A Homily for the Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost

+ “Confide, filia, fides tua te salvum fecit.” (Take heart, daughter; your faith has saved you.)
 
These words of Our Lord, addressed to the long-suffering woman who dared not to ask for healing, but who simply sought to touch the hem of Our Lord’s cloak, are some of the most beautiful and heartening words of the Gospel. In addressing them to us through her Sacred Liturgy this morning Our Holy Mother the Church wishes to give us heart—for we too are often long-suffering: our growth in virtue may not be what it should; as frequently as weeds appear in the garden vices continue to take root in our souls; the more-than-difficult challenges that the state of the world—and of the Church—discourage or even depress us; the burdens of our particular vocation weigh us down and seem insurmountable…there seems to be no end of difficulty and suffering. Perseverance seems more like a sentence than a promise of salvation.
 
Yet, “If I only touch his garment, I shall be made well,” the Church teaches us this morning. If only we have the humility and strength somehow to reach beyond our sufferings and illnesses and to connect with the Lord of Heaven and Earth, we shall experience the reality contained in those most beautiful words: “Confide, filia, fides tua te salvum fecit.”
 
But how? The answer is given to us in the Gospel: it was the woman’s faith that saved her. It is faith in Jesus Christ as the definitive revelation of God in history and as the unique saviour of mankind that is required of us, nothing less—faith that He can heal us, faith that He wishes to heal us, that He wishes us to set us free from what the collect of this morning’s Mass describes as the weeds of sin that have grown up in us and in which we have become entangled because of our weakness.
 
How, then, can we reach out and touch the hem of Christ’s garment? How can we experience His healing and find our salvation?
 
In the first place we must make an act of faith; we must reach towards Him. Even if as much as we can do is to pray the honest and noble words of the father of the boy possessed by an unclean spirit: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief,” (Mk 9:24) the Lord will help us. Indeed, He will turn to us and look at us and He will love us as he did the rich young man (cf. Mk 10:21) and show us the path which leads to our healing and to our salvation.
 
Secondly, we must follow Him along that path, however so unexpected its route may be, taking the next step along it each day, in faith, in the knowledge that he who perseveres unto the end shall be saved. (cf. Mt 24:13) In 1833, whilst still an Anglican, becalmed on the sea in a boat destined for Marseille, St John Henry Newman wrote the poem “Lead Kindly Light” in which he prayed: “…I do not ask to see the distant scene; one step enough for me.” One step; one step further in faith and in trust today: that is what is required of us.  (This is sound advice in a world where we are often tempted, particularly in questions of vocational discernment, to make Almighty God sign a contract detailing all we are prepared for Him to ask of us!)
 
Thirdly, in taking these steps each day we must continue to reach out and touch the Lord in search of His grace and healing, most especially in the Sacred Liturgy and the Sacraments, where He is at work in His Church today—and indeed, where He turns to us, looks at us, loves us and touches us with His healing power. His self-sacrifice for our redemption is renewed daily upon our altars for our nourishment and strength. His forgiveness attends us in the Sacrament of Penance. His healing comes to us in the anointing of extreme unction, etc. So too, we touch Him in our love and service of our neighbour, most especially in our care for those in need, receiving an abundance of grace and strength in return.
 
As the relics on the altar this morning attest, this year this Sunday includes the commemoration of All Saints of the Benedictine order. They too, great abbots, monastic bishops and popes, simple monks and novices, nuns and lay oblates, reached out again and again to touch the hem of Christ’s garment in circumstances as varied and sometimes even more distressing than our own. Their perseverance to the end, their taking of one step at a time in faith, has now been rewarded.
 
As we offer this Holy Mass in communion with these great Benedictine saints, and with all the saints, let us beg their intercession that we too shall persevere unto the end, beginning this very day by taking that next step in faith and trust along the path which the Lord calls us and ourselves hear the Lord’s words: “Take heart…your faith has saved you. +