We are lucky here. In our towns, our homes, especially in the United States, we have access to so many wonderful things. Clean water, food, and most importantly to the Sacraments, daily if we so choose. The Pandemic has reminded us how fragile that is. How easy it is to take for granted something that is always right there in front of us. In today’s Gospel, we see that same attitude from the people who grew up in the same hometown as Jesus. They were so used to Jesus that they didn’t recognize who He truly was. Instead of seeing God, they felt they already had all the answers.
In a world filled with instant knowledge at our fingertips, and a heavy focus on the how of the modern scientific mind, we often forget the why. The “why” often gets lost in the shuffle. We have mastered the atomic structure, ushering in the nuclear age. Delved into the quantum mechanics of our universe probing the inner workers of the smallest of particles, and with powerful telescopes peered into the heavens to catch glimpses of the past mirrored in our night sky. COVID-19 has reminded us that all around is a microscopic world that can so influence our lives that even the smallest of movements can change the way life is lived, even to the ends of the Earth.
It’s easy with all of that to dismiss the miraculous, the supernatural. To look at what’s going on around us and begin to explain it away. It’s like we are saying with those people in the Gospel: “Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary?” Don’t we know him?” Miracles can and do still happen. The how fills up our lives but it is the why that should be driving us, motivating us! God has been looking forward to this moment, right here, right now, since before time began. All of the billions of intricate events that had to happen for you to be right where you are reading this blog, He orchestrated making it possible. Because the “why” is what gives us the Eucharist, what makes it possible for Jesus Christ to be present right here, right now.
The why is love. It is the love of God for us, the love of God that is so pure and intense that He would do all of this if even for just one of us, even if the universe had to be created so that just one more individual would be able to experience eternity with Him. In the Sanctuary of a Catholic church, the greatest of all miracles occurs. In the hands of the priest, through the words of consecration, the Holy Spirit descends and turns ordinary bread and wine into the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, our Lord. We believe that the Eucharist is not a symbol, but truly the divine presence of God. It literally is Him. All of the power in the Universe, all knowledge, unlimited potential, and creativity. All contained in that tiny, white host.
If God can do that? Why do we have so much trouble believing He can heal us? Today after communion, we gathered at the foot of the cross and I was privileged to pray the following prayer over each person as they came up. Placing two candles in a cross near their throat I said:
Through the intercession of Saint Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from every disease of the throat and from every other illness. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (+).
Believe those words. Believe in the power of God to perform miracles, a power still active today. Then place all of our worries into His hands, because “the kindness of the LORD is from eternity to eternity toward those who fear him, And his justice toward children’s children among those who keep his covenant.”
Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time: February 3rd, 2021