19th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2005

[Fr.Paul Weinberger]

Homily by:
Fr. Paul Weinberger
St. William’s Roman Catholic Parish
Greenville, Texas
8 / 7 / 2005 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

”Those who were in the boat did Him homage saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

Amen

Last week a very dear friend of mine passed away, Mrs. Lillian Wanya. She survived the death of her husband Frank by several years. She was such a dear, dear lady.

She and her husband were newly-married and were stationed in the ideal spot. It was quiet, she could run down to the ocean whenever she wanted. It was like living in an island paradise in the Pacific. That is, it was all so perfect until December 7th. They were stationed at Pearl Harbor when the sneak attack occurred.

Lillian was in the kitchen with the baby when the planes came over, the sneak attack by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. Lillian took the baby and ran for cover under the kitchen table where she then baptized her baby according to the formula; she poured water three times over the baby’s head and said;

“I baptize you in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

Her husband was not one of the ones taken that day during the sneak attack but Lillian would remember those days the rest of her life. She was a serene woman and also a woman of great faith, may she rest in peace.

Yesterday was the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord and was also the 60th Anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima; three days later Nagasaki was bombed. Many people have never heard this but the largest concentration of Catholics in Japan was at Nagasaki. One wonders if that made a difference in choosing the target. We’ll never know.

At Nagasaki there was a man there raising his new family. He has been pushed by his parents to study hard and actually listened to his parents. Takashi Nagai became a doctor and he lived at one end of the islands of Japan but made the tactical move to Nagasaki with his family and there he continued studying the brand new field, his specialty, radiology. This is all outlined in a small book called “The Bells of Nagasaki”, by Takashi Nagai.

This man had recently converted to the Roman Catholic faith; there are so few Roman Catholics in Japan. Most people in Japan are pagan but at least they are honest about it as opposed to the United States. He and his wife were raising their children in Nagasaki and was there the day the bomb was dropped. He was of course affected by the radiation release and went home to see if he could find his wife and children. He found his wife or what remained of her that had not been vaporized, and he found her in their home and was trying to figure out what her disposition was when the bomb hit. In her hand he found her rosary. Many Catholics would say,

“Oh look what I found in this top drawer, a rosary. It is right next to a scapular and Miraculous Medal.”

All the things they never use, right? Takashi’s wife was actually using her rosary. The rosary is in a museum in Nagasaki to this day.

Takashi Nagai spent the rest of his life helping people. First he used his incredible powers of intellect. He had studied all his life about radiology and he began to chart the first hand affects of radiation poisoning. He was the right man in the wrong place at the right time. He took a tent and placed it on the property where his house stood and spent the rest of his life receiving guests. He was an icon of peace; there was nothing bitter about this man. He would accept Japanese or American visitors and speak to them about whatever was on their mind and was someone who talked about reconciliation from day one at ground zero. Takashi Nagai was a man who actually went to hell and back.

Last week something happened besides the passing of Lillian Wanya. There was a woman who attended the University of Dallas along with her husband. There was a couple here from Bedford yesterday that knew her. Her name was Susan Torres, a twenty-six year old who was a researcher at the National Institute of Health. See, you have to put that in there because she actually had a life besides being a wife and a mother, right? She was working and starting her family when on May 7th, she had a stroke and the doctors told her husband Jason, that his wife’s brain functions had stopped.

The people who were here yesterday told me that back when Susan was seventeen she had been diagnosed with melanoma cancer. They treated her cancer and it went into remission so she was able to go on to attend the University of Dallas and got her degree, got married and started her family. She then started complaining of some symptoms. There was a lump right about here. Father Paul puts his hand below his collar bone In May when she lost brain functions she was four months pregnant. So, during the time before May 7th she was complaining of symptoms and they found the lump right here. They told her it was just her pregnancy. NO! I think that is lower down. Right? Her speech became slurred and they told her that it was just her pregnancy. The bad taste of water in Dallas was probably caused by her pregnancy too! Who knows, right? They were attributing everything to her pregnancy which is amazing seeing that she lived in Richmond, Virginia.

The cancer had come back and the doctors, well, it’s the pregnancy. You know what that is code for, right? It’s the pregnancy! Father Paul takes his finger and goes from one side of his throat to the other. In other words, if a woman has the least illness, most doctors want to abort the baby. Her husband Jason and his parents, Sonny and Karen, went to the hospital May 7th when all of this happened to Susan; losing her brain function and having the stroke. They had to decide what they were going to do.

Last week Susan and Jason’s baby was born by caesarian section; little Susan Ann Catherine Torres. According to the wishes of Susan, she had been put on life support to allow the baby to grow in hopes that she would be able to live outside the womb. The baby was born last week and I have the data here because I know you are going to ask. She weighed one pound and thirteen ounces and is thirteen and a half inches long. The day after little Susan Ann Catherine was born, her mother, Susan Torres died.

So, her husband and his parents were at the hospital on May 7th when Susan had the stroke and they left the hospital about 3am. Jason went to his home and his father and mother, Sonny and Karen went to their home. Something happened at both homes at about the same time. It appears to have been exactly the same message and it appears to have been a mystical experience. They didn’t speak about this until after the birth of the child. They didn’t want to be categorized as fanatics. You will see why!

About 4:15am the same morning the husband and in-laws left the hospital together and went to their perspective homes, without any warning Sonny, Jason’s father sat bolt upright in the bed. His wife, Karen also woke up and asked Sonny what was wrong. He said,

“What it was, it was not a dream. This was so different from a dream, so powerful. It was words that came to me; a woman’s voice. The woman made me write it down. It wasn’t a request it was a command.”

A voice told him to write down what he heard. He said rhetorically,

“Was it a loving voice? In a way I think it was but not the way most people would think; it was like the voice of a parent telling their kids to do something and saying not to question why but to do it because they said to do it.”

Sonny wrote this all down and later on that day Sonny, Karen, and Jason met at the hospital to begin this very difficult procedure, waiting for the baby to grow large enough to be delivered. At the hospital Sonny mentions to his son Jason what had happened just hours earlier. He talked about how he sat bolt upright in bed and he began to read the message that he was told to write down. Jason called a time out and he finished the message almost word for word, exactly. What the son had written down the father had written as well, even though they were in different homes. This was most probably a mystical experience in both father and son. You may say you are not real big on mystical experiences, right? Well, this appears to be a mystical experience. This was the message that they had both written down.

“You and others will tell the world of a fight to save a precious life; not to change hardened hearts but to give hope to those who believe so that they know there is more than what they see and hear. Let them come and see for themselves.”

So it wasn’t in order to change hardened hearts. You can imagine what people see and hear, like,

“ It is not a life until the body is fully separated and delivered outside the mother’s body.”

I made that point last week. Anyway when Sonny was asked why the story of Susan had gained such attention around the world, this is what he said.

“I guess and I kind of hope it is that people are really tired of seeing nothing but Terri Schiavo stuff; they are really tired of reading about Lacy Peterson and her baby just being thrown away and it is nice to see someone going the other direction.”

I’ll agree with everything he just said. Sonny really did marry well, his wife has the insights that really bring it all together. Karen concurred.

“I would say that the Holy Spirit decided that this world needed a story of someone fighting for a little human life and also, I have come to the conclusion that people are kind, kinder than people give them credit.”

So this couple decided, along with their son and the wish of Susan, who knew what she was doing because she was working there at the medical center, that this is what they wanted to do. It is interesting to hear the words of Jason’s father, the grandfather of little Susan. He said,

“We are kind of surprised because to us, there was no other choice! People came to all of us and they are so touched and they say it is such an honor to meet us, but we didn’t have a choice in what we did. This is the way it is supposed to be.”


Interesting use of the word “choice” here, isn’t it? These people were guided by their faith.

Sonny was on a radio program and someone called in the day before he was on. Jason and Susan are Roman Catholic, Sonny and Karen are Roman Catholic. Sonny heard the caller on the program the day before he was to be on say,

“Catholics need to get it into their heads that life doesn’t begin until birth.”

Last week I mentioned that some people think that life begins only after the baby is delivered and completely separated from the mother. Talk to any woman who has carried a child and they will tell you differently, right? Sonny, the grandfather to baby Susan said,

“Little baby Susan was three months early and there are a lot of abortions done on kids her size. All you have to do is stand and look at that incubator. Life starts a lot earlier than birth. I’d just invite them; I’ll show them myself.”

So according to that mystical experience, he is saying that he will show them and if they won’t believe their eyes, then what can you do? Again, it is Karen, Jason’s mother and Sonny’s wife that really ties things together.

“Even given the strong faith of the family however, both Karen and Sonny both admitted that at no point was it easy. In early July Karen’s mother, the great grandmother of baby Susan, died after a long battle with cancer. Karen said that, “There were some days when it was difficult to put one foot in front of the other, especially with the death of my mother. Our faith and the kindness of other people praying for us was the only thing that got us through.”

This sounds just like how I was able to get through my father’s death in 2002. Some days I didn’t think I could put one foot in front of the other but I knew that the support of so many people’s prayers and so many kindnesses would help me through. It is exactly the same experience.

So, Karen had a crisis on top of a crisis on top of a crisis. It is like a crisis train wreck and you think that this is the end of the article because the baby has been born and now it will survive. This is nothing compared to what you are about to hear. This really shows the wisdom of Karen to her children. Karen said,

“Our faith in the kindness of other people praying for us was the only thing that got us through. I tell my children, “Now do you understand why you must go to church on Sundays and keep your spiritual life in order? You can’t get your spiritual life in good order in the middle of something like this; faith is the only thing that gets you through.”

Can you imagine Lillian Wanya under the kitchen table there at Pearl Harbor saying,

“You know, I used to be Catholic and it looks like we are going to die. I’d like to baptize my baby but I have no idea what Baptism is or what the formula is or how to do it. Gee, maybe I will just walk around in Pearl Harbor and see if I can find someone who can tell me.”

That is not the time to be looking, right? Or Tekashi Nagai…perhaps he was busy, you know, he was studying to be a doctor of radiology, put off converting to Catholicism so he pulls himself out of his destroyed home and starts looking for someone to bring him into the RCIA class. That is not the time!
If that is when he would have decided to study about the Catholic Church, it would have been the wrong time.

What we see here in Karen, is a mother understanding what mothers understand so well; that if children are to grow they must be strong and in order for children to grow in the faith they must continually go back and be strengthened over and over again because the crisis will come. Mother Angelica says it best;

“That is the problem with life, it is so daily.”

So if it is not a crisis in your there will be a crisis in the lives of your kids, grandkids, neighbors or someone you happen to see out and about. How many people are going along just fine and the all of a sudden they hear the news that Pope John Paul II had died? Then people around you are just falling apart and you are the one they look to because they feel you are so strong. They are your neighbor but you are thinking,

“I have to mourn but I have to take care of all these people, who are falling apart.”

That would not be the time to go and strengthen your spiritual life. This is why Karen told her children,

“Now do you understand why you must go to church on Sundays and keep your spiritual life in order? You can’t get your spiritual life in good order in the middle of something like this; faith is the only thing that gets you through.”

Jason Torres quit work and stayed at his wife’s side from May until last week. People were saying nice things like,

“ Oh we are praying for you.”

There were also people saying some very cruel things as if they were demons from Hell. I am not using that in a fantastic way. In a very cruel way people approaching them and saying,

“What do you think you are doing saving her life and the life of your baby?”

WHO ASKED THEM, RIGHT? WHO ASKED THEM!

The family is trying to grieve and at the same time, take care of this baby and people coming up and saying some terribly hurtful things. I don’t know how these people manage to stay out of jail, right? The family is also asking for more prayers because they are doing tests but the pathology tests are not back as of yet. This will say for sure whether Susan’s melanoma passed through the placenta to her newborn baby daughter. Many people have stated that the melanoma might pass from Susan to her baby. Well, how many Catholics would say that it is not worth it? It is like what I hear Catholics say,

“Well you know, abortion is almost never permitted.”

Picking up the Catechism and turning to the back where it says “abortion”, you can read for yourself that abortion is NEVER permitted. This is the teaching of the Church today and is the consistent teaching going back two thousand years. Never with a capital Never ok? Never is there an occasion when,

“Well, you know….”

NEVER

When I was at Blessed Sacrament there was a priest living with me. Msgr. Botik lived with me from 1994-98. I always saw Msgr. Botik praying with this little prayer book, Catholic Book of Prayers. You will see a lot of the kids who bring them to Church. Parent, if your kid is supposed to have his or her book with them, just take a minute and nudge them in the ribs and say,

“Uh huh! See I told you!”

All the kids in CCD get one of these and they learn their prayers from them but it is actually a prayer book for adults. It has some beautiful prayers in it that we should say everyday. Some are familiar that you will remember from your childhood. There is an Act of Faith in here that is very beautiful and we learned years ago.

“O My God I firmly believe that You are One God in Three Divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe that Your Divine Son became man and died for our sins and He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches because You have revealed them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived.”

Yesterday, the Feast of the Transfiguration Jesus transfigured on Mt. Tabor. The clouds parted in the sky and a voice was heard from above. They were on the top of a mountain! That voice was from…well…it was from God the Father. He said,

”This is My beloved Son in Whom I Am well pleased. Listen to HIM!”

When I study my faith which is when I am reading my Catechism, I am listening to Jesus.

“I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches because You have revealed them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived.”

If you look on the front page of the bulletin there is a paragraph #2 from a recent letter and one of the last letters that the Pope signed before he died. It is from March and it is to his friend Cardinal Arinze.

“At this session you have attentively reviewed the Congregation’s work in recent years in accordance with the Pastoral Plan that I proposed to all the people of God, asking them to become more and more expert in the art of prayer.”

You see also a reference to Novo Millennio Ineunte. Now turn to page three in your bulletin. Moving around like this helps to keep you awake. [Laughter] At the top of this page you see a reference every week to Novo Millennio Ineunte and Misericordia Dei and quotes from these two documents provided for you. So going back to the letter to Cardinal Arinze from Pope John Paul II , he said,

“I’ve asked the people of God to become more and more expert in the art of prayer. I am particularly grateful to the Congregation for promptly complying with the instructions in the Encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia and the Apostolic Letter Mane Nobiscum Domine, paving the way for the Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum first, and subsequently for the suggestions and proposals for the Year of the Eucharist.”

The Lineamenta, the outline for the Synod on the Eucharist is a result of those meetings as well.

Pope John Paul II continues in his letter to Cardinal Arinze.

“I hope that these documents will increase love for the Blessed Sacrament among the members of the Christian community and help them to celebrate the Eucharistic Sacrifice ever more worthily, in conformity with the liturgical norms and especially with authentic inner participation.”

One of Pope John Paul’s last wishes is that you and I continually deepen our appreciation of prayer and that we study our faith, especially focusing on the Eucharist. He wants what every Italian mother in Italy wants;

“Mangia! Mangia!”

Eat! Eat! Right? What does Our Lord say?

”Take this and eat, this is my Body. If you do not eat My Flesh, if you do not drink my Blood you will not have life within you.”

St. John’s Gospel says it very clearly in chapter six. The parting words of the Holy Father shows that he is worried that we are not going to be strong. Our Lord said to the Apostles at Gethsemane;

”Stay awake and pray that you may not be put to the test.’

You, your children, your neighbors and friends will be put to the test and it will take the breath right out of you. You will be asked to go to Hell and back again many times over within the course of your life probably. All of these letters /documents that I have mentioned are from the last twelve months except Novo Millennio Ineunte. I have also mention Dominus Jesus and two books written by our present Pope when he was a Cardinal; Salt of the Earth and The Spirit of the Liturgy which will help to strengthen our faith and to help us keep our eyes focused on Christ. That is the theme that Pope John Paul II used in Novo Millennio Ineunte; to contemplate the face of Christ again and again, every single day.

In your bulletin there are three paragraphs I have provided for you that are taken from the homily of Cardinal Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict, just before they went into the conclave and addressed his fellow cardinals and the rest of the Church. Look at how beautiful it ties in with today’s Gospel. Look at the middle paragraph.

“How many winds of doctrines we have known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking. The small boat of thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves, thrown from one extreme to the other.”

Now look at the middle of this paragraph.

“Having a clear faith based on the creed of the Church is often labeled today as a fundamentalism.”

In fact, this Catechism of the Catholic Church is divided into four parts; one is on the Creed. It cuts it up into pieces so we can understand it more and more. It can strengthen us and help us grow in our faith. Look at what Cardinal Ratzinger said at the bottom of paragraph two.

“We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as certain and which has as its highest goal, one’s own ego and one’s own desires.”

How many times have we heard people say,

“Oh but I love him, I love her,”

And they are wrong for each other and everyone knows it! Why doesn’t someone just tell them that it could be indigestion or gas! Right? Give them a day or two and all of a sudden they can’t stand to look at each other and just the other day they were telling everyone how much they loved each other. Talk about a dictatorship of relativism.

“And you were so mean not to support me in my love for her/him. How mean could you be!”

Forget the fact that you can’t stand the sight of them two days later, right? Moving on to the last paragraph I have in the bulletin;

“However we have a different goal: the Son of God, true man. He is the measure of true humanism. Being an ADULT means having a faith which does not follow the waves of today’s fashions or the latest novelties. A faith which is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ is adult and mature.”

What am I supposed to do in this case? Gee!

”This is My beloved Son in Whom I Am well pleased, listen to Him.”

Any time I listen to what the Roman Catholic Church teaches I am listening to Him; like the RCA Victor logo of a dog with his ear tilted toward the gramophone and the motto is, “His Master’s Voice.” We recognize the voice of Christ through the Roman Catholic Church.

“I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches because You have revealed them.”

It is not outside our abilities to study our faith. These Catechisms can be found on the internet or purchased in hard copy from the daughters of St. Paul. The Catechism has a companion that makes this even easier to use. The fact is, if we are not diligent, if we are not studying and progressing in the study of our faith, we won’t be ready and your children won’t be ready. We will be tossed about on the waves that will come and the wind that will blow and we will begin to sink to whatever crisis of the day happens to come. That will not be the time to pull out the Catechism and begin, it will be the time to use what you’ve learned.

We do believe in the Transfiguration, we do believe that Jesus is truly the Son of God!


”This is My beloved Son in Whom I Am well pleased, listen to Him.”

Forget the mystical experience and pick up a Catechism; forget the mystical experience and get down on your knees in prayer. This will prepare you for the day that you are put to the test.

”Those who were in the boat did Him homage saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

Amen