God Has Chosen You

Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost 

Epistle: Gal 1,11-19

Gospel: Lk 7,11-16

Sometimes, life can really stink. It’s tough. My father used to say that those moments were like body blows. They hurt, they take the wind out of you.  And sometimes, you feel you can’t go on.  I’m sure that the mother in today’s Gospel felt that way.

Put yourself in her place. She’s a widow. Her only son has died.  That society didn’t have social security. There were no retirement accounts.  In other words, she was left destitute. At best, she might be able to rely on the kindness of others, but she couldn’t count on it. She had no reason to hope for anything good in this life.

When Jesus saw the funeral procession, He didn’t have to do anything. After all, people die every day, don’t they? But, that’s not what happened.  He was filled with compassion and practiced one of the Spiritual Works of Mercy, to comfort the sorrowful, but He did it in a totally unexpected fashion, didn’t he?

Three times in the Gospels, Jesus raises the dead. Jairus’s daughter was still on her deathbed. Here, the widow’s son was about to be buried, and Lazarus was in the tomb.  In each case, He was responding to loved ones grieving for the dead.  And in each case, all He had to do is speak the word, and life was restored.  

And this happens not just in the Gospels.  The prophet Elijah raises the son of the woman of Zarephath, Elisha raises the son of the Shunammite woman, and Peter raised Dorcas at the crying of the women of Lydda.  God has a soft spot for grieving women.

The greatest miracle of all, though, is not the raising of those for whom physical life has ended.  Far greater is the miracle for which our Lord came into the world, the raising of the spiritually dead. 

Do you remember the story of Adam and Eve. The Lord God told them that they could eat fruit from any tree of the garden except for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; “on that day, you surely die”, he told them. We know the story - they ate the fruit.  But the death they suffered that day wasn’t physical; that came later. No, the death they suffered was spiritual death.  And that state of spiritual death is something we inherit at birth. 

But Jesus tells us, “I come that you might have life, and that more abundantly”.  You see, baptism isn’t just some quaint little ritual, or merely an act of obedience.  No. It is the way that God has chosen to give us New Life.  Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again”.  And Paul tells us, “We are buried with Christ in Baptism”, and “We rise to eternal life”. 

Again, that simple act of washing is the external action that God has chosen to impart new life.  And that is truly a miracle, as much, if not more, than the miracle of physical birth.

And those mothers praying? Don’t you think that God honors the same prayers today when mothers pray?  Sometimes it might take years for the prayers to be answered - not because God doesn’t care, but sometimes He has to break through the rebellious shell that we put up. But when it’s answered? It can be wonderful.

Think of St. Monica.  Living in the 4th century, she was the Christian wife of a pagan man, living in present day Tunisia.  She had three children. One of them, a daughter, Perpetua became an abbess.  Of one of her sons, Navigius, we know very little.

Her other son was brilliant. He became a philosopher and a teacher of rhetoric.  But he wasn’t a Christian. He had a mistress and a son. And, in fact, he was a member of a group that, by today’s standards, would probably be considered a new age cult.  But Monica prayed for him. 

She always prayed for him.

Eventually, he went from North Africa to Italy, to Milan, to teach.  He met the bishop, and was impressed by him.  And, eventually, Monica’s prayers were answered.  Her son was converted, and she died the next year.

That son? St. Augustine, one of the most influential saints and teachers in the history of Christianity.

Never think that your prayers don’t matter.

But, you may say, I’ve sinned.  Can God really hear my prayers? 

Yes. As dark as it might seem, God hears your prayers and has a plan. 

Look at what Paul says in the Epistle.  He was a prosecutor of the Church.  In fact, when St Stephen was being stoned, Paul was the guy keeping an eye on everybody’s garments.  As Acts tells us, Paul consented to Stephen’s death.  But, before he was born, God had chosen Paul to be His apostle.  

God does have a plan for each of us.  It will differ from person to person, but each of us is equally important. Comparing us to a body, Paul says that the hand shouldn’t say to the foot, “I don’t need you”.

If you have sin that separates you from God, that has robbed you of, at least, the power of that abundant life, well, that’s what Confession is for; it will restore you to the same sinless state that you had when you were baptized.

So, my brothers and sisters

• Know that your life, you spiritual life, comes from God

• Remember to restore the freshness of that life through confession

• Serve God, and know that you are part of his plan.