A Real Superhero

When I was preparing about the readings today, and unusual thought, and unusual topic came to mind.  It was superheroes, superheroes.  We hear a lot in our society about superheroes, a lot of movies, about superheroes. And with all the evil going on in the world we wish we had a superhero, or maybe wish we were a superhero, to be able to change that.  What the gospel shows today is a real superhero.  What would it be like if there really was a superhero in our real world.  That’s what we’re seeing in the gospel, when Jesus heals, shows His super power to heal this woman, just by her touching His clothes.  Or even more, bringing a child who’s already dead back to life. That’s an amazing superpower.  And the Gospels actually show so many examples, like when Jesus has control over nature, to be able to walk on water, to be able to, just by His command, to still the sea, to still that storm, immediately, multiplying bread.  And He has the superpower of knowing the future. That’s an amazing superpower, right, to know the future.  Also, to know people’s hidden thoughts.  He has the superpower to cast out demons, and even to rise from the dead.  In fact, after the resurrection, we see Jesus moving, anyplace, immediately appearing and disappearing, no matter whether there’s walls and doors or whatever, it’s just wherever He wants to go.  And all these are just the tip of the iceberg, because as He says, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to Him,” all power.  So that’s not a superpower, that’s all superpowers have been given to Him.  And so, it’s important to look at Jesus, because this is not an imaginary world, this is a realistic account of a hero, a superhero, the superhero coming to do battle.  And we’re in a world where there’s a lot of confusion, a lot of manipulation, a lot of false appearances.  And so, it’s important to look at Jesus, to study closely because He’s teaching us, He’s given us formation for the battle that we also are facing.  So, what is this battle?  The first reading says, “God did not make death,… but by the envy of the devil, death entered the world.”  So, it’s the envy of Satan, we are the targets of the envy of this. He was the most exalted of all the angelic spirits, and now, he’s been corrupted, and he’s aiming at us.  He has a lot of other spirits working with him.  So, this is a very dangerous battle with an enemy who is extremely intelligent, much more intelligent than we are.  How long have we been learning?  You know, as we get older, we learn a lot, right?  I’ve been around 60 years, and I think how much more I know when I’m 60 than when I was 20.  But you know, 80 years is a lot, 100 years is a whole lot.  And how long has Satan had to be studying us?  With all his intelligence, with all his knowledge, he’s been studying us for a long time.  He’s picked up a lot of techniques to attack us.  So, this is a very difficult, dangerous battle against an enemy who is absolutely cruel. There’s nothing that he would not be willing to do.  Just for the envy, just for the pleasure of seeing us suffer. So, this is a very terrible battle.  And the Scripture speaks of this battle, but especially this one book in particular, the Book of Revelations, the apocalypse.  If there’s one thing the apocalypse is not, it’s not boring.  And this is not a crazy comic book. This is the very word of God.  The apocalypse doesn’t say, don’t read this book, because it’s too weird.  It says, “Blessed are those who read the prophetic words of this book,” blessed.  So, it’s encouraging us especially to read the apocalypse, because it’s revealing, in symbolic language, the mysteries of this battle.  There’s many examples revealing to us, what we’re fighting against.  One is talking about this, John sees this, he says “a star must have been an angel falling to Earth, fallen to earth, and it opens” he says, “the shaft of the bottomless pit.”  And then he sees this great cloud pouring out.  Think like if you’ve seen a volcano that cloud, the great cloud of smoke pouring forth from a volcano. He says, great cloud points out, and then he sees these creatures like locust, coming out of that, but it seemed like these locust is like a swarm of diabolical spirits coming out.  It’s like a great Calvary, a Calvary that they’re monsters.  He says, “They were like horses arrayed for battle, like their teeth, like lions teeth, they had scales like iron breastplate, and the noise that their wings was like the noise of many chariots, with horses rushing into battle.  They have tails like scorpions, and not our cute scorpions of the hill country, but dangerous scorpions, and stings in their power of hurting men for five months lies in their tails.  And they have as king over them, the angel of the bottomless pit.  So that’s a swarm of monsters, diabolical monsters being unleashed from the bottomless pit.  Another time John sees a beast rising out of the sea with 10 horns, and seven heads.  And, “the Beast I saw was like a leopard. And its feet were like a bear’s, its mouth was like a lion’s mouth and to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority, uttering blasphemous words and attacking God’s people.  So, it’s this great monster that is being unleashed.  And then in Chapter 12, this great vision of John, he says, “a great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with a son.”  Who was this woman?  She was with child.  And another sign appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon with seven heads and 10 horns, his tail swept a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth.  Imagine the power in which the tail, with just one sweep, can cast down a third of the stars of the heavens.  The dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child, when she brought it forth.  So, sense the drama; this immense dragon, about to devour this woman’s child. And so, she brings forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with the rod of iron.  But what’s going to happen, her child was caught up to God and to the throne, and the women fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God.  Then war arose in heaven. So, this chapter is showing how much conflict there is, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought.  But they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. So, Michael has angels win and the great dragon was thrown down that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan.  So, John is saying very clearly who that was, the deceiver of the whole world, deceiving it.  So, his deception is so effective, this great dragon and he’s deceived all of us.  It’s affected all of us, all of us are affected by the so many ways that he manipulates and distorts and lies.  He was thrown down to the earth.  So that’s great news, right?  He’s thrown down to the earth.  Now thanks a lot, right?  So, he’s thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.  So, the battle has come down to earth, where we are.  “And then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, in the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down who accuses them night and day before God, and they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb.”  By the blood of the Lamb, the blood of the Lamb that is offered to us in this sacrament.  “They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, for they love, not their lives, even unto death.”  That is, they were willing to die in their fidelity to Jesus.  “Rejoice then oh heavens, and you that dwell therein, but woe to you oh earth, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath.” Because he knows his time is short, he knows his time is limited.  And so, he’s come with great wrath down to our world.  “And then the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to earth, he pursued the woman who had born the male child.”  So now he’s pursuing her.  “But the woman was given two wings of the great Eagle, that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness.”  So, then the serpent, as he sees her escaping, it says “he poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with this flood of water.  But the earth came to the help of the woman; the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed the river, which the dragon had poured from his mouth.  Then the dragon was angry with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring.”  Who is the offspring?  Those who keep the commandments of God, and bear witness to Jesus.  And so of course, this is symbolic language, it would be very interesting to reflect more, we don’t have time for that right now, on all the meaning here.  But what it’s clearly showing is the intensity of this battle, the seriousness of this battle.  And again, this is not a comic book. This is the word of God.  So, it’s showing clearly the war in our enemies.  And so how is this battle going to be fought?  Like, you know, in the superheroes, we see them using their superpowers.  And that’s part of the kind of whole line of like, in a Western, you know, that’s the ones who can shoot faster.  And the martial arts movie, it’s the guy who can hit harder and kick faster.  And in the spy movies, it’s the ones who have the special gadgets.  But against this enemy, none of that is effective.  So how does Jesus do it?  Jesus is teaching us His formulas for this battle.  So, as I say, it’s important to study closely because He’s breaking through the lies and deceptions.  So, what does He do?  He goes out, does He go out and beat all the bad guys up?  Does He get them together and blow them up?  You know how many movies now that’s what happens, that’s crucial, that’s this big explosion and that takes care of the problem.  And that’s the way we’d like it, right?  Get rid of all the bad guys.  And how come Jesus doesn’t do that?  He could do that, right?  You could just make them all over the place.  You just say in an instant, a bunch of people just explode and problem solved, right? Why doesn’t He do that?  That’s not out of weakness, He can do anything He wants.  And it’s not out of fear, He has no fear.  What He’s doing, it’s out of wisdom, because He doesn’t want to just hack away at the branches.  He wants to get to the root of this evil, and He wants to save us.  So, His plans, His ways are mysterious.  But what He does, basically what He’s doing is it’s like He’s advancing on the battlefield, it’s like He’s advancing alone.  And so, the enemy, it’s like He draws the enemy in to attack Him.  And the enemy thinks He’s one, that’s what happens at the cross.  But it’s like a trap, that He is set by offering Himself, by giving Himself, by sacrificing Himself, He set a trap for the enemy, and a trap, which will destroy the power of the enemy, defeating him by His cross.  But even though He’s defeated him by His cross, for a time the devil still remains very dangerous.  And so that’s where our participation has come in.  And I apologize for going long, but this will be my last homily for a couple of weeks, so you’ll have time to recuperate.  So, what is our participation?  What is your role in this battle?  St. Paul says, “For though we live in the world, we are not carrying on a worldly war.”  We are not carrying on a worldly war like all the movies, they’re showing us how to fight a worldly war.  This is not, Saint Paus says “we are not fighting a worldly war,” for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly.  If we use the worldly weapons, we’re giving into his tactics, but they have, St. Paul says, “but these weapons have Divine Power to destroy strongholds.”  The strongholds are the enemy.  So, Jesus has the superpowers.  But what is He calling us to do?  Look in the Gospel we had today.  What does Jesus say to the woman who was healed?  He says, your superpower has saved you. It doesn’t say that right?  He doesn’t say your superpower saved you.  What does He say? “Your faith has saved you.”  But by her faith, she opens herself up to Divine Power.  Faith opens us, Jesus has the more than super power, Divine Power, and by faith, that power can flow in our lives and through us.  And also the synagogue leader, what does Jesus say to him?  Don’t be afraid, just have superpowers.  No, “don’t be afraid, just have faith.”   So, this is the key point in this battle.  We can all fight effectively, you are called to fight in this battle, and you can do so effectively by following Jesus with faith.  This is our battle also.  We don’t have to be the most intelligent, we don’t have to be the strongest, we don’t have to be the most capable.  We do need one thing; to follow Jesus with faith.  We have the great example of our Blessed Mother. She is attacked by Satan, but Satan cannot destroy her.  She is invincible, because of her faith, she will crush his head.  Saint John says “this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith.”  Who is it that overcomes the world, but you believe that Jesus is the Son of God.  It’s by faith that we can overcome this power.  And then there’s a famous passage in Ephesians, about the spiritual battle, where St. Paul says, “be strong in the Lord.”   So, this is a different type of strength.  He says “Be strong in the Lord.”  That’s not a human strength, it’s to be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might, not human might which is very weak; it’s nothing against the devil. But against God’s might be strong in God’s might, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, because that’s the battle we have to face.  And that’s not a fair battle, right?  Because he’s so much stronger than we are, so much more clever than we are.  But we can put on the armor of God.  And St. Jerome commented on this passage, he says “to put on the armor of God is to put on our Lord Jesus Christ.”  St. Paul goes on to detail this armor. It says, “taking the shield of faith with which you can quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”  So many ways in which the evil one is shooting these poisonous flaming arrows at us, to destroy our faith, to pull us into despair.  And how many people do we see who have already been so contaminated, attacked by these arrows?  We’re being attacked by these arrows all the time.  Our faith is constantly being attacked, especially in this past year with all thats been going on with COVID and everything.  We’re constantly under attack.  How many people have been losing faith.  And all of us struggle, struggle to believe because we were being shot at all the time.  So that’s what he says, “take the shield of faith.”  That’s the way we can be a protection against that.  And he says, “The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”  So, there’s so much in that passage that I won’t, we don’t have time for it.  But I just want to finish with one passage, one great passage, one of my favorite passages.  So, this is toward the end of the apocalypse, and John sees in this great vision, he says, “I saw heaven open.”  And what is the thing coming out of heaven?  He sees a white horse. “And behold, a white horse.”  And the horse has a rider, he says, “He who sat upon it is called faithful and true.  And in righteousness, he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire.”  So, he’s coming out to fight.  “His eyes are like a flame of fire.  On his head are many diagrams. He has a name and scribe which no one knows but himself mysterious. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, the blood of the lamb, his blood, the name by which he is called, is the word of God.  And the armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, followed him on white horses.”  So, this rider, John sees this rider, coming forth on this white horse, and this great army, on white horses following him.  “From his mouth, issues are sharp sword, with which to strike the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron.  He will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God, the almighty.”  Tread the wind press, of the fury of the wrath of God, the almighty.  “On his robe and on his eye, he has a name inscribed.”  What is that name?  “The King of kings, and Lord of lords.”  And then John sees something else, not coming from heaven.  “I saw the beast and the kings of the earth, the powers of the earth, with their armies.”  So, another group of armies.  “All the powers of them gathered to make war against him who sits upon the horse and against his army.”  So, we have this great battle between these two armies being prepared.  And what happens?  It doesn’t take long. “The beast was captured, and with it, the false prophet.  Those two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with brimstone,” went into hell, “the rest were slain by the sword of Him, who sits upon a throne.”  What is his sword?  It says the sword was issuing from his mouth, the sword that issues from his mouth, that is, he is so powerful, that all he has to do is say the word and his the enemies are immediately destroyed.  He doesn’t have to spend a long time in elaborate sword fight.  All he has to do is say the word and that destroys his enemies, all his enemies instantly.  And then John sees the whole victory of God in the land.  So just in conclusion, God is preparing great things for our times.  But that’s why it’s prepared by great sacrifices, by great struggles, by great attacks that we’re going through.  But a lot of times, we don’t even realize we’re under attack.  It’s just why are things so hard?  Why are things so confusing?  Why is everything so bad?  Why am I struggling so much?  We don’t realize the attacks that we’re under. Because the arrows that are being shot at us are not physical arrows, they’re arrows in the spiritual realm, so we don’t see them.  These diabolical locusts, we can’t see them.  But that’s what’s going on right now. And our world is thick with them.  But it’s preparing great things.  Jesus is the true, real, ultimate superhero.  But you also, are called to be part of this army of His, in this battle.  And we can all do that even though we’re sinners, even though we’re weak.  We can all do this by following Jesus with faith, as Mary did.  Jesus, I trust in You.  Amen.