As preached by Sister Cecelia
Holy Wisdom Church
Ez 18:21-23,30-32, Heb 3:7-16, Mk 5:24b-34
A pencil. That is what a young boy in India answered when he was asked what he would like most in the world. A pencil was a symbol of his desire to learn, to be taught. A pencil was a way for him to rise out of the dire poverty he was in. For Adam Braun, it was the stimulus to go further and to provide pencils for many –even thousands of children. He did not stop with the pencils but eventually in 2008 Braun founded an organization that builds schools, trains teachers and funds scholarships for children in Laos, Ghana and Guatemala.
This is just one example from this past Sunday’s Parade section of the paper entitled ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE! What all of these individuals have in common is the level of their faith. They want to do “something” to help. They are inspired to do something and they have faith that it can be done in spite of the seeming impossibilities at times.
The woman in this morning’s Gospel faced many hurdles in order to reach Jesus. Her faith in His ability to help her caused her to make the great effort it took. She knew the crowd would not be pleased with her being there. Jesus declared it was her faith that enable his healing. All the individuals in that article faced obstacles as well, but their faith in God and in others’ willingness to help has made a tremendous difference in so very many lives.
This Lent I’m sure many of us have asked ourselves what to do to know God better. Or to know what it is that God wants of us. Or to know what it means to have faith. Faith in what, you may think. It takes faith to believe that God wants anything of us and it takes faith and hope if we don’t already know, to believe that we will know eventually what God wants.
When we hear God is love, what does that mean to any of us? If we have had an experience of that love, the usual response is to enjoy and appreciate that experience but also we want to reciprocate in some way. How we show our love for God is the next question. Jesus has given us one answer. What you are doing to others you are doing to me. There have been so many who have responded to that call to love and each respond in their own way. We too can make a difference. We each can do something to bring about the reign of God on earth.
During his earthly life, Jesus showed us that it is his desire to heal, to teach and to help us come to truly know the Father, (the creator, the giver of life). Whether we are asking the Father for help for ourselves, for others or for the projects we have undertaken big or small, if we have faith, we can “move mountains”. We just have to be sure that the mountain we are attempting to move is the mountain God wants us to move.
There are many little ways that we can do something to reciprocate God’s love: Guarding against our tendency to anger when aggravated with another. Take the emphasis off the self by trying to be more understanding and compassionate with others. Be willing to listen without judging the other. Study what is the best way to carry out one’s responsibilities. Be aware that others are counting on you. By loving, we do learn how to pray always and thus become the instrument of God’s love.
God is in our midst!
