Matthew 9: 1-8
He got back in the boat, crossed the water and came to his home town. And suddenly some people brought him a paralytic stretched out on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, 'Take comfort, my child, your sins are forgiven.' And now some scribes said to themselves, 'This man is being blasphemous.' Knowing what was in their minds Jesus said, 'Why do you have such wicked thoughts in your hearts? Now, which of these is easier: to say, "Your sins are forgiven," or to say, "Get up and walk"? But to prove to you that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins,' -- then he said to the paralytic-'get up, pick up your bed and go off home.' And the man got up and went home. A feeling of awe came over the crowd when they saw this, and they praised God for having given such authority to human beings.
Homily given at Confirmation preparation Mass:
An important part of our faith is our relationship with the Saints. Most days of the year there is a specific saint celebrated, an we called these days feast days. Some of these days we know well, for example March 17th is St Patrick's Day, December 26th is the day of St Stephen. If your school is dedicated to a saint or blessed their feast day is usually marked by a special celebration. November 1st is a holy day when we remember All Saints. When you celebrate Confirmation you will take a new name and normally that name is the name of a saint whose story you will learn. I took Martin after St Martin de Porres. He was a Dominican saint from Peru and when I was growing up my mother had great devotion to him. His picture was in our home, he was like a special friend to us, so I took his name and to this day I often feel he is with me in my life.
Why are we so interested in saints? Obviously enough they are close to God. They lived such good lives in response to their faith, the Church can confidently say they are in Heaven, praying for us and guiding us in our lives. But even more than that the saints are ordinary people, just like us, who were so caught up in their love of God their entire lives were changed by it. They give us an example of how to live as we should and show us that by being close to God - by giving their entire lives to following Jesus - they learned what it really means to be happy. Not only that, being so close to God they were able to help others to come to know Him making Heaven visible all around them. But the Saints are ordinary people just like us. They struggled and sinned as we all do, but being completely open to God, they did not let weakness stop them growing closer to Him. Every saint has a story that we can learn from. There are two I really like.
Once there was a name named Ignatius. He was a young Spanish noble, who dreamed of being a great warrior. In a battle one day he was injured and was forced to spend a long time in hospital. Lying there for days and days, he had nothing to do but think. There were a few books in the place so to pass the time he read them. Some of them were stories of great heroes and battles. He would read them and picture the scenes. He would imagine himself in the stories and pretend he was receiving the glory of the people described. Then he would get bored and put the book away. One day he was given another book, a story book version of the life of Jesus. He started to imagine those scenes, putting himself in the crowd. He began to notice that when he thought of these things he never got bored, in fact he noticed that they made him feel very happy; the more he thought about them, the more he wanted to think about them. Eventually he realised the other stories were of no interest to him at all. All he wanted to think about was Jesus, because it made him happy. He got better, but instead of returning to war, after a long journey, he became a priest and founded one of the great orders in the Church - the Jesuits.
Another story is about a young girl called Therese. When she was young all she wanted to be was a nun, and not just any nun, a Carmelite nun. These nuns lived in a special convent called an enclosure. They never left the convent spending their lives praying, working and thinking about God. One day the superior asked her to write down all she could about her life. She wrote many beautiful things. She wrote that she wanted to do all kinds of things for God. She wanted to go to far away countries to tell everyone about God, she wanted to be a martyr - that means she wanted to die proclaiming the faith- she wanted to do all kinds of things. She realised, however, that God had not called her to do any of this. He wanted her to do one thing - He wanted her to love. He wanted her to be love for everyone around her, and if she was to do this she would change the world. And she did.
The men in the Gospel had faith and they carried their friend to Jesus and they were all changed. All the people praised God when they saw what happened. Not everyone was happy though, some grumbled and complained.
Just like St Ignatius and St Therese, if we allow Jesus into our lives we will be like the people in the Gospel who praised God. We will not be grumblers, there are enough of them in the world. We call ourselves Christians. When you receive Confirmation you will stand before all the people in the world with a new name; but more that that you will stand before the whole world with a new power in your life that will change you - if you let it! You will be a witness to the greatness of God - if you allow God into your life. If you allow the Spirit to mold you into a genuine follower of Jesus you will be really happy - even when things go wrong. Seeing you people will give praise to God and will desire to have what you have. There is nothing as powerful as a smiling Christian; unfortunately it's a rare commodity! On this Mission Sunday may we let that power shine in our lives and on our faces and witness our world change around us.
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