Faith Over Fear

(Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time-Year A; This homily was given on June 21, 2020 at San Gregorio Magno al Celio in Rome, Italy; See Jeremiah 20:10-13 and Matthew 10:26-23)

Our readings for this weekend are about faith and trust in the face of fear.  There is much, it seems, for Jeremiah to fear in the first reading.  He has heard the whispering and murmuring of those he had once been quite close to.  “Terror on every side!  Denounce!  Let us denounce him!”, they cry (Jeremiah 20:10).  Of course, we know that not long after this initial hostility, Jeremiah will be threatened, mistreated, imprisoned and thrown into a cistern!  He has every reason to fear, but instead he chooses to trust and have faith:

For to you I have entrusted my cause.  Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked!

—Jeremiah 20:12-13

The Gospel foretells similar woes for the Apostles, yet Christ urges them, “Fear no one” (Matthew 10:26).  While He will go on to speak of “those who kill the body,” the exact context at the beginning of the Gospel for this weekend is a continuation of the earlier reference He has made to calumny.  He had said to them, “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household” (Matthew 10:25).  This weekend He  begins by exhorting the Apostles not to fear those who maliciously lie with the intent of causing harm, either to one’s reputation or to one’s physical life.  

These are very challenging readings and they make a strong appeal to faith and trust in God.

Listening to these readings this morning, the person of Cardinal George Pell easily comes to mind.  Like Jeremiah, he also was denounced by calumnious voices set only on his demise.  Unjustly accused, he was convicted in a court of law and imprisoned.  By the grace of God, the truth prevailed and he was exonerated, but not before undergoing an ordeal that would require tremendous faith and trust in the promises of Christ.  

Focusing only on the element of fear, one could be tempted to live one’s faith in Christ a bit more, well, "carefully."  Perhaps it would be better, based upon these events, to not be so ready to witness to Jesus Christ or to follow the teachings of the Church where they come into conflict with the current culture.  Fear often tries to force such compromises.  

In his book, An Exorcist Tells His Stories,” Fr. Gabrielle Amorth (at that time the chief exorcist of Rome) writes about a question he had been asked many times.  Are not priests afraid to say yes when the bishop asks them to take on the responsibilities of an exorcist for the diocese?  After all, would not agreeing to be an exorcist anger the devil and make them more vulnerable to attacks?  Amorth answers that, in fact, there are two things that priests do frequently that anger the devil more than exorcism and do more to diminish the works of evil: Absolving sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and preaching the Gospel (he naturally takes the Sacrament of the Eucharist as a given).

The first one is rather obvious.  To absolve sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation does much more than drive away evil (it certainly does that).  It also restores the soul to sanctifying grace for those who were in mortal sin.  In a moment, a soul that is in danger of being lost forever because of mortal sin is suddenly brought back into a relationship with God that opens up to eternal life.  

Preaching the Gospel may come, perhaps, as a bit more of a surprise.  Preaching more powerful than an exorcism?  Really?  But Amorth goes on to describe the power of the word of God, and how preaching helps to form the soul in the virtue of faith.  Faith builds an environment around the believer that destroys ignorance and vice.  It helps one to trust in the promises of God, and inspires the soul to virtue and good works.  The devil thrives in ignorance and fear; faith allows the believer to understand that God is very, very near when trials come, not far away.  It allows one to live not by feelings and external appearances, but in the reality of God’s never-changing love.  The devil’s hands are tied by faith, because the power of God is very much at work in that environment.  

It is precisely for this reason—because of the power of the preaching of the Gospel and the faith that is generated—that Christ exhorts the Apostles this morning to “fear no one” and to get that message out!  He continues, “What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops” (Matthew 10:27).  We are here today because these men listened to the words of Christ and put them into practice.  They did so with words, their actions, and even by offering their very lives as martyrs.

What are these reading and the teachings of Christ challenging us to do this week?  First and foremost, we are called to embrace the virtue of faith and, like Jeremiah, entrust ourselves to the power of God.  Whenever we encounter fear or evil (and we will), we entrust ourselves to the providence and the power of God.  We seek to live not by feelings but by faith, and strive to grow in that virtue.  Like all virtues, faith is a gift.  If we want more faith, we need to ask God for it, and know that He is so very prepared to increase that theological virtue in us.

Secondly, we proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The priest preaches by virtue of his office but every believer is called to proclaim the Gospel message of salvation.  We are all called to make the message of mercy known to a world that desperately needs to hear it.  When we do that, we create an environment of faith for those around us.  So many times there are people we encounter that do not have an experience of the Sacraments, they do not know how very much God loves them and is ready to forgive and draw them close to Him.  But we do know and experience those things all the time.  When we make that truth known, we help to create an environment of faith and allow God to destroy the works of evil.  

Finally, we acknowledge how very effective the Sacrament of Reconciliation is, not only in driving away evil but also allowing sanctifying grace to create a wellspring of goodness in our lives and in the world.  Particularly for those of us who seek to embrace this sacrament frequently, we trust that God is continuing to form us in a way that makes us more faithful, more effective and more joyful disciples of Jesus Christ.  We all want that!  

Today we seek faith in the face of fear, and ask for the power of God to continue His amazing and glorious work in us.

Economy and COVID-19

(Trinity Sunday-Year A; This homily was given on June 7, 2020 in Rome, Italy; See Exodus 34:4-9 and John 3:16-18)

Today we celebrate the greatest, most central mystery of the Christian faith, God who reveals Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains how the Trinity is the source of all the other mysteries of our faith, and is itself the mystery that enlightens all the others (CCC, #234).  At the heart of our faith in the Holy Trinity we find two essential dimensions: theology and economy.  

Theologically, we understand God as an eternal exchange of love.  Within the Holy Trinity, and from all eternity, is the most intimate and powerful outpouring of love, an amazing reality that we could ponder for our entire lives and never fully grasp. This eternal exchange is something which we could never discover or come to know of our own accord.  It could only be known through God’s free decision to reveal Himself.

This revelation is intimately connected to what theologians call the “economy of God.”  That word, “economy,” is one that we use all the time.  It has become central in the discussion and activity of our world system in light of the global pandemic.  We can come back to that in a moment.  The word “economy,” in fact, goes back much, much further than our modern economic system.  It comes from the Greek word, oikonomia and essentially means “management of a household.”  A family of five persons has an economy, a way in which they govern and manage their household.  A polis in ancient Greece or any modern city has an economy.  Even so with God.  His creation and the way that He governs and directs the world is oikonomia.  In that external work and management, the inner life of God is made manifest.

The readings for this weekend, and this wonderful feast that we celebrate today, illustrate this in a beautiful way.  In the first reading, God gratuitously reveals Himself to Moses:

The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.

—Exodus 34:6

That eternal exchange of love is being shared with Moses, so that he may know Who it is that he is relating with.  In the Gospel of St. John this morning, that revelation is made even more explicit:

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

—John 3:16-17

Those are really beautiful words, but in many hidden ways and also in very obvious ones God has acted in human history, and continues to act each and every day, in such a way as to make present that love.  Those actions are also His revelation, and they give meaning and a deeper interpretation of the words.  

The Second Vatican Council expresses it in terms of economy: 

“This ECONOMY of revelation is realized by deeds and words, which are intrinsically bound up with each other.  As a result, the works performed by God in the history of salvation show forth and bear out the doctrine and realities dignified by the words; the words, for their part, proclaim the works, and bring to light the mystery they contain” (Dei Verbum, 2).

When God tells Moses that He is merciful and gracious, how He is slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity, He also reveals that holy love by forgiving, listening, guiding and shepherding His people through countless trials and conflicts.  At the Red Sea, He is faithful; after the people fall into the sin of idolatry, He is merciful and gracious; as Israel strives with God century after century, He is slow to anger and rich in kindness.  When we hear how God sent His only Son into the world save it, we recognize that Christ was crucified for love, and willingly poured Himself out on Calvary for the forgiveness of sins and the salvation that we so desperately need.  That eternal exchange of love which we could never know or discover is now unmistakably manifest in the words and actions of almighty God.

The remarkable truth of the Christian faith is that God now wants us to enter into that exchange.  One of the most stunning lines in the Catechism states, “By sending his only Son and the Spirit of love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange” (CCC, #221).

Of course, the reality is that we are not God.  We do not naturally pour ourselves out in love, nor are we always ready to receive it.  We require grace.  We need the supernatural help of God to live within the amazing love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  In Baptism, we are given that supernatural grace to love in an entirely new way.  When we are cleansed of Original Sin and the Holy Spirit begins to live in us and is made manifest in the Church—which is the gift of God we just celebrated last week at Pentecost—we are able enter into that eternal exchange of love and we are transformed.  

Before we say or do anything, we are changed and renewed in the inner life of God.  But in order for that reality to reach its final end, we must be fruitful.  We must cooperate with God’s grace and make that love effective in the world we live in.  In other words, who and what we are, theologically, must also be expressed in oikonomia.  This is what the world longs for, now more than ever.

The world as we know it is suffering.  We are struggling on every continent right now in the wake of this global pandemic.  The effects of the coronavirus, as we well know, are more than just physical; COVID-19 has affected us economically, as well.  Because of the lockdowns and isolation measures, the world’s economy is struggling.  

The World Economic Forum has recently introduced the need for what they refer to as “The Great Reset” of the economy, to begin anew with a focus that will benefit the ecology, address global inequalities, and build the sustainability and resilience that will endure well beyond the COVID-19 crisis.  We can and should pray for the success of this plan.  It is a very positive proposal for change, but no world economic plan can fully reset the world we live in.  Only love can truly reset the world, and our faith teaches us that Christ came into the world to do exactly that.  The Holy Trinity has the power to reanimate the culture we live in and reset the oikonomia.  But God is depending upon us to cooperate with His plan to do that.  

The secret to resetting the economy is found in the heart of our faith, and in the central mystery of God Himself: “By sending his only Son and the Spirit of love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange” (CCC, #221).

May we allow God to penetrate every dimension of our lives, being transformed in that eternal exchange of love that is already present in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  We pray this week to fully participate in the economy of God, expressing that love in all that we say and in all that we do.