Where were you when I needed you?

2024 12^th Sunday of the Year (B)

I recently reread one of the most famous books ever written by a catholic. It is called ‘The Story of A Soul’ and was written by a French Carmelite nun in 1896-97. Her name was Therese and she was to become one of the most popular saints in the church today.  She was from a small town in Normandy called Lisieux.  Since it was first published her book has sold over half a billion copies and has been translated into 50 languages; they’re quite extraordinary figures. Why is this book so popular?  I suppose one answer to that is if you read it yourself you will find out why. 

Therese was only twenty-three when she found out she had TB. In those days there was no cure, just a long painful death. In fact, it took her eighteen months to die. When I re-read it I was struck by the depth of her faith and trust in God. Quite extraordinary. Here she was dying slowly and painfully of asphyxiation. She knew what it felt like to go crazy with pain. She told her nurse never to leave tablets beside a dying person. She confessed that if she didn’t have faith, she would have taken her life a long time ago. But she did have faith. 

This faith was put to the test.  She had nightmares about death, she heard voices telling her that there was nothing after death, that she was kidding herself, that after death there was infinite darkness. This frightened her but she clung to her faith in God. This is remarkable in anyone, but even more so in one so young. She had three natural sisters who lived in the same convent. They would spend long hours looking after her as she approached death. The closer it got the harder it was to watch her suffer. The sufferings were real yet Therese said, “I am at peace.” What a wonderful thing to say. That despite all she was going through both physically and mentally she was at peace. It was a deep peace that only God can give. In the storm she was calm because she knew Jesus was with her. 

We just heard in the gospel how the disciples found themselves in the midst of a storm. They were experienced fishermen, used to storms on the lake but this time they thought they were doing to die. Yet Jesus, who was also on the boat, was asleep. They couldn’t understand why he wasn’t frightened like them. “Master do you not care” they shouted “we are going down”!  Of course he cared. He wasn’t playing games with them. He then did something that they would remember for the rest of their lives. He told the storm to be calm, and immediately the wind dropped, and all was calm again.  He turned to his incredulous disciples and asked, “Why are you so frightened? How is it that you have no faith”? 

All of us will sometimes find ourselves in the midst of a storm. Like the disciples we will be frightened. But Jesus asks us as he asked his disciples: where is your faith?  Do you not believe that I am the Lord of all; that I have the power over any storm. I am in your midst. Maybe asleep. So, wake me up. Turn to me in faith when you are in need, and I will be there for you. 

St Therese believed and trusted in God. Her last words were not “why did you let me suffer so much” or “where were you in the midst of the storm” but “My God I love you”. God loves us. He is looking after us, even when it seems that He is not. He is always there at our side to calm the storm. 

Share your faith with others

2024 11^th Sunday of the Year (B)

The readings we just heard tell us about growth. The seed that’s thrown on the land grows. How? The farmer doesn’t know. It had little or nothing to do with him. Now, Christ often uses parables to tell us an important truth. He’s not really interested in seeds but He is interested in us. The seed is our faith. It is planted in us when we were baptised. And over the years it grows. How? We don’t know. But God knows.  Sometimes the growth is remarkable. I want to share with you about this growth in an Irish nun. 

I was reading the catholic newspaper yesterday called ‘The Tablet’. In it is saw a photo of an Irish nun. She died some many years ago. When I read the story I realised she was the aunt of one of our parishioners; he’s told me about her.   She was sent to France in the Frist World War to work as a nurse in a hospital. There she helped wounded soldiers from both sides. She returned to Ireland after the war but at the outbreak of the second world war she went back to France, to a small town called, Bethune. Once again, she worked as a nurse, caring for soldiers who had been hurt during the fighting.  At the same time, she worked with the French resistance helping English prisoners to escape. She was betrayed and was arrested by the Gestapo. They sentenced her to death. However, for some reason, they didn’t shoot her but sent her instead to a concentration camp. It would have been better to have been shot. She remained for four years in this hell hole until she was liberated by the allies in 1945. Her nephew told me that she had not become embittered by what she went through, on the contrary, she was still a delightful person. 

This is a story of someone whose faith, once a little seed, had grown till it had become a huge tree.   This is what faith can do to a person. We too were given faith as a little seed. Without our knowing how or why that faith grew in each and every one of us. Some are given more than others. Why? This is a mystery. As the years go by so our faith continues to grow. We appreciate it more. We realise how important it has been in our lives, that we don’t know what we would have done without it, especially in times of difficuties. 

Then we look at others who seem to have little or no faith. It disturbs us, especially when it concerns our family. Why don’t they go to church?  But what we have to realize is that faith is not just a seed, it is also a gift. It is given to us freely, we don’t earn it. What God wants us to do is the share our faith with others, beginning with those who are closest to us. Faith is given to us for a reason; yes, to help us to grow, but also to share that faith with others. When you have something precious you want to share it with others, and there is nothing more precious than faith. 

That Irish nun has impressed me so much by her life. It is because of people like her that I have faith today. You too have the same gift of faith. Live in such a way that you too will impress others. They may never tell you, but they will always notice. Then leave the rest to God. He is always ready to sow that seed. 

We have such a force for good within us

2024 Corpus Christi (B)

It is only last week that we restored the practise of drinking the precious blood from the chalice.  It was interesting to see that most people did this. I suppose the consecrated wine symbolises the blood of Christ in a way that the host, the bread, doesn’t.  Blood is our life source; without it we die. The author of the letter to the Hebrews in speaking of blood says ‘The blood of goats and bulls… are sprinkled on those who have incurred defilement and they restore the holiness of their outward lives’. If that is what the blood of animals achieves what more does the blood of Christ?

In the ‘Story of A Soul’, which is St Teresa of Lisieux’s autobiography, she tells us what happened at mass one Sunday: ‘As I closed my Missal…, a picture of the Crucifixion slipped out a little way and I could just see one of the wounds in our Lord’s hands, with blood flowing from it…. It pierced my heart with sorrow to see His Precious Blood falling, with no one bothering to catch it, and I made up my mind, there and then, to stay in spirit at the foot of the Cross, to gather up the dew of heavenly life and give it to others.’ This was no empty gesture.  She says she was consumed by the same thirst as Christ for souls. As she put it, ‘I yearned to save them from the everlasting fires of Hell, no matter what the cost.’  It was shortly after this that she prayed for a condemned criminal, a man called Pranzini. He had been condemned to death for several brutal murders and was unrepentant. He has refused confession and absolution, but as he was being led out to the block he suddenly turned round to the priest following him and seized it and kissed the sacred wounds three times.’  Therese was convinced it was her prayers. 

This feast of Corpus Christi is a reminder of the love of God and of his thirst for souls. He died on the cross for us all, good and bad alike. The blood that flowed down his body and onto the ground was not wasted. It inspired people like St Teresa to imitate Christ in praying for lost souls. That same letter to the Hebrews states: ‘how much more effectively the blood of Christ … can purify our inner self from dead actions so that we do our service to the living God.’  The body and blood of Christ is for us, it is for our purification from sin and even our sanctification. It gives us strength to carry on in our struggle with sin,  not to give up.  Like St Teresa we too should pray for those who are less fortunate than ourselves. Christ wants us to do this. He has given us his body and blood not just for ourselves alone but for others. He wants us to pray for the salvation of all and he will do this, but we have to ask him, we have to pray. God can and will do great things in us, we have his word for it, he died on the cross, he poured out his blood for this reason.  We have such a force for good within us, we should not waste it.