God Acts!

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

“Early in the morning they went to the tomb.” This, the small band of disciples of Jesus, are, most of them, are very discouraged on the point of despair, in a hostile environment that is about to crush them, and there’s no human solution. There’s no plan B. There’s nothing left to do. It’s already too late. Maybe they’re probably thinking maybe if we had acted earlier, if we had done something, but now it’s too late. Now He’s dead and we’re alone. There was no human solution. And I think there’s so many, so many ways in which the Church, that those who are trying to be faithful to Jesus are living a similar solution today and a similar situation, and feeling that discouragement, maybe that despair, with the hostility. And they were praying, but it seemed like God was not listening. And seemed like on that terrible Friday, God was not listening, God didn’t act. And so now they’re gathering, praying, trying to hold on, trying to keep believing, trying to keep hoping, trying not to give up. And in this situation which there’s no human way out, God Himself acts. God acts directly. It wasn’t like they got together and formed the commission and said, Okay, we need to decide how we’re going to fix this situation. It wasn’t that they came up with a better idea how to manage, disaster management, crisis management. They didn’t know what to do. There was no solution, no human solution, but God Himself acted directly, powerfully, shockingly. Even those who were the most, strongest believers, we see them amazed, even Peter himself to the Gospel, just said he didn’t believe. And it’s important for us to look at this, because it helps us to understand what we are living right now. And I keep coming back to that point, Saint Paul – so this is not a weird idea. There’s nothing more traditional than saying no, the Church is called to live, to follow Jesus. St Paul says in the reading today, “if we have grown into union with Him through a death like His, we shall also be united with Him in the resurrection, if then we have died with Christ.” So notice Saint Paul saying, “if we have died with Christ.” He’s saying it to people who are obviously still living. So he’s not just talking about physical death, but he’s saying that we Christians, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. And so, this Easter that we’re celebrating helps us to understand what we are living right now, today as a Church. And I’ll share with you; this was the message that our community got. It was August 4, 2018. So, it was a private message to our community. And sharing these messages it’s a little bit difficult, because it’s kind of revealing what our community has been living. But I think it’s good to share it with you. I’ll share an excerpt. So he says, “My Florecita, it is I the mother, the mother of all the children of God, the queen of all that is created, she who crushes the head of the serpent, of the dragon and of the beast. I see the devastation done to the Church of my Jesus. I see the anguish of my little ones that is united to my own anguish at seeing my Jesus, bruised, nailed to the cross, pierced, dead. My children, the Church, must die in order to be renovated, purified, reconstructed, resurrected. And how much, how much pain and scandal for those who are mine while this takes place. What is rotten must crumble down; waiting, waiting, waiting. I know my children what this agony is, I know. Come and take refuge in me during this last part of the waiting. Everything is necessary. Everything saves but do not be afraid, my little ones, your faith is alive. Even if you feel it dead. Alive, you are anchored to life, to the light, to the truth. Do not be afraid. Abandon yourselves completely. Do not think, do not reason. Everything is in our hands. It is no longer the time for human actions. It is the time for our divine action. The battle children is not human, and human means, however holy and good they may be, are not enough. Only faith and abandonment, united to my action.” “Yes, now it is I, your Abba who speaks. Only faith and abandonment, united to My action, can and will defeat the host of evil and reconquer all that is Mine.” And so that’s the key point. I felt the Lord was calling us to focus on today, that we need God himself to act. Repeat those, those two, two sentences, it says “it is no longer the time for human actions. It is the time for our divine action. The battle children is not human, and human means, however holy and good they may be, are not enough.” It’s often hard to believe that God is going to act, especially when we’re living a time in which He seems like He’s not acting. That was the situation of the disciples. They had been praying God, hoping that He would act. When they sensed this great storm of evil growing and growing and intensifying in Jerusalem, they were hoping that God would act. And then Jesus was arrested, and then there was the trial, and then it was scourged, and now He’s being led, and I’m sure they’re praying, praying God do something, do something. And it seems like God didn’t do anything, it seemed. And even Jesus on the cross prays, My God, My God. Why have you abandoned me? Well, it’s still time. He’s still living, but then it’s too late. He’s dead and He’s now, He’s in the tomb, and God’s not doing anything. And so, it’s hard for them, for Peter and the others to hold on to believing that God’s going to act when it seems like He’s been absent, he hasn’t done anything, and people’s faith was shaken like it’s happening today. So often it seemed like God’s not acting. We’re praying and praying, it seems like where is God? And people’s faith is shaken. People’s hope is shaken. And so, we’re in a similar situation today, where it can be hard to believe. You know, precisely, the charism, the special spiritual mission that the Lord has asked our little Mission of Divine Mercy to live, as many of you know, is faith so that God can act. And I would also say faith that God will act, believing that God will act. And so, I want, because that was, that was what the disciples were trying to hold on to. That was what our Blessed Mother was holding on to, that God will act. And this darkness, where it seems like satan has been triumphant, that his triumph is only temporary, the eclipse is only temporary. That God will act; and again, it’s hard to believe in our world today that God is going to act, because our world often seems so far from that. And so that’s why it’s helpful to look at the readings we have today, because they say so intensely, how that God acts in our world, not in some make-believe fairy tale, but in this world. And so, I want to just go over some of these readings today and to look at how much they show that God acts. So, the first reading today from Genesis, the first, the very beginning of the Bible is about God acting, and that all the creation that we’re in, that we’re part of, is because God acted. This is all His creation, of course, damaged by sin, but its origin is God. “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss. Then God said, Let there be light, and there was light.” And so all creation is a reminder that God acts. I was going to say God acts in our world, but God acts. The reason we have a world is because God made it. All is His. All is from Him. And the psalm, “you fixed the earth upon itself.” The Psalm is celebrating how much God has acted. “You fixed the earth upon its foundation, not to be moved forever with the ocean as with the garment you covered it above the mountains, the water stood. You sent forth springs into the water courses that wind among the mountains. You water the mountains from your palace.” That’s a beautiful passage today. “You water the mountains from your palace. The earth is replete with the fruit of your works.” You know that because there’s people today who tried to present pseudoscientific theories, as if to say that the world just somehow happened. There’s no God. God had nothing to do with it. He doesn’t exist. But what Scripture reminds us all the world, because we can think that God, it’s hard to imagine often, that God acting for a lot of people in our world, but the world itself is because God is holding it in existence. And there’s a beautiful passage from the Prophet Baruch, “the one who established the earth for all time, he who dismisses the light and it departs, calls it and it obeys Him, trembling. Before whom the stars at their post shine and rejoice. When he calls them, they answer Him. Here we are shining with joy for their maker, such is our God. No other is to be compared with Him.” So, all the stars, all the heavens, are responsive to God. They’re from Him. And these stars also remind us not just of the visible universe, but of the invisible universe, of all the angels who are with us today. It’s not just God acted a long time ago in creating the world, but He continues to act through history, preparing through great redemption. And we have one of the most powerful examples of that in our reading today, of the Exodus, one of the greatest examples of God acting in history, where God for the most powerful human force, most powerful human military on earth at that time. And how are they going to be saved? And now they’re coming up to this, the mass of the Israelites coming up to the Red Sea, and the Egyptians are approaching. What are they going to do? God acted, and that’s why the responsorial psalm celebrates that. “Let us sing to the Lord, for He has covered Himself in glory.” And notice how this responsorial psalm is the people celebrating that God acted. “I will sing to the Lord, for He is gloriously triumphant, horse and chariot He has cast into the sea.” God did it. “My strength and my courage is the Lord. He has been my savior. He is my God. I praise Him, the God of my Father. I extol Him. The Lord is a warrior. The Lord is His name, pharaohs, chariots and army He hurled into the sea.” So this might, as I say, be the greatest military force on the earth at that time, is coming to the people. What are they going to do? God Himself fights for them. He is their warrior. “Pharaoh’s chariots and army He hurled into the sea. The elite of his officers were submerged in the Red Sea. Your right hand, O Lord, magnificent in power. Your right hand, O Lord, has shattered the enemy your right hand, you brought the people you redeemed and planted them on the mountain of your inheritance, the place where you made your seat O Lord, the sanctuary Lord, with your hands, established. The Lord shall reign forever and ever.” But it’s not just the Lord acting in these mighty historical events. It’s also the Lord acting in us. And we had the reading from Ezekiel, “therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord,” and notice what he’s going to say. He’s going to say that it’s not you who are going to change by your own just your own efforts and your own knowledge. You’re going to change yourself. What does he say? He says, “I will sprinkle clean water upon You to cleanse you from your impurities and from all your idols. I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you.” He doesn’t just say, you will create a new heart for yourself. You will figure out how to have a new heart. He says, “I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies, your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts, I will put My Spirit within you.” And the responsible Psalm that the rather, the Alleluia, this great, this hallelujah, that Sister chanted says, – notice how all these passages are insisting that God acts. The reason I say that is because the whole Mission of Divine Mercy, because the Lord is all the Mission of Divine Mercy from 30 years ago. It’s all about God saying He’s going to act. I don’t know when He’s going to act, because He sometimes takes His time, but He says He’s going to act. And so that’s not a weird thing, there’s nothing more traditional than believing that God acts. What I’m pointing out is that all these readings on this Easter, and the reading this is not Fr John Mary’s words. These are the Words of God, saying that God acts. And so again it says it here, “the right hand of the Lord has struck with power. The right hand of the Lord is exalted. I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord,” not our works, “the works of the Lord, the stone the builders rejected, has become the cornerstone.” Who did this? It says, “by the Lord, has this been done. It is wonderful in our eyes.” So, I feel like that we today are living very much like Holy Saturday, in which so many in so many ways, we’re living a time of great darkness, in which evil is so powerful, and so many are doubting and despairing. But with our Blessed Mother and with the other apostles and disciples, we are called to continue to believe what the – and if you read the messages the Lord has given us, the message over and over and over, that’s what he’s saying. I will act, and what I need from you is your faith, faith, faith, so that God can act. He wants to act, but He needs our faith, and our faith which leads us to abandon ourselves to Him, to surrender ourselves to Him. And so, the Mission of Divine Mercy today, on this Easter of 2025 we’re not just recalling something, but that’s to help us live our mission right now, today, in this critical time of the Church where God is asking us, with our Blessed Mother, to continue to believe, to hope, that God will act. And so, I’ll just end with this final reading, beautiful reading through the prophet Isaiah, which prefigures God’s love for His Church and how his Church will follow Him in this difficult paschal mystery of suffering and death, but to lead to its great renewal and resurrection. And so this will be – we’ll conclude with this. So as this is talking about the Lord speaking as to His bride, and we know that the bride of Jesus Christ is, the Church, and we have now the relic of the true cross of our Lord there behind the altar, which is the sign, the great sign, of His love that prepared the resurrection. And so, this is that passage, “the Lord calls you back like a wife, forsaken and grieved in spirit, a wife married in youth and then cast off, says your God. For a brief moment, I abandon you, but with great tenderness, I will take you back. In an outburst of wrath for a moment, I hid my face from you, but with enduring love, I take pity on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer. Though the mountains leave their place and the hills be shaken, My love shall never leave you, nor My covenant of peace be shaken, says the Lord who has mercy on you. O afflicted, one, storm battered and unconsoled. O afflicted, one storm battered and unconsoled. I lay your pavements and cornelians and your foundations in sapphires. I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of carbuncles and all your walls of precious jewels. All your children shall be taught by the Lord and great shall be the peace of your children. Faith that God will act. Amen, Hallelujah.  

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Luke 24:1-12