A Homily for the Third Sunday after Epiphany

​+ The miracles with which the Church teaches us through the Holy Gospel of this Mass are worked by Our Lord because of one reality: the faith of those who asked for His saving intervention. One could say that these miracles required the faith of the petitioners—though, of course, we must not limit the sovereign power of Almighty God.
 
Nevertheless, the leper confessed his belief in the power of Christ’s healing power. The centurion humbly professed his faith in the efficacy of the healing word of Our Lord. Both received the miraculous healings for which they asked.
 
Leprosy and palsy are more treatable in our medically advanced, sophisticated times. We don’t really need miracles to deal with them, seemingly. Nor, apparently, do we need faith, for everything can be planned and calculated and organised according to the quantifiable realities with which we are dealing. Am I ill? My doctor will do what is necessary. Am I in trouble with the law? My lawyers will deal with that. Do I have money problems? Bankers and accountants can solve them. Do I have problems with my spouse or family? Counselling is available. Are authorities acting in ways with which I disagree? Political agitation is called for.
 
And yet, in our ever-advancing world how many people still cry out in anguish in the face of incurable illness, of injustice, of financial ruin, of breakdowns in family relationships, of governmental malfeasance and before many other debilitating realities! We can plan and we can calculate and refine the science, but we are still confronted with situations that render us immobile, inadequate and unable to move forward. Medical science, the law, financiers, counsellors and politicians can only do so much.
 
All of a sudden we discover that we are covered with leprous spots. We realise that we are in fact suffering from palsy. We are alone. We cannot ‘get out of this’. To continue is simply impossible. The faith we had placed in the progressive processes of our prosperous world has been shown to be in vain. Disaster and eventually death will overtake us. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
 
And so shall there be, Our Holy Mother the Church teaches us this morning, if we do not have faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ as the unique saviour of mankind. For without faith in Him, without perseverance according to the Truth He revealed which is faithfully taught by the Church He founded, worldly disaster and eternal death shall overtake us. If I do not believe, my leprosy will not be cured. If I am incredulous, my servant’s palsy will run its course.
 
But if I do believe, the miraculous power of God can work freely in me, amongst those for whom I am responsible, and indeed more widely in the world. Faith is the key. My loving acceptance of the Truth revealed in the person of Christ unlocks the power of the Kingdom of Heaven. Faith is the catalyst through which it can transform me and through me, the world. Politics and economics and finances and medicine and the law and human relationships are of great importance, certainly, but when they are the business of men and women who have faith in Christ, they take their rightful place in advancing the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. Through the supernatural gift of faith active in each one of us by grace of our Baptism, God elevates and perfects nature—our very selves, and all those with whom and that with which our particular vocation leads us to encounter or deal.

True miracles of healing excepted, faith in Jesus Christ does not remove us from the stark trials and sufferings that arrive in this life. We are not in heaven yet! The words “But I can’t do this, I can’t go on…” still tempt us to the antithesis of faith: to despair. “It’s impossible; it’s beyond my strength to endure!” I exclaim. “How can a loving God ask this of me?”
 
St Benedict dealt with monks who thought that what was asked of them was beyond them. He advised them to make due representation to the abbot, as should we in prayer to God in times of great testing and trial (Our Lord prayed thus in the garden of Gethsemane; cf. Mt 26:39). And then St Benedict almost blithely teaches the monk that, “if after his representations the superior still persist in his decision and command, let the subject know that this is expedient for him, and let him obey out of love, trusting in the assistance of God.” (Rule, ch. 68)
 
Loving obedience to all that God commands us, and filial trust in the assistance of His grace in persevering fruitfully unto the end in bearing its burdens: this is the miracle which Christ works daily in those who have faith in Him. For an increase of faith in ourselves, and for the giving of that gift to those without it, let us implore Almighty God at His altar this morning. +