Sunday Feb 22 Homily

7th Sunday in Ordinary time. This was my homily, plus or minus a few words of course.
“We have never seen anything like this”.
Many critics of our Catholic faith, and even some misguided, so-called Catholic theologians, and sometimes lately politicians that claim they are Catholic, make the claim that Jesus Christ was just one of those great philosophers or religious teachers like Confucius and Socrates.

But the Gospel passage we just listened to is one of the many New Testament scenes that prove those critics wrong.

These kinds of critics and Catholics “in name only” may have personal reasons for not wanting to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. But if so, they have no business pretending that their personal beliefs are the true Catholic faith.

We see that the scribes in this Gospel passage are shocked because Jesus forgives this man's sins.
They understood, much better than many of us do today, that every sin, small or large, is primarily an offense against God, so only God can forgive it.
Every sin, every evil deed, unjustly uses God's great gift to mankind, free will, as an instrument of rebellion against God.

And so, the only person who can truly forgive sin is the person whom sin primarily offends: God himself.

The scribes understood this, and therefore they understood that when Jesus said to the paralyzed man, "Child, your sins are forgiven," he was claiming to be God, to do something that only God can do.
As we’ve seen before, we see that Jesus detects this silent criticism.

Now, if he were just another rabbi, just another philosopher, this would have been the perfect time to say something like: "Hey guys, wait a minute. Don't think I'm trying to say I am God or something, I'm just using poetic language, OK?"
But Jesus did just the contrary.
By performing an astounding miracle, he actually emphasized both his claim to be able to forgive sins, and his ability to follow through on such a claim.
He leaves no room for doubt: Jesus Christ is, indeed, Emmanuel, God among us, or else he is nothing at all.

St Mark gives us another beautiful insight about Christ in this Gospel passage.
He not only shows us that Christ does indeed claim to be God, and proves his claim by healing the paralytic.
But he also shows us what kind of God Christ is.

The scribes are sitting there watching Jesus respond to the spectacle of this paralyzed man being lowered down through a hole in the ceiling.
(Let’s not go into whether or not the roof was easy to get off or not, the simple fact that they went through all of that work to get the man to Jesus speaks a lot in itself, regardless of the roof construction.)

As the drama unfolds, the scribes are offended, irked, even outraged at Jesus' apparently blasphemous claim to forgive sins.
Instead of voicing their objections, however, they grumble silently in their hearts.
But even though the scribes don't say anything, Jesus knows exactly what his critics are thinking.
He does the same with us, by the way; no matter how much we try to hide certain uncomfortable thoughts or feelings from God, he sees them all. Trying to impress God, or deceive him, therefore, is an exercise in frustration. The prayer of a Christian should be, above all, sincere.

But what does Jesus do with this privileged knowledge of the scribes hearts?
Does he arrogantly brandish it to humiliate his unjust critics?
No, he much prefers to use it for their own good.
Knowing how difficult it is for them to accept his claims, and how reluctant they are to engage in honest dialogue with him, he doesn't give up on them.
Instead, he gives them irrefutable evidence to help overcome all their difficulties: he performs an astounding miracle.
That's the kind of God he is: he wants to win over our hearts; he wants to rule by love and truth, not by force.

Because Jesus is true man, the Church has always encouraged us to approach him confidently, to speak with him from our hearts, to trust him without hesitation, to enjoy his presence as we enjoy the presence of an older brother.

But because Jesus is also true God, the Church has also always encouraged us to make reverence and religious respect an important part of our prayer and worship.
This explains so many of our beautiful traditions.

It explains why we try to dress with elegance when we come to Mass, as if coming to a wedding feast.
It explains why we should do our best to reserve our casual and friendly conversations for outside of the church while here inside we make use of silence and recollection to help remind us that we are in God's presence.
It explains why we surround the celebration of Mass with so many rich and beautiful symbols:
the vestments of the priest and deacon and the special clothes of the altar servers; incense symbolizing our prayers rising towards God's heavenly throne;
why the church encourages sacred music that helps lift our hearts to God;
candles, and beautiful sacred vessels made with precious metals and sometimes adorned with precious stones;
all of these symbolize our awareness that during Mass we are addressing ourselves to Jesus Christ, true man and true God, and that in the Holy Eucharist it is the eternal God himself who comes among us.
As we continue with today's Mass, let's stir up this awareness.
Let's not make the mistake the scribes made, closing ourselves off from the magnificent mystery of the Incarnation.
It is good for our souls, it brings wisdom, peace, and joy to our hearts, to look with awe and wonder upon the face of God made visible in Christ, because that's what we're made to do.

One thing that I challenge and encourage you all to do, especially if you have children or grandchildren, is to take some time out of your schedule either this coming Tuesday Feb 24 or the following Tuesday March 3. During those evenings the religious ed department is sponsoring a pilgrimage through the Shrine. There are 8 stops throughout the church and at each stop there is the opportunity to learn more about your faith and more about why we do some of the things we do here at church as well as more about some of the symbols of our faith. You will take home items to help you make a prayer table, especially appropriate for this season of Lent.

Make no mistake, the religious ed students and grade school students had the opportunity to take this tour. But SO many of the positive comments were made by the parents, and so many of them agreed that they had learned more about their faith that they had either forgotten, or maybe had never learned.

I promise you if you take that tour and over the coming weeks of Lent you grow in your faith life through deeper prayer, you too will be able to say, “We have never seen anything like this”.