finally settles a case in her favor. Jesus reminds us that we must
pray always trusting that God hears our prayers. Though it may seems that at
times God is deaf to our prayers, God does answer our prayers. Then, Jesus ends
this lesson with an alarming question. When he returns in glory at the second
coming, will he find faith on earth?”
So we
come back to the question, do we really trust God? The words faith and trust
are interchangeable in the gospels. When Jesus cures people in the gospels, he
most often uses the words, “Your faith has saved you.” When Jesus uses the word
“faith” he is not referring to some dogma or creedal statement, he is referring
to the trust that the sick person had in him. Whether it be the paralytic
lowered through the roof on a stretcher, the woman with the hemorrhage, the
raising of Lazarus from the dead, or any other miracle, the key to the healing
is the person’s faith in Jesus to heal them. The question that Jesus poses to
you and me is that if he were to come back right now, today, would he find that
we really trust him, do we really have faith in him. In the end, faith is all about trust.
It is
easy to trust in God when we are healthy and everything is going our way. Where
our faith, our trust in God gets tested is when we find ourselves in the dark
times, when it seems that God has abandoned us. “How can I be sure? I really,
really want to know. I really, really want to know?” cries the lover in the
song.
How can
I be sure, during the times when it seems that God is not answering my prayers?
We may find ourselves feeling like the prophet Jeremiah. “God you have duped
me, and I allowed myself to be duped,” cries the prophet Jeremiah at his most
depressed. The people are persecuting Jeremiah, making life an utter terror for
him. He cries out, “I wish I had never been born!” Nevertheless, Jeremiah
perseveres and carries on. We are born with free will. We can turn our backs on
God and walk away from God, but, where does that get us? Will not the darkness
in our lives only grow as we walk away from the light of God?
I
remember when I was first diagnosed with the MRSA infection, I was praying
fervently to God that the infection get cured and I would not have to have my
artificial hip taken out. I knew what the worse case scenario was, and I didn’t
want to go there. What I didn’t know at the time was that I had the worse,
worse, case scenario. The infection didn’t get cured, it grew more serious. Not
only was the hip taken out, but the infection didn’t go away. The antibiotics
continued to fail, and I was facing a reality that the infection could possibly
kill me. In the darkest of those times, while I was confused as to the method
by which God was answering my prayers, my trust in God did not wane. I had no
other option than to trust that God always had my best interests at heart, even
if that might end in my dying.
For
hope at these moments, I looked to Jesus dying on the cross. Jesus cries out in
agony on the cross, “My God, my God why have you abandoned me?” God the Father
does not answer Jesus’ pleas at that moment. Even though Jesus is dying, Jesus
does not lose trust in God the Father, but to his last breath, entrusts his
life into the hands of his loving Father. God the Father finally answers Jesus’
prayer by raising Jesus from the dead.
How can
I be sure? It is more than just believing in God. It is matter of trusting in
our God. Fr Donald Cozzens in his book, Notes From the Underground,
suggests that whenever we say the word “believe” as we recite the creed, we
think the word, “trust”. “I trust in one
God, the Father almighty. I trust in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of
God. I trust in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life. I trust in one,
holy catholic and apostolic Church.”
The
more we use the word “trust” in our relationship with God, the more we will be
following the path of Jesus. As we heard last week in Paul’s second letter to
Timothy, “This saying is trustworthy: If we have died with him we shall also
live with him, if we persevere we shall also reign with him. But if we deny him
he will deny us. If we are unfaithful he remains faithful, for he cannot deny
himself.” “How can I be sure?” I can be sure, because I trust in God.
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