Uncertainty and Personal Decisions

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author. 

“Jesus came home with his disciples, again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When his relatives heard of this, they set out to seize him, for they said he is out of his mind. The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said he is possessed by Beelzebul.” This gospel shows so dramatically the controversy about who is Jesus, His own relatives saying He’s out of His mind, and the experts, the scribes and Pharisees, the chief priests, saying He’s possessed by Beelzebul. And this is what we see all throughout the gospel. This is kind of the central issue of the controversy about who is Jesus, the different and very different reactions about Him. And so there’s a lot of uncertainty. And that’s what I want to talk about today, is uncertainty. So if you’re trying to remember what father talked about today, well, I’m not sure, I’m uncertain what he was talking about. Oh, that’s uncertainty. I was talking about uncertainty because there’s a lot of us Catholics who are very wary of anything that is uncertain. We want everything to be very clear, very solid, very certain, right? But there are times, just like in your personal life, in our personal life, there are times in which things are kind of going along, pretty normal, pretty same old, same old. But there can also be times which are turning points for good or for bad, but in a moment, things can change tremendously. And so it’s the same way in human history and in the history of the Church. There are sometimes which things are going along more calmly smoothly, but there are times which are great turning points, and the gospel shows us the great turning point where there’s so much that changes in a short time. And so there’s a lot of uncertainty at that moment. And so this is, I think, also the situation today, because there can be uncertainty which comes from evil. There’s a lot of uncertainty today, because evil is causing a lot of confusion and lies, and so it’s not clear to people what is right and what is wrong. But then there’s also uncertainty which can come from a question of something good, is God speaking? Like, say, if there’s an apparition, a manifestation, is this from God or not? Like, say, a case like, right now today, Medjugorje, there’s a lot of uncertainty about that. So there can be uncertainty which comes from evil, but there can be also uncertainty about things, is something from God or not. And so that’s what I want to focus on today, because that’s the situation; there’s a lot of uncertainty right now, that in our little mission, people feel that we’re causing a lot of uncertainty. There’s a lot of people who aren’t here right now today, because they’re good people, but they’re uncertain about what’s going on. Because we’re taking a path, and we’re saying that we think God is telling us to do certain things and publish certain things, and there’s a lot of that’s causing a lot of uncertainty. And so I want to talk about three points today. One is uncertainty, of course, and that uncertainty can paralyze people, or people can realize that it’s a moment where we have to make a personal decision, that is not just following along with everybody else, but having to make a personal decision. So that’s the second point. And the third point is, how can we make a personal decision when there’s a lot of uncertainty; so uncertainty and making a personal decision in uncertainty, and how can we do that? And so that’s the question we’re facing today, right now, but to help us understand how to do that, of course, we want to go back to the gospel. The gospel is always our light, because we know, we are certain that the gospel, speaking of uncertainty, we are certain that the gospel in the Bible is the Word of God. And so let’s go back to this passage we had in the gospel. So in this moment, there’s for the people then that the Jewish people for that, there was a lot that was very certain. There was a lot that was very established. They had this whole sacred tradition of the patriarchs, the covenant, Scripture, the Torah, with its laws, the temple, the priest and the teachers who were called to pass on faithfully the sacred tradition. So there was so much, so many gifts that they had received, so much to be grateful about. But we also see that there was a danger of corruption. There were dangers. There was a danger of pride, of thinking that they knew everything, that they were better than the others, that they were kind of like the masters, not the humble servants, but the masters of this religion, that they were in control, and so they could become closed to what God was continuing to do. And so we see God sending prophets, like Moses, like Elijah, like Isaiah, like Jeremiah, and when the prophets came, they were very controversial. They were, all of them, very controversial at the time. Later on, as people look back, they recognized them, but at the time, they were controversial. But at the time of Jesus, at the time the gospel is taking place, it had been centuries since there had been any prophet, no prophet for centuries, and so they’re waiting for the Messiah. But they, as faithful Jews, are certain that they have a very stable, established religion from the one true God. So they have that certainty of this religion from the one true God, and then something very uncertain happens, because God didn’t just act in the time of Moses or in the time of Elijah or Isaiah, but God continued to act. God continues to act all throughout history. That’s what Jesus says in the Gospel, “My Father is still at work.” God continues to act. So you see these two aspects throughout all their history, of what is already established and what is certain. And then there’s God acting now, and that often causes a lot of uncertainty. And the greatest example is Jesus Christ, because when He comes, He comes into a people, as I say, who are very sure that they have an established, clear religion, even though there’s different sects in that religion, different ways of seeing things. But then Jesus comes, and it’s very shocking, very surprising, and because He seems to be contradicting what they felt is very sure and certain. Though, actually, we know that He was actually being much more faithful to their authentic tradition. But because they had become used to a distorted tradition, their own interpretation, Jesus seemed like a radical, like a rebel. And so that caused a lot of divisions and the experts and the authorities, the chief priests, the doctors of the law, what we would call today theologians or scripture scholars or canon lawyers. What did they think? Well, we know what they thought, they criticized Him, then they condemned Him, and one of the reasons was they had a lot of pride and envy, and they didn’t want to surrender their privileged position to this Jesus of Nazareth, and they end up excommunicating and condemning Him. And so there was uncertainty in that situation. And the very Gospel we just read today, in the Gospel we read every Sunday, there’s a lot of uncertainty, and we see the early disciples trying to deal with uncertainty. And so every person in the gospel had to make a personal decision. What if someone had said, I want to be 100% certain, so I’m not going to make a decision until all the experts and authorities agree. How many disciples would Jesus have had if everyone had said until the authorities say so, I’m not going to go along with it. He sounds good, kind of, but He also said some surprising things. Well, I’m not going to make a decision. It’s too uncertain. We know that so often in the Gospel, the experts are wrong, and the simple, humble people are right. Jesus Himself, God Himself, says, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and you have revealed them to the little one.” God’s design, that it’s the simple little ones who are recognizing the Holy Spirit’s action, the presence of God. And the danger with our human knowledge is that always, there’s always a danger of pride, as St Paul says, “knowledge puffs up.” And so there’s always a danger of pride, which becomes an obstacle to recognizing God’s action. And what does Jesus say, “unless you become like a little child, you won’t enter the kingdom of heaven.” I think I was quoting this a couple weeks ago. He doesn’t say, it would be good to become like a little child. It helps. He says, If you don’t do that, you can’t enter heaven. So it’s an attitude of humble trustfulness, like a child, that opens the door. So how could the people make a decision when there was so much uncertainty and the experts, and the authorities were so opposed. What does Jesus say? He says His sheep follow Him because they know His voice. He doesn’t say, My sheep are paralyzed, and they don’t know what to do because the experts say, Don’t do it. He says, “My sheep hear, and they know my voice,” so the sheep are able to recognize the voice of God. Greater than all the advice of the experts is the voice of God. And so good willed, and that’s key, good will, because it has to be good willed. A person has to be seeking God’s will. Real good will is seeking God’s will. But good willed, humble, simple people are able to recognize and accept them, right? This is not controversial. What I’m saying, I mean, it sounds controversial, but it’s the clear Gospel. The Gospel shows that very simple people could recognize the action of God and respond. The shepherds of Bethlehem, who were probably not the scholars and experts at Bethlehem, but they were able to recognize that this angel is from God, and they could respond. So what we see in the Gospel is that good willed, simple, humble people are able to recognize that something is of God, and the experts often are not. Jesus also says, “If any man’s will is to do God’s will,” so if, if a person is seeking God’s will. And so this is very important. What He says, “if a person is seeking God’s will, he shall know…” this is from the Gospel of John, “He shall know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.” So what does He say? What’s the condition? If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, that is, if a person is truly seeking God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. That’s greater than what the experts and the scribes and Pharisees are saying. Jesus says, If you’re seeking God’s will, you will know whether I am, (Jesus) is speaking on His own, or whether He’s from the Father or not. And so we see in the Gospel that there’s uncertainty, that people are called to make a personal decision, because there were all sorts of controversies. So people had to decide what to do. And some people follow Jesus, some people ignored Him, some people opposed Him. It caused a division, and people had to make a decision. And we see from the gospel also that God gave the grace for people who are seeking His Will with a childlike spirit to make an accurate discernment, that this is from God. And again, that’s not me making that up. That’s the clear gospel. But how does this apply to us today? So we also, as Catholics, we have a great deal that is certain. We have Sacred Scripture, that we’re speaking of right now. We have sacred tradition. We have an authentic magisterium. We have the example of saints. So with all that, that is certain that we have received, but there’s also God who continues to act today. So just a couple weeks ago, the Vatican published a document called “Norms for Proceeding in the Discernment of Alleged Supernatural Phenomena.” And I think there’s a lot of issues, problems with this document, but I also think there’s some good things in the document, and I’m going to read you a passage which I think is good. And this is, these are the very first lines of this document. It says, “God is present and active in our history.” So that’s very important. God is, and this is the document. It’s saying that “God is present and active in our history.” That is, He didn’t just act a long time ago, He’s continuing to act now. And that’s very important. God is in the document is saying that that’s the first thing. That’s the very first line of document. “God is present and active now.” It goes on to say, “the Holy Spirit, who flows from the heart of the risen Christ works in the Church with divine freedom,” divine freedom. There’s nothing, no rules that can constrain God. “He acts with divine freedom and offers us many valuable gifts that aid us on the path of life and encourage our spiritual growth and fidelity to the gospel. This action of the Holy Spirit can also reach our hearts through certain supernatural occurrences,” through certain supernatural occurrences, this is very important, through certain supernatural occurrences, “such as apparitions or visions of Christ or the Blessed Virgin, or other phenomena,” that just said through certain supernatural occurrences, right then the document will go on to say, but from now on, the Church can never say that anything is supernatural. Well, maybe exceptionally, the Pope might be able to, I mean, that’s, I won’t go into all that right now, but that’s what it goes on to say. So the shepherds of the Church have a special role in discernment of what God is doing today. At the same time, those Church authorities as this document says, they often need time to do that, and sometimes they may take too much time. And for instance, our Lord appearing to Sister Lucia, one of the visionaries of Fatima. But this was later on, in 1931 he said, Make it known to my ministers, to the pastors of the church, that given that they follow the example of the King of France in delaying the execution of my command. And he’s referring to the Lord had given St. Margaret Mary and His apparitions of the Sacred Heart, He had given her a message to give to the great, apparently Great King of France, Louis the 14th, the Sun King, kind of the most glorious King of France, a message, a very important message, and he never responded to it. I don’t have time to tell the whole story right now, but and it had terrible consequence. It seems, in many ways, that exactly 100 years later, when the French Revolution broke out, which has been so destructive for France and for the world. That’s what he’s referring to. And he’s saying that given that the pastors of the Church are following the example of the King of France and delaying the execution of my command, they will follow him into misfortune, and that those are all the terrible consequences that the Lord, our Blessed Mother, announced at Fatima, that Russia continuing to spread communism throughout the world in the Second World War, and all the terrible consequences. And our Lord is saying that that’s because the ministers failed, delayed in executing the commands of the Lord. So what he’s saying is, if we believe this, He’s saying that they did not do what they were supposed to do. I was speaking to them an urgent, important message, as I did through St. Margaret Mary to King Louis the 14th. And they didn’t respond in their pain, and not just them, but the people are paying terrible consequences, terrible suffering, because they didn’t respond to God, Act, God is speaking. And so the Church authorities may delay, take too much time, and also, as this document makes very clear, this judgment by the Church authorities is not infallible. In fact, that’s what I think the document talks about. It says, it gives an example of when there was the Church authorities were going back and forth this, well, they approved it, then they didn’t approve it, then they approved that. So the document saying clearly, it’s not infallible. And we have famous examples of this, like Saint. Padre Pio was condemned for many decades. St Faustina’s diary was condemned.  St. Joan of Arc was condemned to death as a heretic by Church, a Church tribunal headed by a bishop, very corrupt. And so these are problems for the discernment, and especially this becomes a problem in moments of great transition, of great change, of great transformation, like we’re living right now. And so many people have that sense of things are so uncertain right now, so much is changing. It’s not clear and right now we’re going through a time of great uncertainty, so we’re living times of uncertainty. That’s what we’re talking about here in this gospel, I mean, in this homily. So does that have to paralyze us that we can’t do anything because it’s uncertain, or are we called to make a personal decision to be able to move forward. What did the people do in the Gospel? The heroes of the gospel, and a lot of them, were very simple people like the shepherds or the apostles. They weren’t paralyzed and saying, I can’t do anything because things are too uncertain, I can’t be absolutely 100% sure. No, they responded. They had to take a chance. They responded. I think this is from the Lord. I think this is God speaking. I think this is God who has come to visit His people. Because sometimes by scruples, a person who suffering by scruples can feel paralyzed by uncertainty, but the gospel calls us to trust. In our personal lives we often have to make decisions without being 100% certain, right? How many times you have to make a decision without being 100% certain? When a couple is getting married, can you be 100% certain as you’re entering into marriage, that this is what God wants? You have to take a step without, well, am I sure that this is what God wants? Well, that’s a big step to be taken. We have to make a lot of decisions without being able to be 100% sure. I’m just thinking of examples in my own life, like I’ve mentioned, when these two ladies, 30 years ago came saying they had a message from the Lord for me. I had to begin to make a discernment and a lot of uncertainty. And so I kind of went gradually, but there was still a lot of uncertainty, a lot of controversy. Or when we were, when I first decided I thought I had to start a new community. Could I be 100% certain that it was from the Lord? Not at all. It felt like walking forward in the fog, thinking, I think this is what I’m supposed to do, but I can’t be 100% sure, so, Lord guide me. Or when I’ve mentioned, when I was signing the contract for this mission, my hand was trembling because that was a big, big commitment, a big financial commitment we’re taking on. So many times we have to move forward with some uncertainty. Think at Fatima, you know, there were some 70,000 people who came together to witness the great miracle of the sun at Fatima. And Fatima had not yet been approved. It would be 13 years before Fatima had been approved. What if those people had all said, well, we can’t do anything, because we have to wait till it’s approved. That extraordinary miracle that the Lord gave would not have been witnessed by 70,000 people. They had to do something, even though there wasn’t absolute certainty. And so in these times of uncertainty, we’re not called to be paralyzed, we’re called to continue to respond to the Lord. So how can we do that? How can we do it in uncertainty? And so I think we can do it if, according to the Gospel, if we have an attitude which is seeking God’s will, as the gospel said, that’s the key, seeking God’s will. That’s why prayer is so important, and the gospel shows to do that with the spirit of a child. Practically speaking, that means with humility, recognizing that we’re, all of us, where there’s a lot that we don’t know, all of us can make mistakes. All of us are weak and sinful. But that doesn’t have to paralyze us, because if we could, if we just thought, Well, I’m weak and sinful and I’m ignorant, so I’m just going to hunker down and stay in my little hole. No, we’re called to trust. Jesus, I trust in you. By trust, we can move forward, walking by faith. That’s what St Paul says. I’ll be talking about that next week. We walk by faith, not by sight, by trusting, and that’s why the Lord says so much. Be not afraid, trusting that God will guide us and trusting Lord. I think this is what I mean. I’ll give you my example, for instance, with the mission, starting the Mission of Divine Mercy. Lord, I think this is what you’re asking me to do. If it’s not what you’re asking me to do, please put obstacles or give me some signs so I know. So a lot of time we have to go forward. I think this is what you want me to do Lord. But if it’s not, please show me. So that spirit of humility and trust permits us to move forward, seeking God’s will with prudence and discernment. The Catechism has a whole section on choosing in accord with our conscience. And I’ll just read two paragraphs, 1787, and 88. “Man is sometimes confronted by situations that makes moral judgments less assured and decisions difficult,” so uncertain situations, “but he must always seriously seek what is right and good and discern the will of God expressed in divine law.” So seeking God’s will in moments of uncertainty. “To this purpose, man strives to interpret the data of experience and the signs of the times,” the signs of the times, “both the signs of evil and also the signs of the Holy Spirit acting.” The signs of the times, “assisted by the virtue of prudence, by the advice of competent people.” The people who are truly competent, who truly have faith, because a lot of people who seem like competent people in the Gospel were not making good discernment. And then it says, “and by the help of the Holy Spirit and His gifts,” the help of the Holy Spirit. So I want to read to you a brief passage from a message that, oh, this is one of the messages I think, that we published a couple weeks ago. So a lot of you have already read this. It says, this is our Blessed Mother speaking, “my children, if the Father sends His gift His action, will He not also send His light that you might know that it is He who is acting? For instance, if He sends His words, will He not also give you His light so that you can know that it’s from Him.” That’s what Jesus says. If anyone’s will is to do the Father’s will, He will know whether I am from God or not. “If you are united to Him by grace, by your faith and humility,” faith and humility, trust and humility, “if you know His voice, His heart, shall you not recognize His voice and His action? And recognizing the Father, shall you not also be given light to recognize the deceits of the ancient serpent, the eternal ape, who, in his pride, mocks all the works of God?” So it’s recognizing that there is the deceptions of satan. But if a person has humble, simple faith seeking God’s will, the Lord can give him the grace to discern. “Come to me,” that is our Blessed Mother, “Come to me, my little ones, if you wish to know the Father’s heart.” So we just had the Feast of the Sacred Heart and yesterday of the Immaculate Heart. “Come to me, my little ones, if you wish to know the Father’s heart, if you wish to recognize His voice, whether He speaks.” Our Blessed Mother saying, come to her, because she is the greatest example of discerning, a person who discern God’s voice, “whether He speaks,” she says, “in silence, in the silence deep in our hearts, in action,” in His actions and in the circumstances, He permits, “or through His messengers,” through the messengers, in the messengers that God sends. And so a final, very important point, in this uncertainty, we need a lot of patience and charity and mercy. There’s a lot of good-hearted Christians and Catholics who are very divided right now because they’re uncertain, and that’s the case right now with the Mission of Divine Mercy. A lot of friends of ours are, you know, feel that they can’t go along with what we’re doing right now. And so I think in this time, the devil is trying to cause a lot of division, and we need patience and charity and mercy with each other, because we realize that we are dealing with a lot of uncertainty. And so it’s not, it’s not clear. And so we can say, Well, I think differently, but I still want to respect you and love you. So just to conclude, to summarize all that, so in these times, we’re living a time of great challenges, of great transformation, and so there is a lot of uncertainty. Instead of paralyzing us, it’s a time where we each have to not just kind of follow, kind of just, just do what everyone else is doing, but we have to make a personal decision. Just for instance, you all made a personal decision to come to this mission. It’s a very controversial thing that you’re doing to come here, and you all made a discernment. Maybe you might thinking, Well, I think what they’re doing is good, but there’s things I don’t understand. I might be wrong. And so Lord, if I’m wrong, help me to know. And that’s what we’re doing. We think that this is what the Lord is asking us to do, but we ask the Lord, Lord, if we get off on the wrong track, please lead us back to the right track. So you all were not paralyzed. You’ve come, you’ve made a decision to come here again. That doesn’t mean that you’re 100% sure that everything the mission is publishing is from the Lord, because we’re sinners. We’re very fallible. But you felt this is, Lord, I think this is what you’re asking me to do now.  So we can make a personal decision. And how do we do that? By seeking God’s will. If you’re seeking God’s will, truly seeking God’s will, your heart is in the right place. You might make some mistakes out of ignorance, maybe sometimes out of weakness, but your heart is in the right place if you’re truly seeking God’s will with humility and with trust. You might make some missteps. You might trip sometimes, but you will eventually be on the right path, as Jesus said, because you’re seeking His Will with humility and the trust of a child. So concretely, a good way to do that is, with the feast yesterday of the Immaculate Heart, is to come to our Blessed Mother, to take refuge, to consecrate ourselves to her Immaculate Heart, praying like a little child. Jesus, I trust in You. Amen. 

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Mark 3:20-35