28th Week, Saturday, Oct 20
Romans 4:13, 16-18 / Luke 12:8:12
Abraham is our father; He saw hope where others didn't see it.
A famous painting portrays a man playing chess with the devil for his soul. The devil has just checkmated the man's king. The average chess player looks at the painting and sees no hope at all for the young man. Paul Murphy, one of the world's great chess players, studied the painting for a long time. Suddenly he saw a way out of the situation. Excitedly he cried out, “Don't give up hope, young man! There's still a good move left!" This is also the message that Abraham shouts to each one of us. “Don't give up hope!"
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How hopeful are we of God's love and grace, in spite of our own sinfulness? "If I keep the green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come.” Chinese Proverb
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It is faith that makes us what God wants us to be. What is faith? It can have four meanings. It can mean -
1. To accept as true what we are told. As we say, I believe you. This has no merit as St James tells us; even the devils believe.
2. The whole Doctrine: whatever a Catholic believes. As we say: Catechism teaches us the Catholic Faith.
3. Faith as it is used here means: to know, love and serve God. Total surrender to God. To fill my thoughts with God, to give my whole heart to God. To accept God as the meaning of my life.
4. Faith can mean trust or confidence. Such trust or confidence can be blind. Faith knows whom it trusts. This was the faith of Abraham. Faith made him see God as the one who brings the dead to life and calls into being what does not exist. This faith relies on the promise of God, in God's grace and not in the observance of law. Observance of the law and faith are completely different from each other. Law leads to transgression and to the anger of God, faith leads to grace and the love of God.
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Faith consists in encountering a living God and taking him at his word, believing in a promise. This is what Abraham did, and God fulfilled the promise. This is, in a way, what two young people do when they embark on a marriage. They trust that they can make it, that they can deepen their relations, that they will grow in love and faithfulness. This is the adventure of the religious: they believe in a promise – that’s why they make a vow – a promise to a Christ who promises. A promise belongs to the order of love: a trust, a love, and a faithfulness that keeps growing.
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There is always this question about the meaning of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit and what does that entail, because Jesus said that such a thing cannot be forgiven. For us, we believe that the Holy Spirit is one of the Persons of the Trinity, and that the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son into our hearts to lead us and to direct us in the truth. But if we knowingly and constantly ignore the call to faith and outrightly suppress the truth within us, then we are obstinately rejecting the Holy Spirit, which is actually rejecting God Himself. But it is not likely that we are absolutely that stubborn.
However, to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit is a more serious matter. Because that would be like ascribing the working of the Holy Spirit and something holy to that of the working of the devil and the unholy. They commit it, persist in it, even though they know what they are doing is not right at all.
It is like their eyes and hearts are so tightly closed to the goodness of divine love, so much so that the light of goodness had become darkness, and goodness had become evil. May the Holy Spirit open our hearts and heal our hearts of sin so that we may see goodness and love in everything and everyone.
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To those that are faithful to him, Christ promises to let his Spirit speak and work in them in times of trial.
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A Christian has no reason to fear. If in his life he lived for God, the father will protect him. We are of greater worth than sparrows. Man cannot flee in fear, except into the merciful arms of the Father. The Son will speak up for us when it matters most at the last judgement, if we have spent our life for him. The Holy Spirit will teach us what to say when we are dragged before magistrates and authorities. Who speaks against him will not be forgiven as long as he persists within this attitude. The spirit is our advocate who will put the right word into our mouth. Our security is in the hands of God. Even in his passion, Jesus was able to say: I am not alone, for the Father is with me. A Christian may not be secure in his body before the enemies of Christ. His security lies in the trust of the infinite who alone can decide our eternal fate.
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Prayer
Lord our God, you can bring the dead back to life. You want us to trust you and to believe in your promises. Give us a faith strong enough to keep hoping in the good news of your power that can renew the world, of people capable of unity and peace, of the joy of a fresh love that can bear all and do all through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
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Saint Hilarion
Feast Day October 21
Shortly after St. Hilarion’s death, St. Jerome wrote about the life of this hermit who had introduced monasticism into Palestine. Jerome told of Hilarion’s lifelong pursuit of solitude, where he could encounter God in prayer.
And he wrote about the divine irony of the fame that was denied it to him because his miracles attracted so many people. In this brief excerpt, Jerome describes Hilarion’s faith and a typical miracle:
Once . . . when he was eighteen years old, brigands tried to find him at night. Either they believed that he had something to steal or they thought he would scorn them if they didn’t intimidate him. . . . From evening till dawn, they hunted in every direction but couldn’t find him. In broad daylight, however, they came upon him and apparently as a joke asked him: “What would you do if robbers attacked you?” He answered: “A naked person does not fear robbers.” “You could be killed.” “I could,” he said. “But I am not afraid of robbers because I am ready to die.” Admiring his faith, they confessed their folly of the night before and their blindness and promised to reform their lives...
A woman of Eleutheropolis, despised by her husband of fifteen years because of her sterility, . . . was the first who dared to intrude upon blessed Hilarion’s solitude. While he was still unaware of her approach, she suddenly threw herself at his knees saying: “Forgive my boldness. . . ., he asked her why she had come and why she was weeping. When he learned the cause of her grief, raising his eyes to heaven, he commanded her to have faith and to believe. He followed her departure with tears. When a year had gone by, he saw her with her son.
Like Anthony, Hilarion took only a little food once a day at sunset. When tempted sexually, he ate even less. “I’ll see to it, you jackass,” he said, “that you shall not kick.” He never bathed nor changed his tunic until it wore out. He said, “It is idle to expect cleanliness in a hair shirt.” Jerome relates that even though Hilarion suffered extreme dryness of spirit, he persevered in prayer and cured many people of sickness and demon possession. The parade of petitioners and would-be disciples drove Hilarion to retire to more remote locations. But they followed him everywhere. First, he visited Anthony’s retreat in Egypt. Then he withdrew to Sicily, later to Dalmatia, and finally to Cyprus. He died there in 371.
Even for saints like Hilarion who steadfastly pursued God, life is a battle of wills. Hilarion desired solitude, believing it was God’s will for him. But God had other ideas and sent crowds to disrupt his aloneness. Before we get too far along on our journey, we need to check to see if we are following God’s roadmap, not our own. Or we may be like Yogi Berra, who once said, “We’re making good time, but we’re lost.”
