It was their pride – rather than their lack of faith – that stopped them from knowing and loving the Lord their God…
I recently heard a homily where the priest proposed an interesting conundrum…
The priest said, let us imagine that William Shakespeare was writing his plays in Stratford upon Avon, where he was born and grew up. Now imagine that in that little town, there was a society of poets and writers, and those writers and poets decided that they would not consider Shakespeare a true writer…
And the priest used this example to demonstrate the point of the Gospel story about Christ…
“Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country... there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.’ When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and put Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down headlong. But passing through the midst of them He went away.” (Luke 4:24-30).
People did not believe that Christ was God. They would not even believe that He was a Prophet. And in fact, the reason that they would not believe in these things is because they decided that they – like the society of poets and writers in the story about Stratford upon Avon – In other words, they decided that they would know if Christ was God. They knew that they knew and knowing that they were able to decide how things would work.
And Christ did not argue with them. He did not discuss the issue. He listened to what they had to say and then simply accepted that they wished to be closed-minded and stepped away from all of that…
It was their pride – rather than their lack of faith – that stopped them from knowing and loving the Lord their God…
Saint Charles de Foucauld was sort of like those people who rejected Christ as a prophet. You see, in his youth, he was rich and a playboy and young and carefree. He was spoiled for choice and spent his life doing whatever he pleased… And then, one day, he met a priest called, Father Huvelin. And when the young Saint met this man, he asked the priest to explain the Catholic Faith to him, and the priest said nothing at all. Instead, Saint Charles de Foucauld says that Father Huvelin “made me kneel down, made me go to Confession, and sent me to Communion right away.”
And this was the start of the rest of his life.
You see, sometimes – perhaps most times – we just need to sit down and let God show us. Sometimes, we need to know that a bit of humility will help us to be strong in faith…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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