A Mysterious Liberation

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

“The night of the Passover, your people awaited the salvation of the just and the destruction of their foes. For by the same means by which you punished our enemies, you called us to yourself and glorified us.” What does this passage from the book of Wisdom, talking about the Passover have to do with us today? And it’s helpful to recall that the very Eucharist that we’re celebrating, which we know was instituted by our Lord at the Last Supper, was precisely when He was celebrating the Passover, the sacred Passover memorial. And so, this Mass takes us all the way back to those roots in the Passover, the first Passover in Egypt. And our word, that important word Paschal, like when we speak of the paschal mystery, comes from the word for Passover or passage. And so, there’s a connection between what we’re living right now in this Mass and the very first Passover, which was the prefiguration of this mystery that we are living. So, I’ll read what that said again. “The night of the Passover, your people awaited the salvation of the just and the destruction of their foes. For by the same means by which you punished our enemies, you called us to yourself and glorified us.” So, we know that the people of Israel were living under oppression, slavery, and what does that have to do with our situation today? They were in slavery and also, they were oppressed by idolatry. And behind the idolatry, it was demons who were dominating that society, and even to the point where the Egyptians began killing the little boys of the Hebrews. And so, we’re living an oppression today, which in many ways is more dangerous because it’s much more subtle. The most effective way of form of slavery is the slavery where the people don’t even realize the slavery that they’re in. And a world in which, also, again, there’s so much idolatry. And behind the idols, there’s the power of demons in our society. And we see it also, for instance, in the attacks against the littlest and the most in defensive, of like abortion and child abuse and child trafficking. A lot of this has been very hidden from people’s awareness, but there’s a lot of it going on. And so, this great liberation from evil, of the Passover is also a prefiguration of what both, we are called to live, each one personally, but also the whole Church.  And the Lord has spoken to us of this great reconquest of His people, to free His people from the power of the evil spirits. And so, we have this Book of Wisdom. And you know that there’s passages in the Bible which there’s a lot of passages in which the Lord has given us very clear, simple direction about what to do, like say, the 10 Commandments. But then there’s other passages which are different. They’re much more mysterious. They’re like giving us like opening a door into the mystery of God’s action. And this Book of Wisdom, especially this is taken from the second half of the book of Wisdom, and I think that’s a part of Scripture which is not very well known by most of us. And so, I think it’s worth looking at it a little bit. For instance, as we saw in the second reading, it’s talking about faith, which is evidence of what is not seen. And then it shows how Abraham was called by God through this, to set out on this journey. He was already very old when he was called to set out on this mysterious journey. And so, it was like Abraham was entering into a mystery, a mystery of God’s designs, and that he was part of God’s mysterious designs, which remained mysterious all his life. And I know for myself that’s been as for many years the Lord has been calling us into this mission. There’s that sense of mystery, of both, we have our human life, but then beyond the human life, the sense that we’re living also a mystery. There’s a hidden mystery that sometimes we glimpse, we sense a little bit more. And I think this Book of Wisdom, is a good one to helping us discover a little bit, this mystery; because all of that’s what our faith is about. Because that’s why we’re here, right? We’re here because we share the Catholic faith. But faith is precisely about what is beyond, what I can see, what I can touch, what I can understand. And so, we’re entering into a mystery. And these are passages which give us, like, a sense of that mystery. And as we read something like this book of Wisdom, there’s a lot in it that’s not so clear, that we won’t really understand exactly what does that mean. But sometimes that’s precisely the point – to realize that, because that’s what mystery is, that there’s so much happening that is beyond what we can understand, what we realize. And so, what does that call us to? That calls us to humility, humility. Because we’re aware that God is calling me, like Abraham. Abraham had to realize that there he didn’t know exactly, he didn’t even know where he was going. You know, the Lord had called him on a journey, not just him, but with all his household, and he didn’t even know where he was going. And that’s a sign he didn’t know where he was going physically, but that’s also a sign that the Lord was leading him to heaven, which was so far beyond anything that he had experienced. And so that’s also us, that we set out on a mysterious journey in which we have to accept that there’s so much that we don’t understand. And so again, that’s a call to humility, to be aware that there’s so much I don’t know, I don’t know, and I have to trust, trust, have faith. That’s what that whole passage about Abraham was – his faith, his trust in the Lord. And so also, we right now – and as this reconquest is that it’s a great sign that we are living in a special way, a mystery that God has called us to. Abraham was called to this mystery, but he didn’t have to go. He could have said, No, that’s crazy. I’m not going to do that. I’m just going to stay here. And you know, that’s a crazy idea for me to set out at this stage of my life. And so, he had to accept to go where he didn’t even know where he was going. He didn’t know how this was going to play out. And so, the Lord also is calling us to enter into this mystery of the reconquest, which is so beyond what we understand. I’m laughing, because that’s our daily experience at the mission. It’s always so, I mean, there’s so much that we don’t know. We don’t know how this is gonna play out; what the Lord is going to do. And so, as I say, I think this passage from this book of Wisdom is a good example, because you’ll see how just I’ll read a few passages which give a sense of how the author is sensing that there’s so much depth, so much more depth to the Passover night than many people were aware of. And so I’ll read just a few examples of that. This is one where he’s speaking of the enemy’s fear on the night of Passover. So, remember this, this is not from the book of Exodus, the Book of Wisdom. Many scholars feel that it was the last book of the Old Testament that was written, so written not too long before the beginning of the New Testament. So, this is written many hundreds of years later, but it’s probably, there’s probably a tradition, though, that’s been transmitted through those centuries. So, it says, “for thinking that in their secret sins, they were unobserved behind a dark curtain of forgetfulness, they were scattered, terribly alarmed and appalled by specters, for not even the inner chamber that held them protected them from fear, but terrifying sounds rang out around them and dismal phantoms with gloomy faces appeared.”  So that’s you know, that’s way beyond what the book of Exodus tells us. “And no power of fire was able to give light, nor did the brilliant flames of the stars avail to illumine that hateful night. Nothing was shining through to them, except that dreadful self-kindled fire. And in terror, they deemed the things which they saw to be worse than that unseen appearance. The delusion of their magic art lay humbled, and their boasted wisdom was scornfully rebuked.” So that’s speaking of the Egyptians. And the Book of Wisdom gives a lot of examples of how the same creation which punished the Egyptians, like through the plagues and like the Red Sea, also became gentle, a gentle blessing, even in miraculous ways for the Hebrews. It says, “For creation serving you who made it, exerts itself to punish the unrighteous and in kindness relaxes on behalf of those who trust in you.” And here’s one more passage, and this is a very dramatic passage speaking about the Word of God. It says, “For while gentle silence envelope all things, and night in its swift course, was now half gone, your all-powerful word leaped down from heaven, from the royal throne into the midst of the land that was doomed. A stern warrior carrying the sharp sword of your authentic command, and stood and filled all things with death, and touched heaven while standing on the earth,” speaking of the great final plague of Passover, in which the Egyptian first born were killed. And so, the Passover is a historical event, and it’s one of the most extraordinary events in all of history, that under the great world power, superpower of Egypt at that time, how this huge multitude of people were released from slavery. And so, it’s an actual event. And so how do you make this happen? Because to do that, you have to be very practical, very realistic. And so how did they make that happen? Was it by guerrilla tactics and terrorism the way liberation is often sought in history? Or by deception, lies, what we call today like a PR campaign? Or by political power or money, bribery? Or by having advanced technology? It was by none of those. It was simply by obedience to God. And so, the text and one of the key things was their vigilance. The Lord prepared them, spoke to them of that. It says, “The night of the Passover, which was made known beforehand to our fathers, that with a sure knowledge of the oaths in which they had put their faith, they might have courage.” And there had been a prophetic sense given to Abraham and Jacob about this many centuries earlier, these prophetic words. And so, it says, “Your people awaited,” based on these prophetic words, and also the word given to Moses, “your people awaited the salvation of the just and the destruction of their foes.” And so, they were keeping vigil on that night. And that night also represents also the darkness, the obscurity in which they were having to keep wait. And so also the Gospel we have today is about keeping wait at night, keeping wait, keeping vigilant, waiting for the master to return, even if it seems like He is delayed. And that’s been so much of the Christian call, to be vigilant, awaiting. And it’s so much of what we here at our little mission have been called to live, which has been many times very difficult and very painful, but waiting, waiting for the Lord, waiting for Him to accomplish His promises. Dr John Bergsma, a Catholic scripture scholar, makes the link between this gospel, about staying awake on the wedding night, waiting for the mass to return from the wedding. He makes the image of the relationship between that and the Passover night, the night of the Passover. Here’s what he says. He says “the great liturgical vigil when Israel awaited the arrival of the Lord to take them away and betrothed them to Himself on Mount Sinai.” So God was like the divine bridegroom coming to take His bride from slavery and oppression and lead her to this union, to this covenant, to this betrothal on Mount Sinai. “For by the same means by which you punished our enemies, you called us to yourself and glorified us.” And so what does that means, by the same means? And so this is talking about a sacred rite. The Book of Wisdom says, “For in secret, the holy children of good men,” so this is talking about the Passover, “the Holy children of good men were offering sacrifice,” offering sacrifice, “and putting into effect, with one accord, the divine institution,” the divine institution.  And so, the Mass that we’re living right now, today, in the night, in the darkness of the evil of the time that we’re living is helping us to keep vigil, to be prepared. And so, in this Mass, we offer unleavened bread, the unleavened bread which you receive in Holy Communion. That’s taken us all the way back to that Passover night in which they were told to eat unleavened bread and to sacrifice the lamb. And we will participate in the sacrifice of the Lamb of God who frees us from evil and leads His people to union with God, to Holy Communion. And so, as we’ve often said, the Church today is living in a special a special way, the paschal mystery of Jesus. The paschal mystery, again, when we speak of the paschal mystery of Jesus. we’re speaking of His suffering, His Passion and Death and Resurrection, which is prefigured in the original Passover, where the terrible oppression of the people was, but they placed their hope and the divine promises who would free them from evil. And so, what did they do? It says they followed the divine institution and offered sacrifice. And so that was a prefiguration of what we’re doing right now, following the divine institution, the institution that the Mass we celebrate is not instituted by man. It comes from God Himself, to unite ourselves with all our sacrifices, to the very sacrifice of Jesus Christ to bring about the liberation of His people. And so I’m going to conclude. We know that this month, our Blessed Mother has asked it be a special month dedicated to her so that she can help open us to this action of the Lord, to keep watch with her, holding on to the word of the Lord. And so, I’ll end just by this one word, this one sentence, beautiful sentence from the gospel today, I’ll read it twice because it’s very dense. “Fear not little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.”  “Fear not, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.” Amen. 

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Luke 12:32-48
Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19
Wisdom 18:6-9