Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
The man in the Gospel whose son our Lord heals at first also wanted to see. He asked Christ to come and heal his son, who was at the point of death. Jesus bemoans that it must be seen in order to believe. But that observation leads to the man having faith that the Savior could heal the man’s son, whether he was present or not. And this faith led to the healing of the son. Not only that, but the entire household believed in our Lord.
Do we have to see? My desire to see everything that is coming up is sometimes virtuous, because it helps me to adjust for upcoming realities and plan. But in other ways, it is pride, because I feel like I have to be in control. Maybe some of you know that feeling, too. If we see what is happening, we feel like we are in control of the situation. When we feel like we cannot see, we don’t feel like we have control over what is going on, and when something else comes to us, we may not be as prepared for it.
But over how much are we really in control? During the pandemic, we have seen so many things change in a moment’s notice. I remember 13 March, Thursday, hearing reports about schools closing down due to COVID, and then Friday, 14 March, the principal at St. Pius X school let me know that we were closed, and we didn’t reopen for the rest of that school year. As a parish school, we laid off a number of employees eventually, because they were aids and there were no kids to watch over in the building. I had plans to celebrate my tenth anniversary as a priest in June 2020, and even in March I was sure that it would still happen. But by May I made the decision to cancel, and celebrated only with my immediate family who could attend a small dinner I held in my house.
In our life, we control very little. But God is control of all things. He directs or allows things to happen for our good, but they don’t always seem that way. But, through it all, God is in control, and we are not. And because we are not in control, we are invited to have faith, to put our trust in God. God invites us to loosen our grip on things we think we control, but we don’t. He wants us to have confidence in Him as He cares for us.
Again, this can be hard for us, because our timing is not always God’s timing. There are families who go through extreme illnesses; friends or family who are killed in an unforeseen accident; an unexpected child is conceived, or a couple wants to conceive and cannot; an employee loses a job. In all these circumstances we so often presume that we know better. We think that if God had simply left the decision up to us, then everything would be ok.
But how much really goes ok if we are left in charge? We may be the best or one of the best in our particular field, but how many small examples of Divine Providence, which we had not organized or even considered, had to happen in our for our success to come about? How many people had to get up at just the right time and leave the house in order for us to avoid a traffic crash? If we think about all that happens for a single second to go right, it should make us fall on our knees in thanksgiving for that one second and all that had to occur just for that one second to go the way we want it to.
But even when we life doesn’t go as we want it to, St. Paul still reminds us to give thanks “for all things.” We could write Paul off if his life had been easy. Instead, the man who tells us to give thanks for all things was himself beaten, whipped, stoned, left for dead, abandoned by co-workers, and was held suspect by some believers. St. Paul talks about being comfortable in having nothing, in going hungry. And still, he says, give thanks.
It is easy to put our confidence in God when things are going the way we want it to, when we can see the healing taking place. But the virtue of faith is truly exercised when we can’t see things going right, when nothing seems to be going right, and yet we trust in God anyway. Faith is witnessed when we cannot see what God is doing, but we trust that He’s doing the best thing for our salvation, just as Jesus healed the man’s son even without the man being able to see that healing take place.
Our days are evil. Around us swirls hatred, confusion, division, immorality, idolatry, and a host of other evils too many to number here. But God called us to live in this time, to be a witness of His love and truth in this time, when so many don’t want true love, don’t want truth. We may sometimes say, with Frodo, that we wish that “none of this had ever happened.” But God wanted us to be alive in this time, and He is accomplishing some good. Further, we know it must be some great good, because it is opposed so much by the enemy. We cannot decide the times in which we live, but we can decide “what to do with the time that is given to us.” We cannot always see what God is doing, and the miracles He is accomplishing, but today, and everyday, the Lord invites us: have faith!
