Introduction
I hope many of you had the opportunity to share in Archbishop
Etienne’s Mass from the Cathedral chapel earlier this morning.
There’s nothing that draws us more closely together as the Body of
Christ than the Eucharist. And that’s true even at times like this
when we’re not able to actually receive the Eucharist.
This morning, rather than celebrate
another Mass, I just want to be together with you in prayer and to
reflect a little with you on what we are all experiencing in these days
that are unlike any we’ve ever experienced. I’m going to use the
gospel for this fourth Sunday of Lent as the framework for our prayer,
and wasn’t it great to have it read by those wonderful young people –
all in the same family!
But first let me say how much I wish we could
all be together in the Cathedral right now and how much I miss seeing
you. Being quarantined is no fun, is it! I feel a bit like a caged
lion! But at least I know I’m in good company – the company of all our
senior parishioners, for starters, and there’s quite an army of us! Even
so, social beings that we are, we’re not meant to be in isolation. So
my heart goes out especially to those of you who live alone. I
hope you have family or friends who are looking out for you and checking
in with you, and if you don’t, I hope you’ll let us know at the parish
so we can find someone to reach out to you and make sure you’re all
right.
Homily
Wasn’t it great to have that gospel story read by those wonderful
young people – all in the same family, by the way! It’s a familiar story
and a powerful one, and one I’ve preached on year after year, but this
year it put me in mind of a conversation I had not long ago with a woman
who shared with me her strong conviction that this Coronavirus pandemic
is God’s punishment on a wicked world for all of its sins, for all of
our sins. She told me that God is telling us to repent or perish. I did
my best to hear what she was saying and then, as gently as I could, I
tried to help her see that that’s not the God I believe in; nor is it
the God Jesus came to reveal.
I think the gospel story of the man born blind makes that point. In
the story, Jesus’ disciples were coming from the same place as that
woman when they asked him whose sin was responsible for the man’s
blindness – his own or his parents. Jesus’ response is very
telling: “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of
God may be made manifest in him.”
I think those words of Jesus can help us understand what is going on
in our world right now, and they are a far better answer than the one my
woman friend suggested. But how in the world are “the works of
God” to be made manifest by this awful scourge , this out-of-control
pandemic, that seems to be bringing our world and our personal lives to
a standstill?
Maybe it will help if we first reflect on just what are ‘the works of
God? The works of God are many and wondrous. They are all around us, of
course, but in the story of the healing of the man born blind, the works
of God that stand out are things like compassion, healing, mercy,
and love. In giving the man his sight after a lifetime of living in the
dark, Jesus was doing the works of God, he was showing forth –
manifesting – the merciful, compassionate face of a loving God.
Back to my conversation with that woman. In the few minutes we had to
speak, I did my best to open her eyes to a different way of
viewing the unfolding crisis of the Coronavirus, to help her see that
the works of God – compassion, healing, mercy, and love – are being made
manifest in the response of so many in our world right now. So many!
I think, for instance, of the people in the medical profession –
doctors, nurses, technicians – many of whom are daily and unselfishly
putting their own lives at risk in order to care for the victims of the
virus. They are doing the works of God. God is being made manifest by
their compassion and love.
I think of the people in the scientific community who are racing
against the clock, using every ounce of their scientific skill, to
develop a vaccine. They are doing the works of God.
I think of first-responders who are daily and bravely putting the
public health and safety ahead of their own health and safety. They are
doing the works of God.
And so are unsung heroes like clerks in our
grocery stores, bus drivers, pharmacists, mail carriers, and so many
others who are working through this crisis without the luxury of being
able to work from home.
And then there are all of you parents who are doing everything you
can during this trying time to reassure, encourage, and explain all this
to your kids – when maybe you yourselves could use some reassuring and
encouraging. Don’t sell yourselves short: you are doing the works of
God.
And so are our elected officials, many of whom are working to pass
legislation that will lessen the devastating effect that this pandemic
is having on the social and economic fabric of our country and of the
whole world, but especially on the lives of the poor, the poor who are
always the ones to suffer the most.
The list could go on. In each case I have cited, the works of God –
compassion, healing, mercy, love – are being made manifest in much the
same way as Jesus manifested them when he healed the man born blind.
And, my friends, we are called to manifest those same works of God.
We are. This moment we find ourselves in – scary and difficult as it is
– is full of opportunities for us to manifest the mercy and compassion
of God.
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We do so when we take time to check on
an elderly family member, neighbor, friend, or even stranger – and
maybe provide a meal, a word of encouragement, a phone call.
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We do so when we are scrupulous in
observing all the important precautions regarding personal hygiene,
social distancing – doing everything we can not to put ourselves or
others at risk of exposure.
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We also manifest the mercy, compassion,
and love of God in our prayer for the victims of the virus and their
families, for doctors and nurses and first responders, and for each
other, especially those who are lonely and isolated, and those who
have lost their jobs, their security, their very livelihood.
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And when we pray, too, for employers
who have had to make the agonizing but unavoidable decision to lay
off employees;
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and when we pray for and lobby our
elected leaders, that they will not allow partisan politics to keep
them from passing legislation that will quickly bring relief to
those who need it most.
My friends, I hope you will agree with me that the question today is
not, ‘whose sin was it that this should have happened?’ No, the
question is what is it that I can do to manifest the works of God, to
show the compassionate, merciful, loving face of God to as many as
possible!
May the week ahead open our eyes to as many of those opportunities as
possible, and may we hold each other in prayer and in love. And
please know that you are uppermost in my mind and my prayers these days
and that I will be grateful for your prayers!
Father Michael G. Ryan
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