Homily Thirtieth Monday of Ordinary Time (Lk: 13:10-17) “Affliction that Leads to Hope”
Homily Thirtieth Monday of Ordinary Time (Lk: 13:10-17) “Affliction that Leads to Hope”
On the East wall of our church there are several small windows that depict the miracles of Jesus. One of them has a picture of a woman being healed of a hemorrhage. She kneels before Jesus with a crowd around her. Part of that crowd are the rigid religious people who are mad that he is healing the woman at all. Perhaps they were mad that this takes place on the Sabbath.
We may all feel like this woman right now. Some of us are bent over with worry. Some are struggling with infirmity. We stare down at the ground unable to raise our heads. We need somebody to pick us up.
Does Jesus want us to be in this state. We might start to doubt after so many months of battling the Coronavirus. The numbers of cases continue to rise, and we may wonder if all our sacrifice is worth the effort. We are ready to give up, to throw in the towel.
We start to doubt whether God is such a loving God after all. We hear of people in the hospital. We, unfortunately, we also hear of many deaths. How can God allow such suffering?
We need to remember that God does not cause misfortune. Nor does God provide miracles to everyone who asks. The one thing that the Lord does is walk with us in our pain and anguish. Our God can pour his grace into our hearts and give us incredible strength.
We need to remember the words of St. Paul in the Letter to the Romans (5:3-4)
“We know that affliction makes for endurance, and endurance for tested virtue, and tested virtue for hope.”
Reflection Questions:
- What kind of difficulties have I made it through in the past? Were there times when I did not think I could face tomorrow and did with surprising strength?
- Have my struggles made me a better person or a bitter person?
Have I grown in empathy because of suffering?
Dear Parishioners,
The brick work on the new garage we are building is complete. We have quite a few half bricks (brick facing) left over. Rather than throw these bricks away we would like to sell them. They might be used for a variety of things, such as pavers or to build a small structure like a mailbox.
If you are interested in some of these bricks, you can contact our office or speak to Don Lewis who supervised the garage project. We will have more information soon. We just would like to see if there are any creative people who would want to use this brick veneer.
May our Lady and all the Angels and Saints watch over you today.
Fr. Mark