Keep Focus

                                   
On the 10th December 2016, the Catholic Church of Divine Mercy hosted an unusual praise concert. I do not have the statistics but I believe well over 5000 people attended. It was an all night open air concert. Mid way into the concert, rain started to fall. This is rain in December when harmattan was supposed to be out in full force. It wasn't expected, and so no provision had been made for it.

When the rain started, some people left the concert; some to their homes, others to their cars and others to look for shelter away from the rain. People also started to make comments. Those who had opposed the concert were happy that the rains had come to disrupt the program. They felt that that was a sign that the concert didn't have 'God's stamp of approval'. Some people felt if God really approved, then the rains should not have come.

To these people I present the gospel passage of today (Friday 13th January), Mark 2:1-12, the passage on the healing of the paralytic. In this passage a paralytic on a stretcher was brought to Jesus for healing. However there was such a great crowd around Jesus, that they were unable to reach him. Undeterred, they went up to the roof of the house, removed the roof over where Jesus lay and lowered the paralytic before Jesus.

Commenting on this at mass today, the priest of Sacred Heart Catholic Church Henleaze Bristol asked us to imagine if this was happening in our time. How many people in church, listening to the word of God will remain if it appeared as if the roof was coming off? We can't even bear to withstand heat, cold, sun or rain let alone caving roofs. Imagine if the friends of the paralytic did not go up on the roof, or if the crowds around Jesus took off once they saw that the roof was being tampered with, the paralytic would not have been healed, and the crowds would have missed the chance to witness this miracle. But they were focused on Jesus and the words he spoke, so nothing else mattered.

Jesus never promised us that serving him will be free of obstacles; rather he expects us to remain steadfast even in the midst of the obstacles. Today we are reminded to keep focus on Jesus. Let nothing distract us, be it rain or sun, cold or heat, blizzard or hail storm. When we keep focus on Jesus, we are nourished by his word, we are recipients of his miracles and we become witnesses of his word and work.

May God bless us all and give us the grace to remain focused.

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Our obsession with Signs and Wonders

The gospel of John 4:48 says "None of you will ever believe unless you see signs and wonders".

Jesus knew what he was saying when he made this statement; for sure he did not mean it as a compliment. Several times he showed his frustration over the people of his time refusing to 'see' he was the messiah while they kept insisting on signs and wonders. Even when he worked many miracles, they just asked for more and more and more.

Unfortunately, we the people of our time seem to have inherited this 'signs and wonders' mentality even though quite frankly we should know better. Searching through the scriptures, we see that Jesus emphasized that 'belief in him (faith) and in his words far outweighed any works that he could have done. In fact he often talked about faith as the basis for every action and how everything is possible for the one who has faith.

Signs and wonders do not lead to increased faith. If we do not have faith, we would not appreciate the 'signs and wonder' no matter how magnificent the 'display' may be. It's all about faith and conviction (Read Luke 16:19-31).

Often times Jesus chastised his disciples for their lack of faith, and the people in general for their failure to believe in his words. However he made it very clear that what is required is belief in his words and conviction in the gospel. Every other thing is secondary. Actually if we really look at it, the people that benefitted the most from Jesus were the people that believed in his words and demonstrated that faith by their actions.

Matthew 8:5-9, Luke 7:1-10. The story of the centurion who told Jesus 'But just say the word, and my servant will be healed'
Matthew 12:38-42, Matthew 16:1-4, Luke 11:29-32. In this passage Jesus chastised the Pharisees who requested for a sign from him and called them a 'wicked and adulterous generation'.
John 20:24-29. The story of 'doubting' Thomas who insisted on seeing the risen Christ instead of believing his fellow apostles when they told him Jesus had risen.

Enough said. It's now up to us to decide if we want to be word-believing Christians or sign-believing Christians.

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