Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I hope you saw that there is a Lazarus in your life as we heard in the gospel last week. A Lazarus is a person you ignore, or you are indifferent to. It may be your spouse or one of your kids or a sibling or friend. You see them, but you don’t really ‘see’ them. You don’t understand their sufferings, or their wounds. God has placed them close to you to save you, to help you to love, and learn how to give yourself to them. Ask the Lord for the grace to serve them and love them as they are, not the way you want them to be.
I heard on a retreat for priests a few years ago about the importance of being a father to those in the parish. I had heard this before, but it really touched me this time. The reason for celibacy for priests is not just a practical point of time but so that priests may truly have many ‘spiritual children’ that he loves as a father.
More than any other name my mom called me ‘father’ in the last few years of her dementia and not because I am a priest. She said the same thing to my brother, and many other people. And when I showed her a picture of her father, she always knew who it was. Not so when I show her a picture of herself or of my brothers. The fatherhood relationship is very deep in us, or can be very deep, depending upon our history. This will help us to see that my real father is God, my daddy, my poppy, my father.
Jesus has only one overriding purpose: that we kindle a life of faith in our souls little by little so that we would see life as he does. In our baptism Jesus plants a tiny seed of himself in us, the size of a mustard seed, and if we can take of it, it will grow, and we can become other Christs. This small seed is Christ himself planted in the earth of your being.
St. Paul says in the second reading to Timothy: fan into a flame the faith that was given to you at your ordination or at your wedding or at your First Communion or Confirmation. Fan it. Don’t let it die down! Come to church often. Ask for it to be increased. Use it, and teach it to the others. Do the little things in life with love, as St. Therese did. She realized she could not be an apostle or teacher or miracle worker or speak in tongues, but she could do the little things in her convent with love, and that changed everything.
Faith is not thing or an idea; it is a relationship with God who is your father. Paul continues to tell Timothy that he has been called to be holy, not because of any thing he has done, but only for God’s purpose and with his grace, his help.
The movie Little Boy is about a five-year-old boy who prays a lot and does works of mercy so that his dad to return home from World War II. At one point he is frustrated and teased by his older brother, so he starts to pray that the mountain at the edge of the town will move. He keeps praying and groaning, and there’s a tremor or small earthquake and the mountain comes closer to him and to all the people watching. The people in town are totally amazed. It is a fantastic movie of faith based on a true story.
A simple act of faith is what we see at the end of the gospel. The servant who is always faithfully serving isn’t proud and showing off. He says, we only did what we were supposed to do. He knows his strength comes from above, not from himself, and this is all that matters.