Homily

The paralyzed man had a destination in mind. He knew exactly where he wanted to go and he had been wanting to get there for probably many, many years. The only trouble was that he didn’t know how to get there. He didn’t know how to get to the pool when the waters stirred and time after time, he saw someone else make it, while he remained stuck right where he was. Nothing changed for him.

Almost all of you have been on an airplane to travel somewhere. And I have no doubt that you had a destination in mind when you traveled. Very few people go to the ticket counter and then, when the agent asks where they want to fly to, they answer “I don’t know where I want to go.” Quite the opposite. Every airport is packed full of people who are absolutely certain about their desired destinations. Without a doubt they know where they want to go, and they would like to get there as quickly and easily as possible.

Now imagine going into the airport and there are no signs or instructions of any kind. No signs to tell you how to get to Terminal 2, or Gate A-25, or where to pick up your baggage. No signs to tell you where you can catch the Metro or even where the restrooms are. The airport would be one chaotic mess of people searching in frustration, trying to get through all the steps you need to take to get to where you want to go. It’s extremely important to have a destination in mind, but to get where you want to be you also need to know what you need to do to get there. Without all those hundreds of signs everywhere in an airport telling you what you need to know, airports would be centers of chaos and confusion and nobody would ever get to their desired destination.

The same thing is true in life. First, we need to have a destination in mind. Where is my life going? Where do I want to end up, because this journey I am now on will certainly come to an end one day, and when it does, where do I want to be? How different would our lives be if we woke up every morning and said, “I want to go to heaven, and today I am one day closer, I hope. Lord, help me to also stay closer to you today.” It seems plenty of people today are totally dedicated to ignoring the endpoint of their lives, their final destination. They are ignorant. And I say that because “ignore” and “ignorant” come from the same root word—to “not know.” They do not know where they will end up. They choose not to think about it, or they simply don’t care. This is understandable in some ways—if you think about the destination of your life then you also need to think about what you need to do so that you can arrive at the place you would like to be. What are the steps you need to take and the directions you need to follow to end up in a good place? And I understand why people choose to live in this ignorance. They want to believe that their deaths are so far off in the future that they don’t need to be concerned about it right now. And even more so, if they do think about it right now it might interfere with the plans they have made for today.

If I want to go to Denver, when I get on that plane, bus or train, I trust that the pilot, the driver or the engineer knows how to get me there, because they know how to do it, they have the knowledge of how to do it. But when it comes to directing my very life to a good ending, how is it that I don’t need anyone else to guide me along the way? That’s the Adam and Eve factor in all of us, seen most vividly when young children scream “I can do it myself.” It’s an attitude we are tempted with all life long, sometimes struggling to believe that anyone can show us better than what we can do for ourselves—even Christ Himself. Yes, yes, we do believe but like the father whose boy was in danger, we must also say “Lord, help my lack of faith.”

So much of the anger, turmoil, accusations, hatred, mistrust, violence, broken homes, and lack of trust that we see in our society today is, I truly believe, because so many people have no idea where they are heading and yet they also reject any direction from outside because they think it will limit their freedom and keep them from doing what they want to do.

The paralytic may knew where he wanted to go but had no idea how he would ever get there, until Jesus came by. Then he no longer needed any other destination than Jesus Himself. The same is true for us. Jesus must be our destination, our end, our goal. He is the one Who should be the endpoint of our lives in this world and the real point of our lives every day until then. How do we get there? How do we end up in Him? He gave us His Church as a guide and a means to help us reach our final goal. The Church is like all those signs in the airport, guiding us to where we need to be, giving us all the information to get to where we want to go. But even more than that the Church also provides all the nourishment we need for the journey, it helps us lighten our luggage from sin which weighs us down, it puts us in the fine company of other travelers who want to go to the same place and who can help us along the route, even as we can help them. Our fare has already been paid. If we just follow the guides that we have been given to the best of our ability we are sure to get home, even if our flight is not yet ready for take-off, we can still make it home.

It's not just about the ending. Those who live by the grace and the truth of Christ’s Church live in the grace of the richness of life the Lord has provided for all who live united in Him. It is not a life free from pain, sorrow or hardships, because our Lord suffered these Himself. But it is a life that is sustained by Christ’s love, even in the midst of trials and temptations.

The paralyzed man waited 38 years to get to where something good could happen to him. Then something he never could have imagined took place. He Who-Is-All-Good came to him and changed his life in a miraculous way. He is also ready to come to us today in a more intimate way than the paralyzed man could receive Him. Let Him be our destination today.