13th Sunday Homily God is Life

Several years ago, a couple had a toddler; all beautiful and healthy, except for an undetected genetic disorder. At 18 months the disorder kicked in and within 2 weeks he died. His parents were devastated. A community gathered around them, a funeral home offered services for free. The parents then began a project to raise awareness and funds towards this disorder.

My one grandmother, born over 100 years ago, married my grandfather, and were married for around 50 years. During most of that time, my grandmother never learned to drive. She let my grandfather do all the driving. However, as they got older something changed, and they decided she needed to learn. So she did, but mostly she had grandpa drive. He died suddenly of a massive heart attack. She was devastated. She mourned. Then she started driving on her own; going out with friends, visiting. She enjoyed it and for almost 20 years she lived a new independence.

A young man got caught up in a lifestyle that eventually led to substance addiction and abuse, and also an abusive relationship. Finally he had enough sense and courage to leave the relationship, endured a bout of homelessness and hunger, but got clean, reunited with family, got a job and has found love.

I think if any of us were to pause, reflect, remember, we would find similar stories of people dealing with tragedy and difficult situations, going through them and then thriving on the other side. And we can also probably find stories of people who simply gave up.

Maybe we ourselves fit into one of these stories. How many of us faced betrayal, heartbreak, loss, ruin, sickness…

One thing about some people, some Catholics, that tends to bother me, is they have this idea that God is out to get them. God causes us to suffer. God exacts God’s vengeance. Granted, a certain literal reading of the Old Testament can give us this idea, but..that is not our Catholic understanding.

Jesus clearly reveals the true nature of God: God is love, God is life.

Israel's understanding of God grew from an understanding that fit their times to what we have in the 1st reading from the book of Wisdom; written a couple of hundred years before Jesus’ birth.

This God took an enslaved people and freed them.  This God took a nomadic people and formed a nation.  This God called out to them in exile, brought them home, and walked with them through so much. They began to see God is life.

Destruction, true death, these are consequences of our bad choices, of our greed, our ignorance, our immaturity, and at times our choice for evil.

Jesus encounters life and death in our gospel; obvious ways and not so obvious. In these encounters we find ways to seek out life.

The obvious ones, a sick little girl and a woman with a serious health issue. The less obvious ones...There life is shown in the hope and trust of parents and the woman seeing something in Jesus and taking the risk to ask for help. Life in that they persevere when there is pressure to stop.

Death, it is the crowds who gave up on the girl, lost hope, told Jesus to go away.  Death, it is the poverty the woman faced seeking help that did nothing.  Death was the shame she had to endure of being out and alone.  Death was the lack of faith, the fear, the naysayers.

God is life. Jesus shows us Life; and that life is about new possibilities, new opportunities, about seeing in a different and new way.  This is not a PollyAnn -ish, attitude; where we ignore the pain and suffering.  A life in Christ means that we see it, we will have to experience it, mourn, but then we get up and continue to live and to love.  A disciple’s life is to say “I am sad, scared, and/or angry, but I will hope, I will love, I will forgive, and be free to live.”

I love what Jesus says to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace…” Salvation was then and there, it was her opportunity, freed from her illness to live!

We humans, we Christians, we Catholics have a mission, to live and to live fully. Not encumbered by setbacks, disappointment or loss. Not by sins or ignorance of ourselves or the sins of others. Not even by the cruelty of others. We also are called to acknowledge our own mistakes, seek forgiveness, and then move forward.  Reflect on Jesus’ words from the cross: Father forgive them…. He wasn’t angry, seeking vengeance, he only sought reconciliation, peace.

Jesus’ ultimate revelation is that God is life. Therefore we look for new ways to find life and be alive.

Eucharist calls us to this. We come, give thanks to God for life, and then inspired, graced we go forth to live, to seek new opportunities….  This invisible reality of divine life is made visible in the bread and wine.  We consume it, as the very real presence of the Son of God raised after being killed by human violence.  To remind us of life; to impel us to move forwards, to see differently, maybe take some risks.  To find life by forgiving, in mercy, compassion, and generosity, with humility. In knowing at the deepest of levels within, we are all Daughters and Sons of God, deeply, deeply loved, created to be fully alive.  So we go, we go and live and we go and help others to live.