20th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2005

[Fr.Paul Weinberger]

Homily by:
Fr. Paul Weinberger
St. William’s Roman Catholic Parish
Greenville, Texas
8 / 13 / 2005 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Woman, great is your faith; let it be done according to your wish.”


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

Amen

Please take a look at the front of your bulletin; this is historic like the front page of some newspaper. I am referring to World Youth Day.

What if you were alive sixty years ago as many were and made a prediction that goes something like this.

“I predict that in just a few decades there will be a great gathering of Catholics throughout the world and they will meet in Germany. During this time the Pope will be German.”

People would back away from you slowly as if you were out of your mind. This is historic and not only that, Poland flat on its back after WWII produced the Pope of the last twenty-six years and that is remarkable. It is remarkable because we had two people who were at war with one another working close together; Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. The place that the youth are meeting for world Youth Day is also historic, Cologne, which was the place chosen a few years ago when Pope John Paul II was still alive. It wasn’t chosen by Pope Benedict because it is where he is from, but chosen before anyone knew he would be the next Pope.

World Youth Day is a gathering of young people and the Pope, who is there, has written a book. I mentioned it last Sunday, “Salt of the Earth.” The book was a series of interviews he gave and he is telling these young people now that they must be the “Salt of the Earth”.

In today’s Liturgy of the Hours, the Office of Readings, St. John Chrysostom comments on St. Matthew’s Gospel and how we as Catholics are sent out into the world. He says,

“And that world is in a miserable state. For when Jesus says, You are the salt of the earth, He is indicating that all man kind has lost its savor and has been corrupted by sin. Therefore He requires of these men those virtues, which are especially useful and even necessary if they are to bear the burdens of many.”

He goes on to say how individual men and women must be to this world as salt is to food. We must give it a certain flavor; we must season the world. It doesn’t take a pound of salt to season food unless you really happen to enjoy salt, right?

The First Reading today talks about a holocaust. Throughout the Old Testament we hear about holocausts, burnt offerings and sacrifices. Those are all synonymous. It seems like every ten minutes in the Old Testament they are having a bar-b-q. Someone is taking a bull or a cow and cutting it in half and putting it over a fire. What ends up happening is that it ends up being burnt up and offered to God. All that goes up is the smoke like in the Book of Revelation, the incense before the Altar of God is declared the prayers of those Christians in the world rising up to God’s presence just like the incense you saw at the beginning of Mass. So, there it is. The animals are sacrificed and the smoke goes up to God.

“Burnt offerings and sacrifices will be acceptable on my Altar; for My House shall be called a House of Prayer for all People.”

Last week I mentioned the Bells of Nagasaki by Takashi Nagai. I found my book this week. Thank you St. Anthony! You can see that it is not the size of a phone book and is not a very large book. I was reading it again this week and I’d thought that Takashi Nagai converted before the bomb was dropped and that is not the way it happened. It was after the bomb was dropped that he was converted. You see, it has to do with St. Francis Xavier.

St. Francis Xavier, one of the founders of the Jesuit Order was sent by the Pope to China and landed in Japan on August 15, 1549 and the evangelization, carrying the Gospel to Japan began. St. Francis landed on the island of Kyushu. Of course, Japan is kind of a chain of islands and the one at the bottom is Kyushu. Nagasaki is on the other side of that same island and they have a great devotion to the Assumption of Our Lady. Tomorrow is the Feast of Our Lady’s Assumption into Heaven and the cathedral in Nagasaki was named for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

So, St. Francis Xavier arrived there in 1549 and missionaries started arriving. By 1587, Japanese warlords began persecuting Christians. They began crucifying many Christians. Many of them had Mexican names. The faith had just been planted in Mexico beginning with the Conquest of Mexico in 1519 and then Our Lady’s appearance in 1531. By 1587, missionaries from Mexico, native-born Mexicans had arrived in Japan because if you look at a map, here is Mexico and Japan is right next-door, right? Oh! Wait a minute that is the Baja Peninsula. I get them mixed up. [Laughter] They are not close at all but the new Christians in Mexico were so on fire with the faith that they went to Japan and many lost their lives for the faith.

The man, who wrote the Bells of Nagasaki, Dr. Takashi Nagai, was Dean of the Radiology Department at the University of Nagasaki when the bomb was dropped. He lost his wife. When he found her she was merely ash. She’d been burnt up; a worthy offering to the Lord, he would contend. In her hand she had her Rosary, which was melted by the blast. He had to raise their two children. Dr. Nagai cleared the site where his home once stood, put up a tent and renamed his tent, “Love Your Neighbor As Yourself.” You know, the same thing you or I would do if our city was flattened and all the people were killed or maimed. Same thing you or I would do, being the virtuous people……

The house of “Love Your Neighbor As Yourself.” What an incredible faith he had. His life was changed forever more after that bomb was dropped. Heroic virtue is seen in this man who was probably the most well respected survivor in Nagasaki, so many having been killed. Dr. Takashi Nagai was impressed with the faith of his wife. I mean, how many men here have been converted by the faith and example of their wives? Please, don’t give me a show of hands. It happens so often. Dr. Nagai began to live a life of heroic virtue.

Takashi Nagai was asked to speak at the funeral for the victims of the atomic bomb and other Japanese were asked to speak as well. I have his funeral address here.

”On August 9, 1945 at 10:30 am, a meeting of the Supreme Council of War was held at the Imperial Headquarters to decide whether Japan should capitulate or continue to wage war.”

So the Japanese high command were discussing what they were going to do and that was at 10:30 am.

“At that moment the world was at a crossroads; a decision was being made that would either bring about a new and lasting peace or throw the human family into further cruel bloodshed and carnage. Just at that same time at two minutes past eleven in the morning an atomic bomb exploded over our district in Nagasaki. In an instant, eight thousand Christians were called into the hands of God while in a few hours the fierce flames reduced to ashes this sacred territory of the East.”

You see, people had been filling that cathedral for years. Catholics had been going there in shifts and praying for one thing.

“Lord take us as a burnt offering, a holocaust; an offering for the sins of humanity to bring this war to an end.”

Nagai says;

“At midnight of that same night, August 9th the Cathedral of the Assumption burst into flames and burned to the ground. At exactly at that time in the Imperial Palace, His Majesty the Emperor, made known his decision to bring the war to an end.”

He is drawing connections. Scientists do that, right?

“On August 15th the Imperial Rescript, which put an end to the fighting was formally promulgated and the whole world welcomed the a of peace. For many in Japan it was the first time they ever heard over radio, the voice of the Emperor”

August 15th 1945!

"This day was also the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is significant to reflect that the cathedral was dedicated to her and we must ask if this convergence of events, then ending of the war, and the celebration of her feast was merely coincidental or if there was here some mysterious providence of God."

He sees all of this in light of the faith and recalls that on August 15, 1549, St. Francis Xavier landed on his island of Kyushu. And August 15, 1945…August 15, 1549… move the numbers around…same numbers. These were great moments in the history of Japan and great moments connected to Our Lady’s Assumption. Takashi Nagai made the point that the bomb was supposed to be dropped over another city. Hiroshima had been bombed on the 6th and another target was scheduled to be bombed but because of the clouds and the winds, they went to Nagasaki. They were going to drop the bomb over a munitions/defense plant but they missed and the bomb exploded right above the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

What happened the moment that bomb exploded is of course obvious. Anyone in the cathedral or in the neighborhood, where many Catholics lived, were instantly vaporized and all you saw was them going up in “smoke”. Nagai calls the missing of the defense plant and the hitting of the cathedral, Divine Providence. This man is giving this talk in front of people, who are not believers, not Roman Catholics. These people lost their loved ones and livelihood and perhaps they themselves had been hurt or disabled by the blast. You couldn’t find a tougher audience and he is witnessing, (which in Greek is martyr), to the people about his belief in God. He says;

“Is there not a profound relationship between the destruction of Nagasaki and the end of the war?”

Nagasaki was the only holy place in all of Japan because it was the largest concentration of Catholic Christians in that country.

“Was it not chosen as a victim, a pure lamb to be offered and burned on the Altar of Sacrifice to expiate the sins committed by humanity in the Second World War?

Think about it! Think about the way this scientist became a Catholic and the way he saw how things were very clearly. He saw them in terms of an offering, a holocaust. It is interesting that there is a close connection between Nagasaki and Poland. They are in no way close to one another on the map.

In the 1920s and 30s, St. Maximilian Kolbe was traveling all over Europe as a Franciscan and he built a city in Poland up from nothing and called it “The City of the Immaculata”, the City of the Immaculate Conception. In that city he produced a newspaper, which was a Catholic newspaper. When the Nazis began invading everyone, the newspaper with the largest circulation was St. Maximilian Kolbe’s newspaper promoting the Immaculata.

As I said, he was traveling in Europe and he met two Japanese on a train in Europe so he struck up a conversation because you see, Japanese and Polish are both European…languages…. No, they are not even close! Anyway he struck up a conversation with them and in 1931 he traveled to Nagasaki and there he started The Garden of the Immaculata. St. Kolbe started a place to honor Our Lady in Nagasaki and in less than a year he started publishing a newspaper in Japanese and it was dedicated to the Immaculata. You know how easy those alphabets are in Japanese? Just like ours, right? NO! They have those “funny letters” right? I think that is the scientific word.

Anyway, St. Maximilian couldn’t build downtown so they built outside because the land was cheaper. He had no money!

“The choice of the sight in the suburbs had been dictated by poverty but it proved a providential placement. People thought Fr. Maximilian was crazy to be building on steep ground sloping away from Nagasaki. But in 1945 when the atomic bomb all but leveled Nagasaki, the Garden of Our Lady obtained no more damage than a few broken panes of stained glass.”

It is as if Our Lady’s Mantle were protecting the Garden of the Immaculata. This allowed the monks and brothers to go out amongst the people of Nagasaki and help them; Our Lady’s care for the sick and the dying in Nagasaki. St. Maximilian Kolbe did not stay in Nagasaki; he eventually was martyred on this day in 1941. He was in Poland at the death camp called Auschwitz. Many Catholic priests, nuns, Catholics and Christians met a similar fate.

Remember the part of the homily from the Conclave that I printed last week, the Mass to elect a new Pope? Cardinal Ratzinger gave that homily. In one of the paragraphs I inserted in the bulletin talks about how we cannot look for cheap grace. That was a reference to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a protestant Christian, who was also killed by Hitler for his Christian faith. So in this day in 1941, St. Maximilian died on this day but the events leading up to his death are very important. He was taken to Auschwitz and there he served as a priest. He did all the labor that the other prisoners did but he ministered to them hearing their Confessions and leading them in prayer.

One day three men escaped Auschwitz. Who in their right mind would not want to escape? After these three men escaped all the prisoners were brought out in formation and the Commandant said that because three escaped, ten men would be killed. That was just a drop in the bucket for Auschwitz. One of the men was a polish soldier by the name of Sergeant Francis… I can’t pronounce his last name. This prisoner shouted out asking what would happen to his family. So as they all stood there quietly Fr. Maximilian slipped out of line, took off his cap and stood before the Commandant. The Commandant asked Fr. Kolbe,

“What does this polish pig want?”

Fr. Kolbe pointed with his hand to the condemned Polish soldier and said,

“I am a catholic priest from Poland and I would like to take his place because he has a wife and children.”

” Observers believed in horror that the Commandant would be angered…”

Imagine that, an angry Nazi!

” They believed in horror that the Commandant would be angered and refuse the request or would order the death of both men but the Commandment remained silent for a moment. Amazingly however, he acceded to the request. The Polish Sergeant was returned to the ranks and the priest took his place.”

That Polish Sergeant would eventually attend the canonization of St. Maximilian Kolbe years later.

With nine companions Father Maximilian entered the starvation bunker. They were stripped and led naked into the bunker that had no windows and no light, no heating, food or water. From this time on they were left there where there was a secretary that was watching over the prisoners and when the Nazis would leave he would go in and console the prisoners. He kept a very detailed record of what happened in this starvation bunker at Auschwitz during St. Kolbe’s confinement and death.

“Daily the guards would remove the bodies of those who had died. Instead of weeping and waling the sounds that arose from the bunker were the sounds of prayers and hymns.”

People remarked that it sounded like they were in Church. While they were in the bunker, the Rosary was led by Fr. Kolbe and hymns to Mary Immaculate. When the guards would return some of the prisoners were so engrossed in prayer they didn’t even notice the guards until the guards started to shout. This is when the prisoners would turn their attention to them.

“Reduced to the state of animals some of the prisoners begged the guards for food or drink.”

They describe the terrible pain from dying without food or water. But I don’t understand that. Why is it that in Poland when you are not given food or water it is painful, a terribly and excruciating painful death? But when you die from lack of food and water in FLORIDA there is no pain! Remember Terri Schiavo just a few months ago?

‘Oh, but she is not experiencing any pain.”

Very interesting; it must be something about FLORIDA. Look at how many people believed this lie because that is what they saw on the news or read it in the paper.

So, it MUST be true. Anyway,

“All the prisoners in the bunker died off. At the end of two weeks only four of the ten prisoners were left a live.”

TWO WEEKS!

“The cell was needed for more victims and the camp executioner came in and injected a lethal dose of carbolic acid in the left arm of each of the four. With a prayer on his lips, the last prisoner, Fr. Kolbe raised his arm for the executioner. It was August 14th, the eve of the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady into Heaven. The next day Fr. Kolbe’s remains were cremated.”

All that remained of him was ash and the smoke that went up to Heaven as a worthy sacrifice, a sacrifice worthy to offer to God.

On August 9, 1942, St. Edith Stein met a similar fate with her sister, Rosa. She was born in Germany and was from a conservative Jewish family. At age 13 she announced that she was an atheist. This broke her mother’s heart. She was the youngest child, very precocious, incredibly intelligent and in the 20s and 30s when women were not getting graduate degrees she gained a Ph. D. in philosophy. It was after she had received her degrees that she was converted to the Roman Catholic faith after reading the life of St. Teresa of Avila, Carmelite. She wanted to enter the convent but they told her to wait. She was such a gifted speaker on the Catholic faith that she went around Europe speaking, as if preparing the people for what was about to come along with the war, the same way St. Maximilian Kolbe did with his newspaper.

After twelve years Edith was given permission to enter the convent where World Youth Day is being held, in Cologne. Eventually she asked her Superior for permission to offer her life to God as a sacrifice, a holocaust for the conversion of the Jewish people and an end to the war. Like St. Maximilian Kolbe, on August 9, 1942, she was gassed and put into the ovens at Auschwitz and nothing but ash remained and smoke going up to God; a worthy offering, the holocaust.

If you look at the last lines of the Gospel, this is incredible given the fact that Jesus is having a conversation with a woman, who is a Canaanite. The Canaanites were conquered by the Israelites when they entered the Holy Land. Jesus is very terse with this woman in order to expose her great faith. Jesus even says here that it is not right to take the food of children and throw it to the dogs. She barks right back and says,

“Please Lord, for even the dogs eats the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”

This woman is concerned about the health of her child. You know from experience that the most dangerous place you can be when a woman has a sick child is in between that child and its mother, right? So this woman is clawing her way to Jesus, she will not be turned away. The woman answers Him in such a heroic manner and with much faith and virtue. Jesus says,

“Woman, great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you wish.”

The woman’s daughter was healed from that hour; a woman who was born with original sin, a woman who was a Canaanite, a woman who didn’t have an inside track with Jesus in any way, shape, or form. The road to His heart concerning this woman was through her great faith in Him.

Now, turn to Our Lady, the figure of the Immaculate Conception up there, which depicts the very first moment of her earthly life, from the moment she was conceived in the womb of her mother, St. Ann, and Our Lady was conceived without original sin. Nine months later she was born and all of her life, every thought, word, and deed was dedicated to the service of God and God alone. She never sinned.

Look on the back of your bulletin where the World Youth Day is announced. Those are exerts from the Constitution defining the Dogma of the Assumption. In it Pope Pius XII says,

”We pronounce, declare, and define it to be a Divinely revealed Dogma that the Immaculate Mother of God, the Ever-Virgin Mary having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into Heavenly glory.”

Now, people mistakenly say ,

“Well, look! That is just putting all of the attention on HER, glorifying her.”

Like the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the Dogma of the Assumption gives all the credit to Christ! You notice she was assumed into Heaven, she didn’t just fly up to Heaven. Jesus ascended into Heaven and the Blessed Mother was assumed. It is passive. All of it is attributed to the grace coming from the Cross of Christ and Our Lady’s heroic virtue throughout her lifetime.

Think of it! Here is Our Lord’s best disciple. She never sinned, she could have sinned but she NEVER sinned. She served God with such a strong faith that she never sinned. You can’t say that and I can’t say that and I am sad that I can’t say it. But, Our Blessed Mother is in Heaven Body and Soul and she is before the Throne of God worshipping Him. Every mother knows that she wants all of her children with her in Heaven; she doesn’t want to leave anyone behind but wants all of her children there. The last gift of Christ on the Cross before He gave up His Spirit was to give HER, His mother, to the Church and SHE wants all of her children in heaven with her. Her prayers are very powerful before the Throne of Jesus and when you consider that her prayer is a worthy offering to God from one who lived a life of heroic virtue.

Think of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered on the day of the Lord’s Resurrection, which is Sunday. When we have the ability to receive Holy Communion, when we are in the State of Grace and free of mortal sin we can receive Jesus in Holy Communion into our bodies and souls. Then we can offer to God the Father this most perfect Sacrifice. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that has no peer as far as sacrifices go, is the perfect Sacrifice offered once, for all. God give us this Holy Sacrifice, this Sacrament, so that you and I responding to the graces we receive, can be the salt of the earth and are able to influence the culture around us. This is the whole reason for World Youth Day.

World Youth Day is not to teach those unfortunate children, who have yet to learn it, to sing Kum Ba Ya and inflicting such a terrible thing on them. It is not so they can get there and have a good time, meet new friends and have pen pals. It is there to animate them, to understand that they have received grace upon grace and that they are to influence the culture, influence the world and be salt of the earth.

Today everyone complains about the gas prices and you are right to complain, but think of this, after the gas prices what is there to really complain about? Yea! Sixty years ago the world was flat on its back.

“Well, the cowboys are…”

You can’t even make something up and finish that sentence. Big deal if they are moving to Arlington. It is not like they are moving to Minnesota. We are so fortunate and God has given us grace upon grace and wants us to take that grace and live lives of heroic virtue and faith. That is why St. Edith Stein and St. Maximilian were Canonized. That is why it is so remarkable to see those martyrs of Nagasaki in 1587 and in 1945, offering their lives and going to heroic measures to help others. This is very appealing and will open the Sacred Heart of Jesus every time.

“Woman, great is your faith; let it be done according to your wish.”

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

Amen