The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

We witness in today's gospel two of Our Lord's miracles.

The first is of a woman troubled with an issue of blood. Because of this malady this poor woman was considered unclean and therefore prohibited from partaking of most of life's enjoyments. She had spent all her money seeing doctors and trying different treatments only to find that they only aggravated her condition. Ostracized, reduced to utter poverty, and burdened with even greater bodily maladies, this poor woman was left without any recourse or aid.

To most of the world this appears as the greatest of all evils, but to God it was simply the fertile ground that was necessary to grow tremendous faith. The graces that this woman received from God over abundantly compensated for all the suffering that she had to endure. To hear those consoling words of Our Lord of grace and healing are of an infinite worth. To suffer what this woman suffered (even to multiply her suffering many times over) is as nothing when compared to the reward.

How often do we think our lives are not fair? That God is not fair? We are called upon to suffer this or that difficulty or physical ailment or pain and we consider it to be too much! What are our sufferings compared to the sufferings of this woman? How much more than us have the saints and heroes of the Church suffered? What are our pains compared to theirs?

Our complaints convict us of a terrible sin. Our impatience and bad attitude in bearing our crosses are an affront to God, a blasphemous accusation of injustice and unfairness against God. How many question God asking: "What have I done to deserve this?" or "Why me?" or "My neighbor is much worse than I, why is he rewarded while I am punished?"

While our crosses because of our selfishness draw us further away from God, we should look to this poor woman and learn a very important lesson. If our pain is great or our cross is heavy it must be because there is a greater reward awaiting us if we successfully endure to the end. We must, filled with contrition and love, turn to Christ filled with faith knowing that if we just touch His tassel we can be healed. We need not have Him speak directly to us or disturb His current activity. His grace is so super abundant that we only need to draw near to Him and we can be healed.

We must often remind ourselves that God is all just, and therefore there is a just reason why we have our own particular crosses. We must remind ourselves that God is all knowing. He knows exactly the size and weight of our crosses as well as our own strength and ability to bear the cross He has given us. And lastly we must remind ourselves that God is able to lift this cross from us at any time and reward us super abundantly for our patient and loving endurance.

With these thoughts before us we should begin to see our crosses not as curses as much as they are blessings. Where would this woman be if she had never suffered from her malady or been driven to desperation? She would most likely have never approached Christ and therefore would not have received His healing and saving graces.

The second miracle that our Lord performed in today's gospel is the raising of the dead girl to life. Again it was the heavy burden of the cross of the death of his daughter that brought this man to Christ and thus brought life and grace not only for the young girl but for many others who were involved or witnessed this miracle. This cross was a wondrous source of hidden grace and life which was only revealed when the father came to God. We see in this that no matter how great the cross or evil that we suffer, God is able to make good come from it.

Even if we are dead in sin, we can be lifted back to life again by the simple word of Christ. And this is an even greater miracle than raising a body to life. For, the soul is greater than the body. So to raise a soul to life is a greater grace than to raise the body to life. And this power Jesus has left to His Apostles to work in His name. The Catholic Church is the only church that has and continues to perform this awesome miracle in the sacrament of Penance.

A person dead in sin, need only approach Christ through His authorized representative. Filled with a humble acknowledgement of unworthiness, nonetheless filled with hope in the merits of Christ's suffering and death, they come forward with contrition, remorse and a sincere resolve to do better for the love of God.

And then at the moment that a true priest acting in the name of Jesus pronounces those words of absolution, a tremendous miracle takes place: a soul once dead in sin is brought back to life.

As we bear our sufferings in this world let us always draw near to Christ in His Church, Sacraments and Ministers to receive, grace and healing, and if necessary even eternal life itself.

Franciscan Benefactor Seraph Subscription Vocations Have you remembered God?