This is the Baptismal record of the Parish of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, Lily of the Mohawks. It is only one and a half pages long, for we are an infant parish in a way. In another way, of course, we are much older than that. But it’s been a good year for Baptisms, a good year for new life, a good year for beginnings.
What do you think is the ratio of Baptisms to burials in our infant parish? Just quickly form a wild guess. That’s always an interesting metric to look at. Certainly one year isn’t long enough to declare a trend; there’s just too much random fluctuation at work. But I’ll bet few if any of you guessed that we’re about even. I’ve mentioned that to a few people and they’ve all been very surprised. We’re just about even.
I shared that simple measure because I thought you might be surprised too, and in a good way. And I shared it knowing that you’ll realize it’s only the surface of a much more profound story. The names I’ve just read are immortal souls, sons and daughters of the Most High. As God looks over all he has made, from the teeming bacteria in floating speck of dust to the maelstrom of the furthest quasar, and into realms beyond anything we’ve observed or even imagined, God sees nothing more important, nothing more significant than these sons and daughters. For them He spread the universe and set the stars in motion. For them He became Incarnate and stepped into His own creation. For them He felt nails pierce His flesh, and for them He defeated Hell and opened the gates of Paradise.
I’ve recited these things that you already know to summon a background, to set the stage for Christ’s question. “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
It’s an alarming moment, because it’s alarming that Jesus considers this an open question. Hasn’t He begun something that will go on forever? Hasn’t He promised that against His Church the gates of hell shall not prevail? Hasn’t He promised us the Holy Spirit to guide us in all truth, and Michael and all the angels to protect us?
Indeed He has, but in this moment Jesus acknowledges that there is a response that each of us decides for himself or herself. We have an essential freedom that even He will not violate. His verdict has been cast, His decision has been made. When He asks whether faith will remain on earth, He’s asking about our decision. Jesus’ ‘yes’ to us was unlimited, encompassing even the torturous Cross. What about our ‘yes’ to Him? Our ‘yes’ to Him is called religion. It’s called Catholicism.
God knows we aren’t always all that good at it. Our ‘yes’ always seems incomplete, imperfect, falling short of wholeheartedness. There’s a contest in each of us between love and selfishness, between God’s will and our own, between virtue and vice. It’s like a battle for ground, with two armies gaining and losing, sometimes going one way and sometimes the other. Just like the battle between Israel and Amalek in Exodus, our first reading. It’s a struggle!
Israel had the better of it.. when? Remember? Israel advanced as long, and only as long, as Moses held his arms stretched over the people. That’s the posture of blessing. As long as they fought under the blessing of God, mediated through God’s chosen man, they advanced. When they fought outside of that mediated blessing, they lost. Is it too much of a stretch to see ourselves here? When we bring our struggle under God’s blessing, mediated by the Church, we advance. When we run out from under those blessing arms, we are routed. Israel needs God to bless their struggle. God - I won’t say God needs Moses - but God’s will is to use Moses to mediate that blessing. And Moses needs his friends to steady his weary arms. We need God and we need each other. We need to keep that blessing going.
We move on to 2 Timothy chapter 3 and hear the same theme as Paul encourages his friend and brother in ministry. Keep to what you have been taught! Keep the faith! Learn from the Scriptures! Proclaim the message in season and out of season, popular or not! Don’t hold back God’s revealed truth, but do everything in patience and charity, with the spirit of a teacher.
And this passage from Luke 18, which ends with such an alarming question about whether Christ will return to find faith on earth, begins with essential context for that question. It begins with this: “Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart.” Don’t give up, keep the faith, don’t lose heart.
When you can’t hold up that blessing anymore, find a friend. Be that friend for someone else who’s faltering. Preach the Gospel in patience and charity, hold fast to all you’ve been taught in the name of Jesus Christ. Pray continually; don’t lose heart. What a great set of readings to fall on our first birthday as a parish.
However long the Lord shall tarry, the decisions of faithfulness we make each day will form our answer to his question. How many names will be written in this book? Will each of those names represent someone who has been taught the faith not only on Sundays in church but every day in the home, someone who will pass on this faith in turn to another generation? It is beyond any of us to answer the question of whether Christ will find faith on earth. The question you can answer is whether he will find faith in your heart.
Comments
Post a Comment