Homily

I think that when we hear the gospel at Liturgy it is very easy to think that these are stories about Jesus. And they are stories about Jesus, but they are also much more than that. The gospel writers were not interested only in telling what Jesus did, but they wanted to write so that Christians would better understand who Jesus was and to help their faith in Him. So they put a lot of thought into how they wrote their gospels.

St. Matthew, in this section of his gospel, has three stories about Jesus that all fit together. The first is the story of Jesus and His disciples on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus gets into a boat, and the disciples follow Him. It's important, those words, "followed Him," because Matthew wants us to think about ourselves who also follow the Lord. Suddenly a storm comes up, a violent, dangerous storm that is certainly going to sink their boat under its waves. And in the midst of these terrible winds, and rain, and waves what is Jesus doing? He is asleep! They have to wake Him up! The disciples say, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!" In other words they prayed to Him. When we read this story, we are certainly meant to think of their words as a prayer we could pray in time of need and troubles, when our own boats are in danger. The disciples did not pray to Christ as God in this story, because they did not yet understand who Jesus was. They asked Him to help in whatever way He could help, perhaps by Him praying to the Lord God to spare their lives. But we understand that He is our true Savior in every way.

When we ask for His help we have the great advantage of knowing that Christ is truly God in the flesh, as Jesus continued to reveal on the Sea of Galilee. He gets up and rebukes the winds and the sea and everything becomes calm and peaceful. Many of the religions in that part of the world had stories about the creation of the world which was surrounded by chaos and uncontrollable oceans and winds which were conquered by one god or another who brought calm and order to this primeval super storm. The Israelites borrowed this image from their pagan neighbors and spoke of God as the Lord over the storms and the waters, and the evil they contain. This image comes up many, many times in the Psalms, as in Psalm 92: "the floods lift up, O Lord, the floods lift up their voice; the floods lift up their tumult. More powerful than the roar of many waters, more powerful than the breakers of the sea—powerful on High is the Lord."

In this great storm story Matthew shows us that Christ has this exact same power as the God of Israel and power over the evils of the deep. Those who pray to Him, "Lord, save us!" can be sure He has the power to save.

The third story of this set is Jesus meeting a paralyzed man brought to Him on a stretcher. Jesus sees the faith of those who brought him and the faith of the paralyzed man, and He says to the man, "Courage, child, your sins are forgiven." And of course, some of the scribes think He is committing blasphemy. Jesus knows what they are thinking and asks why they harbor evil thoughts. Is it easier to forgive sins, or to heal the man? "But that you may know that the son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"—He said to the paralytic, "Rise, pick up your stretcher and go home." Certainly, the Christians in St. Matthew's day would have thought of baptism, the great gift they received which also forgave their sins. Only God can forgive sins, as the scribes and everyone else knew. But notice at the end of this story the people glorified God, "who had given such authority to men." In Mark's Gospel, he writes that the people gave glory to God saying, "We have never seen anything like this." Matthew is much more explicit. Not only is Jesus God, although the people cannot yet see this, He has given to the Church the divine authority to forgive sins in His name.

In between this first story of the Storm at Sea, and this third story of the Healing of the Paralytic, comes today's story of the exorcism of the two men possessed by demons in the Gadarenes territory. They are savage and violent, and they live among the tombs because evil and darkness and death are things that all fit together very well. And what irony! They call Him Son of God and ask why He is there before "the appointed time," because it was a belief in Jewish thought that God would allow evil spirits to afflict people until the final judgment at the end of the world. But not here, Jesus casts them out and allows them to enter into pigs and then they all go off and jump over a cliff and destroy themselves. It may not seem like it to us, but for Jewish-Christian readers, this was great humor: devil-stuffed pork ending up in a suicidal broken heap.

Three stories. Three truths about Jesus. He has power over the storms and the seas and the evils that they can bring. He can forgive sins by His own word, and wipe out the evil they have brought, even as He heals the evil of sickness and disease. He has command over evil spirits and can cast them out of the lives of men and women. Jesus is victorious over evil in every account. And so when they ask the question, "What sort of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey Him?" we are meant to give the answer. We are meant to have the answer. If someone were to ask us "What do you think about Jesus?", what should we say? We can give them a short list of facts from the Catechism, or we could also speak to them in a way that is very direct and personal. What we are taught by the Church about Christ our God is important to know and understand, as much as we are able. But along with that, our personal knowledge of Christ, our own relationship with Him is also very important, lest we sound like someone who has read the book but never met the principal character.

So we need to continue to meet the Lord in the Holy Scriptures, not simply to hear them or read them. We are to continue to meet the Lord in our daily prayers, and not simply to pray them; to continue to meet Him in our Holy Communion, and not just to receive Him. We should strive to meet Him in Confession, in the lives of the Saints, in our reverence for His Holy Mother, in our participation in His Body, the Church, and in our interactions with our neighbors, there too we should look for Him, and especially among those who are poor and needy, whether materially or spiritually. Many people are concerned about the numbers of the homeless, yet I think an even bigger problem are the numbers of the faithless.

There is no doubt in my mind at all that our society has grown very poor in the knowledge of Christ, whether willfully so, or in ignorance because no one has taught them. Yes, there is the Bible. Yes, there is the catechism. But we, dear friends, are often the first place where people will come to see the truth of Christ. The better we know Him, the better we ourselves serve as living Gospels, not only for our neighbors, but for our families and loved ones as well.