Daily Mass Homily: Monday, March 4th, 2013

            In my few months as a priest, I have already had several calls to address bizarre experiences in a home.  Whether psychological or spiritual, people come to priests to address the unknown.  Often enough they want us to bless the home, using our magical holy water to exorcise the demons from their homes and lives like in the movies.  They desire to see the spectacular. 

            Yet the answer to confronting evil—as well as sin or living out the Christian life—is usually not so spectacular.  To those with oddities at home I first ask if they are praying or if they come to Church.  If they are not, I encourage them to begin here.

            Naaman also desired the extraordinary.  It wasn’t enough for him to be healed from leprosy—and imagine living a life as a leper!—by simply plunging in the Jordan.  He wanted Elisha to call on heaven for a great miracle.  Yet his servants called him out well—“My father…if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it?  All the more now, since he said to you, ‘Wash and be clean,’ should you do as he said.”  God healed him through simple means.

            He does the same for us though sometimes God works so simply we miss it.  For example, would you be willing to walk 100 miles if this guaranteed your sins were forgiven?  I know I would.  Yet all we need to do is be washed in the river of Confession.  And the same with the other sacraments—it is simple prayers with natural substances that bring God’s grace into our lives.  

            Thank God for His use of the simple in our lives.  May we never miss these ordinary opportunities to be renewed in His love and mercy.