Realism and Encouragement

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

Admiral Jim Stockdale was a United States Naval officer who was held captive for eight years during the Vietnam War in terrible conditions and torture. And he recounts to Jim Collins, and it’s in the book “Good to Great,” he said, “I never doubted, not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which in retrospect, I would not trade.” And then he was asked about those who didn’t make it, those who are not able to persevere. And he said they were the ones who said, “we’re going to be out by Christmas,” and Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, “we’re going to be out by Easter,” and Easter would come, and Easter would go and then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again, and they died of a broken heart. So he said, “those who didn’t make it were those who had false hopes, unrealistic hopes,” that they needed hope, but they had to be with realism, real hopes. And so, he did what he could, did all he could, to help the other prisoners, lift their morale and help them hang on. But I think that this lesson of the difference between false hopes and real hopes, realism and hope is a good reminder with the readings we have today. St Paul, and it’s not something new, obviously, but it’s good to be reminded; St Paul says these words, which are very important to remember., he says, “if for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are, of all men, most to be pitied.” Because some people going into the Christian life, they think, well, if I’m good, if I do what God is asking, if I try to do good things, then I’ll have a good, comfortable, successful life because I’m obeying God. And St Paul saying something very different. He’s saying, if it’s for this life only that we’re hoping we’re, of all men most to be pitied. That is, he’s saying that the Christian life is a very difficult life. If it’s only about this life. He doesn’t say, well, you won’t be any better than other men who said, we’re the most to be pitied, because it’s especially difficult, especially challenging. You know that there’s some who preach what they call the prosperity gospel, the promising that if we, if we serve the Lord, then we’re going to have wealth and health and wealth in this life. And people say, Well, God wants me happy. And our Blessed Mother said the same, “Bernadette, I don’t promise to make you happy in this life, but in the next.” So God does want us happy, and He wants us infinitely happy, but it’s beyond this life. This life is, as St Paul says it’s very difficult, and it’s difficult, but then he speaks right away of this hope. “But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” So he says that in Jesus Christ, we have the strong proof, the solid proof, that there is more than this life. There is the resurrection. And if we’re faithful to Him, we will share His glory forever. The proof of His resurrection reveals that we have more than this life, and so it opens up this infinite panorama of glory, and we have the same sense in the Gospel we have today. So in the Gospel of St. Luke, we have part of the Beatitudes. In Matthew’s gospel, we have a longer list of Beatitudes and this gospel, St Luke, it’s a shorter list. And it also has not just four beatitudes or blessed, but four woes. And it woes, he says, “Woe to those who are rich, who are satisfied, who are laughing, or who can all speak well of you.” And so that we can say, well, then is it wrong? Is it wrong to be rich, and is it wrong to be satisfied? Is it wrong to laugh sometimes? That would be terrible if we couldn’t laugh at all, right? Or if sometimes people speak well of us. And I don’t think Jesus means that those things are necessarily wrong when God gives them, because all of us have, in different ways, certain riches. And there can be moments in which we feel satisfied, and hopefully there are moments in which we’re laughing, and moments when people speak well of us. It’s not wrong when God gives us those, but it’s wrong to put them before God, to put them before God, to make an idol of those. And so Jesus saying, “Woe to those who put these things, these earthly goods, before God. And He says, Those who do that, they don’t have a life of hope for what is coming, for what is coming after this life, but of dread. And it’s interesting in the Gospel, in Maria Val Torta, this ‘The Gospel as it Was Revealed to Me’, Jesus is saying these words, especially for Mary Magdelene, that this is before her conversion, and she with some of her friends, have come up, and they’re on the outskirts listening to Jesus, just because they want a distraction, and they want to mock Him, and they want to laugh at Him. And so these words are directed at her and also to help bring about her conversion. And I was just thinking of, you know, we had a couple of months ago, all those, that area near Hollywood, where it had all these big, beautiful mansions that burned down, and who knows all that was behind what happened. But it’s like a dramatic reminder of how things, how the earthly riches perish. They don’t last. And then Jesus goes on to give these four Beatitudes, and they have both a material sense and then a deeper sense. And so He, first of all, speaks of poverty. And there’s different types of poverty. There’s economic poverty with all the struggles that it brings. And there can also be poverty in our health. There can be poverty of relationships, not having the people in our life that we would wish. There can be intellectual poverty. There can be spiritual poverty when we realize that Jesus has poor in spirit, and when we realize our own sins and our own spiritual acts, our own defects. And so all of us have poverty, some types of poverty in our life, and maybe a lot of poverty. And then Jesus also talks about hunger. And there’s both the physical hunger, which way too many people are still suffering from in our world, and then there’s the hunger and a sense of all the desires that we have, sometimes very good and deep desires that we yearn for and are not fulfilled. And He speaks of mourning, weeping, and sometimes that mourning, weeping is interior. Sometimes it’s a deep pain, a deep sadness. Sometimes it’s so deep that we’re not even really consciously aware of it, because we’ve been carrying it for a long time, maybe since the beginning of our life. You know, in the prayer, the ancient prayer of the Salve Regina, the Hail, Holy Queen, it says, “to thee, do we cry poor, banished children of Eve. To thee, do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.” And so that, as I said, that ancient, classic Catholic prayer expresses so well this, so realistically, what this life can be – poor, banished children of Eve. That is speaking of our being sinners in a world of sin. To thee, do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. And so, as I say, very realistic about this life. And then Jesus goes on to speak about persecution, persecution for His sake, and when for trying to follow God, we are criticized, we are rejected, even hated, even persecuted and condemned. And he says, this is the example of what we see in the prophets. This is what so many of the prophets experienced. And even just with the messages that our little community has been sharing, it’s made a lot of ways, things much more – well, it’s caused a lot of criticism for what we’re doing. So Jesus, I don’t think He’s saying that we have to look for these trials. But we have trials, these different trials in our own life, these different sufferings. And so again, I don’t think you say we have to look for it, but when we experience it in one way or another, He’s helping us to know how to understand it. And in the message that we just released a couple of days ago, I’ll just read you a little passage from that. He says, “everything that I do and allow, has its foundation in My love for you. Yes, children, you cannot comprehend how I can allow certain events in the world and in your lives.” I think most of us have had that. So how can God permit this? Why? Why is God letting this happen? He says, “For they seem completely contrary to the actions of a God who is love. But children, you see only a part of these events and only an instant of them. I see it all. I see the victories that will be born. I see the healings that will take place. I see the light that will illuminate. I see you with me for all eternity.” And so that’s what Jesus has given us in this gospel, a glimpse of the fullness of truth, and not just the little sliver that we see. And so these poverties, hungers, sadnesses, persecution, remain painful because He doesn’t say that He takes them all away. And so they remain painful for us. But what He gives us is His hope, He strengthens us in hope because they are preparing us for His glory. They become then, the path to happiness. So think, I mean, think of many examples that we have in our life. For example, an athlete training and making many sacrifices for the goals that he has. Or a parent sacrificing, making many sacrifices, sacrificing many, many years for the good of their children. Or a soldier sacrificing himself for his comrades, for his brothers and sisters. And all these situations are people who are sacrificing but with hope. Because they know that they’re doing it for something that will bring good, bear good fruit. And so Jesus says, “yours is the kingdom of God. You shall be satisfied. You shall laugh.” So it sounds like there’ll be a lot of laughter in heaven. “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven,” in heaven. And so we are made for happiness. God did make us for happiness, but not just a little earthly happiness, but an infinite happiness, what we call Beatitude, the kingdom of God, in which we’ll experience the fullness of riches, the satisfaction of our deepest desires, laughter and overflowing joy. And the family of God, where we are known and deeply loved and respected and even glorified, because we’re not in competition with others, but we’re bound together, sharing the overflowing love that is pouring through us. And so to conclude, these readings from the Lord, are giving us realism in our trials. Not saying that everything’s going to be easy but giving us divine hope for the painful times that we are living. And also the latest message that the Lord gave, as He’s done so many times, He speaks frankly of how many trials, so many of His children are experiencing right now. But He gives us hope with Mary, the mother of divine hope. And so I’ll just end by rereading these words from the Gospel. “Blessed are you poor for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and cast out your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven, for so their fathers did to the prophets.” Amen. 

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Luke 6:17, 20-26
1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20
Jeremiah 17:5-8