Humble and Faith-Filled

Do not be afraid, just have faith.

Two years ago, I led a pilgrimage with

about 50 parishioners to the Holy Land.

We started at the Sea of Galilee in the northern part of the Holy Land.

We stayed at this new facility

built by a religious orders in Magdala.

Magdala is the place where Mary Magdalene was from

and it is right by the edge of the Sea of Galilee.

They have a new excavation site just right beside it.

It is a stunning little place.

It is relatively new because it was just discovered as an archeological site.

They have this beautiful chapel and it was Saturday when we arrived.

So we were looking forward to celebrating Sunday Mass in this chapel.

The chapel had an altar in the shape of a boat

and behind the altar, outside was an infinity pool

that led the eye right into the line of the sea.

So it looked like the boat was in the sea

and when I was presiding, it looked like I was standing in the water.

It was just an extraordinary piece of architecture, just beautiful.

I was really looking forward to celebrating mass at the altar.

But when we got there, they said,

“No, no, this altar is not for you.

You get the chapel downstairs in the basement!”

And we were like, “Oh.”

It was very disappointing because it was such a stunning sight

that we were looking forward to it.

But then when we got downstairs,

this very humble chapel was stunning at a whole other level

in its simplicity and humility.

The new excavation site was Jarius house,

and the chapel depicted the very reading we hear today.  

It was his house that had been excavated.

And this scene of the woman touching the tassel

was painted as a mural right behind this altar.

There are no chairs in it.

All the chairs are the stones along the side.

Here is a photo of this very simple chapel.

And here is the image of the mural behind.

It is really beautiful, quite stunning.

And here is what interesting.

It does not show any faces,

it just shows the woman touching the tassel of his garment.

It is really absolutely stunning. It is transfixing.

And, it was a reminder.

One photo shows the touching point.

When we celebrated mass, I was standing right in front of it

and somebody got a picture and my head was right there.

And that was even more eerie.

But here is what was powerful about this stunning artwork.

It depicted the humility of the woman and her faithfulness,

she was both humble and faithfilled.

Faithfilled, to have persevered after 12 years of suffering,

but humble enough not to disturb the master, the teacher,

but to just touch his garment.

It was an amazing way for all of us,

as pilgrims, to start our pilgrimage.

Because that is the best sort of place to start,

to be faithfilled and to be faithful with the Lord.

And to be humble and let the Lord speak to us

in what we were going to see and experience.

That reading we read at that Mass that day,

it was the same reading we read today.

And you can see why I immediately jumped back to that experience.

It was a really powerful, powerful experience.

It is a lesson for life.

That in the pilgrimage of life,

we are called to be both faithful and humble,

faithful to the Lord in good times and in bad.

Realizing that reality, we need to be humble enough to know

that we do not know quite how God works

and that we remain faithful to God.

We are humble enough to know that he is present to us in all our life,

humble enough to know that our successes are not our own

and our failures are not to be blamed on us.

That is the challenge of life.

Sometimes we get carried away with our successes.

That is why our church is not full every Sunday

because people believe that their successes are their own doing

and they are who they are because they were so successful on their own.

If we live long enough,

we realize our success has probably more to do with luck

and being in the right time, right place than anything else.

And that our illnesses and things that happen to us

are the bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It has very little to do with our goodness, if you would,

that we ourselves are not held accountable

for either the good or the the bad in our life

unless we have a direct role in causing it.

What does it mean then for us to be faithfilled?

And what does it mean for us to be humble as disciples?

The lesson of the woman with the hemorrhages gives us

is to reach out and touch his garments,

if I could just reach out and touch God.

Our constant sort of mode is to always be

looking to touch God in our lives.

There are two challenges to that.

There are more than two, but two primary challenges

are the good times and the bad times.

The bad times.

It is hard sometimes to, to be faithful because we are suffering.

Whether it be an illness for ourselves

or an illness of somebody else we love

or even a death of somebody we love.

Remaining faithfilled in those difficult times and suffering can be hard

because we want to think that God should protect us from all harm.

When things go wrong, where are you, God?

And so there is a natural question,

but we are called to remain faithful to the Lord.

But equally as challenging and not as obvious are the good times.

Because when everything is going well,

we think we do not need God.

That unfortunately happens because we get complacent and we think,

“God, we do not need you because we are successful on our own.”

And we are doing great because of, well,

I am doing great because I did it.

And it is equally as alluring to forget God in those moments.

Now, the challenge is also somewhere in between as well!

These are the two that we need to be most wary of and be attentive to.

You see, we are called to be faithful to God in all times,

in the good times and the bad times,

and everywhere in between.

To always look and to see where can I

touch the tassel of God's garment.

Pope Francis will tell us that the place we ought to go to

is the first peripheries of our society

to be most effective to doing that.

That is where when we touch these,

they become a way to become re-grounded in God.

And that is why St. Vincent de Paul are

every month doing different collections.

It is not to be a bother to you, but it is to say

we need to touch those who are hurting,

those who are homeless, those who are broken.

And so they always constantly put something before us

to help us, to remind us of that call.

It is the reason why later this week

we are going to be sending 60 people to Tijuana to build homes.

We are not there to bring Jesus to them.

We are there to touch Christ in them.

The Christ is already there.

And quite frankly, we are the ones

who will be humbled by that experience.

Other parishes go other places.

My previous parish, Holy Spirit, are just coming back

from sending 60+ people down to Nicaragua for a week.

They were building another school down there,

touching Chris in the lives of others in that country.

Here is the challenge before us today,

because most of us are not going to be going to Tijuana or Nicaragua,

but all of us will be living a life among friends and strangers.

Friends at home and family at home.

But when we go outside our circle,

there are going to be lots of strangers that we will not know.

Can we find a way to touch God in their life,

find a way to be faithful and see that God is here amongst them?

Even if they completely disagree with us,

whether politically, religiously, or socially,

that God is in some way in every one of us.

And our role is to find a way to touch them

and bring healing between us.

To find a way to bring healing between us.

My friends today we are called to be on a pilgrimage in life,

faithfilled and humble.

And to learn to see God in all things, in all people.

And to reach out and to touch so that

we can be healed and that we can bring healing to others.

Do not be afraid, just have faith.