Coronavirus Talk 19
Let us begin with an Our Father
Last night, we looked at two versions of the miraculous catch of fish, one of which is a vocation story and the other a mission story. Those events, as I said last night, are not important milestones just in the lives of Peter and the disciples, they are meant to apply to the spiritual journey of all of us. We are all invited to be disciples of Jesus, learning from him, letting his values inform our own, doing our best to keep him in mind in whatever we do. And then we are sent out into the world, to be the light that shines in the world’s darkness, to tend to the sheep, wherever they are and whatever they look like. We do not do this on our own initiative or by our own power. This all comes from God through Jesus, God’s human face. We need to keep reminding ourselves that God has already won the battle against evil, he has exacted revenge on evil through the death and resurrection of Jesus and through the release of the Holy Spirit who continues to work in hearts like yours and mine to re-create our world in the image of God.
We do ourselves a great disservice when we give in to the temptation to believe that the miracles of Jesus, if they happened at all, were one-time events that happened a long time ago. We might believe that miracles like those the disciples witnessed are long past. What is odd is that we live in an age and in a culture that seeks miracles even as it denies that they happen.
Let me tell a couple of stories as examples: One of my Jesuit brothers, Fr. John Houle, who had served as a missionary to China before the Communist Revolution in the late 1940s and who had been imprisoned and tortured before his release to return to the US, was dying of an obstructive lung disease. He was in Santa Teresita Hospital in Duarte, California and was given only hours to live. Another Jesuit, Fr. Frank Parrish, went to the hospital to anoint Fr. Houle and Frank brought with him a relic of then-Blessed Claude La Colombiere who was one miracle shy of canonization. After anointing Fr. Houle, Fr. Parrish laid the relic momentarily on Fr. Houle’s chest and prayed. He told us later that, when he left the hospital, he expected to hear when he got home that Fr. Houle had died. That call never came. He returned to the hospital the afternoon of the following day and found Fr. Houle sitting up in bed and eating a pizza. The sisters said that the doctors had given him a scan that morning that indicated that he had never even had the disease. The report of this apparent miracle was presented to the Vatican as the possible confirming miracle for Blessed Claude and, after years of investigation, it was approved. Fr. Houle, moments from death, was a concelebrant at the Mass in Rome when Pope John Paul II canonized St. Claude La Colombiere.
A footnote is that, years later, I was treated by one of the doctors who reviewed the medical anomaly and was asked by the Vatican to render his opinion. When he realized I was a Jesuit, he told me that he had voted against considering what happened to Fr. Houle a miraculous cure. He was immensely proud of that.
Faith always produces miracles, but miracles do not always produce faith.
Knowing the situation and knowing Fr. Houle, what happened to him seems to me enough to admit that miracles really do happen, but that you might only see it once in a lifetime.
But when I was auxiliary bishop of Baltimore, one of the priests, Fr. Ron Pytel, suffered from a terminal heart condition. As he lay dying in the hospital, someone lay on his chest a relic of then-Blessed Faustina Kowalska, the foundress of the Divine Mercy Devotion so popular in the Church today and, the next day, tests showed that he had no signs of ever having had the disease. His case was submitted to Rome and, like Fr. Houle, Fr. Pytel stood next to Pope John Paul II at St. Faustina’s canonization. Three years later, he died after a very painful bout with aggressive kidney cancer in his early 40s. The priest who spoke at his funeral preached beautifully about the irony of dying after having been saved and about the necessity of affirming our faith, whether it shows itself in miracles or in suffering.
This is what I believe about miracles, and I owe this to Willa Cather, the great American writer and author of Death Comes for the Archbishop who wrote in her book: “Miracles seem to me to rest, not so much upon power coming suddenly near us from afar, but upon the power of our own senses and perceptions being made more finely tuned. So that, for a moment, our eyes can see, and our ears can hear, what is around us always.” This is a way of saying that God is always revealing his power in our lives, always! The miracle is when we are open enough and unguarded enough to recognize it.
Having said all that, there are only two miracles of Jesus which appear in all four gospels. The first of these I would like to touch briefly on now, and the second one, tomorrow, for our last session.
This first one is the Miracle of the loaves. Let us use the account in chapter 6 of John’s gospel.
Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Festival was near. When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Phillip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already knew what he was going to do. Phillip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. – John 6:1-15
I like to call this miracle the “foundational miracle” of Jesus or the “gateway miracle” of Jesus. It got people’s attention and prepared them to grow gradually into deeper trust in him. Saying it another way, if you were not hooked in by the miracle of the loaves, chances are you would never believe in the resurrection. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, the miracle happens after Jesus has been preaching for some time and the disciples are insensitively eager to dismiss the crowd until Jesus orders them to feed the crowd. Then it is the disciples who distribute the food and collect the leftovers. In John, though, Jesus sees the crowd gathering and teasingly asks Phillip how all of them can be fed. Paralyzed by the enormity of the task, Phillip shakes his head and despairs that it cannot be done. Andrew is not much help as he identifies some resources but knows they are not nearly enough to meet the need. Isn’t this a picture of us sometimes when we are faced with a difficult task: “It just can’t be done; we’ll never be able to achieve what we want with such meager resources.” Jesus did what he knew he would. He makes a way out of no way. He Himself distributes the bread and everyone got everything they needed. In fact, they got more than they needed. Just like the overabundance of wine at the wedding and the 153 fish later in the gospel, Jesus always gives more than necessary – once again to show us that he knows and takes care of all our needs. He can fill us; he can satisfy us like no other.
The parallel here to the manna in the desert is obvious. The manna came from God to keep the Israelites healthy during the journey from slavery through the desert to freedom in the Promised Land. Jesus gives us himself as the bread to be the nourishment for us on our journey out of sin through the desert of learning to live with faith to the freedom of life in Christ. Jesus does say later in the chapter: “I am the living bread come down from heaven. I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never hunger.” We need to take him at his word.
The reaction to this miracle on the part of the people is understandable. He gave them something for free, so they want to make him King. We always want to crown someone who gives us free stuff. But Jesus hides from that, and not from shyness or false humility, He hides because he knows the crowd’s expectations for him are misplaced. He knows that the complete revelation of himself involves being broken and shared, but it also involves kneeling to wash the feet of others. The people in the crowd that day were not disposed to that. In fact, in just a few verses from wanting to make him king, many in that crowd would walk away and never return because he told them truth: “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will have no life in you.” But Peter and the others stayed because they had faith that only Jesus had the words that would give them eternal life.
I think I know why this miracle is in all four gospels: it is a promise that Jesus will satisfy the hunger of everyone who comes to him. We need to take him at his word.
Faith always produces miracles, but miracles do not always produce faith. God is always revealing himself in our lives; the miracle is when we recognize it.
Tomorrow night: another miracle, closing ceremonies, and the conferral of diplomas.
Let us end with a Hail Mary and a blessing.