Broken Bones, Renewed Catholic Spirits of Courage
Mark S. Roberti, Director of Stewardship
Heartland
Parishes of
The following article is actually a homily by my pastor, Fr. Gilmary Tallman, OFM Cap., the Pastor of St. Joseph Parish, Hays. The only thing I changed was the title. I didn’t think “Fourth Sunday of Lent, Cycle A, 2008” was quite descriptive enough!
Scientists claim that broken bones, if they mend and heal properly, actually become stronger than they were before they were broken. In a recent book Richard M. Cohen applies that phenomenon to other areas of life.
His book is entitled Strong at the Broken Places. It tells the story of five people who were broken in one physical or psychic way, almost beyond hope, and still survived. They more than survived; they thrived. One was a cancer survivor who had MS. Another had non-Hodgkins lymphoma. There was a young woman with Crohn’s disease. And a college student learned to manage his life despite a severe bipolar disorder. These people had so much going against them that there seemed little chance they would be able to live a normal life. But their attitude and determination turned their sickness into a challenge. And they became strong precisely in the area where they had been weakest.
That same thing can be said about the man in today’s gospel. And there is an added twist to his story. This man was blind, blind from birth, the gospel says. Jesus anointed his eyes with a sort of paste he made of saliva and soil and told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. He did that and was able to see.
But this man’s good fortune brought him a world of trouble. The Jewish authorities first pressured him, then badgered, then threatened, and finally punished him because he would not deny that Jesus had healed him. But the man who was blind from birth was able to see what was going on. And his gift of eyesight brought with it a lot of insight to read people. It didn’t take him long to learn who Jesus was and who his enemies were. He saw through their words and understood their motives.
Let’s consider what he had to go through once he was able to see. First he was questioned by his neighbors. They threw everything at him. You can’t be the one who was blind, they said. I am, he told them. Who was it that did this for you? I don’t know; but I’m telling you what happened.
So they reported him to the authorities. These Pharisees figured this man was someone they could intimidate and push around. Remember, he had been blind all his life, so he had to be somewhat shy and unsure of himself. And he must have been quite young. His parents had to verify that he was old enough to speak for himself.
Yet he saw clearly how they were trying to get him to deny what Jesus had done. He had no intention of denying God’s goodness to him, even though he was threatened. They called him back a second time and told him he had to renounce Jesus as a sinner. When he refused, they accursed him of sin and ignorance. “You were born totally in sin,” they told him. But he called their bluff by ridiculing them.
His courage cost him dearly. He was expelled from the synagogue.
Christians today find themselves in the same circumstance as this man. The movers and shakers of our society, those who teach and write and come off as experts, consider us blind fools. They want religion out of our schools and out of our service clubs and off public property. They want us to vote without any influence from our Faith. They want a culture that is totally secular, which means without God.
But we are not as blind or timid as they think we are. We have been enlightened by Christ, like the man in the gospel. We need to show the same courage he had in defending our Faith and standing up for what is right. And as Christians we have the right to broadcast our Faith, fearlessly but always graciously, by the words we speak and especially by the lifestyle we live.