Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Another Reason

…to believe in God.

Speaking on behalf of another

requires the speaker’s belief

that the grace offered by the One

on whose behalf they are speaking

is sufficient for them.

I know I would be shot by my college English teacher for the composition of the previous sentence unless I was able to explain why I wrote it in poetic form. The idea being conveyed in the text is a bit complicated, but it is foundational. Let me unpack it in this article.

Every human has a spirituality. That includes saints and sinners alike: John Paul II, the demoniacs cured by Jesus, Mother Theresa of Calcutta and Lizzie Borden, Adolph Hitler and St. Francis of Assisi. All of them had a belief system that guided them. Obviously, not all of them had a holy spirit, but all of them did have a spirit.

It is an often overlooked fact that Satan, however you understand him, is fair. He, the unholy spirit, gives whatever one wishes. It might require work to gain it just like ideals, goals and blessings made available through the Holy Spirit require work. Jesus said: “Ask and you will receive.” What Jesus is saying is that we should be asking for the will of God to be accomplished in us. That is because He speaks on behalf of God. Jesus must have believed that the grace offered by God the Father on whose behalf Jesus spoke would be sufficient for him. This seems so obvious twenty centuries later that the reason I’ve made the point may be lost on you.

When we speak on behalf of anyone, it is an act of faith that the one about whom we are speaking can produce as advertised. You must believe in the one about whom you are speaking. It is the trust of the speaker and the reliability of the one being promoted that makes the relationship fruitful: faith of the speaker, trustworthiness of the one promoted. This is the process of Evangelization.

In the gospel for this Sunday (Mark 6: 1-6), Jesus is amazed that many in the Sabbath day crowd to whom he was talking reacted to him with astonished skepticism. Their skepticism kept them from appropriating the very thing they wanted – faith. Instead of coming to faith, they were offended. They did not believe that Jesus could be speaking on behalf of the Father and therefore they could not account for the grace that was the source of his wisdom or the might of his deeds. Instead, they sighted the reasons why they would not believe. They were like the people encountered by Ezekiel, hard of face and obstinate of heart.

It may be that the reason you find it reassuring to attend Mass each weekend is that it renews the grace offered by the God on whose behalf you speak. Your life in the Spirit is evidence that others see as confirmation of your faith. Your fidelity is confirmation that his grace is sufficient for you. Now I can draw to conclusion another reason to believe in God.

You will, like Ezekiel and Jesus in the readings this weekend, encounter resistance. No other god offers grace sufficient for a human’s needs, particularly the need for eternal life. So behave boldly on behalf of the Lord who will reveal through you as he did through Jesus and all the prophets that only he offers love sufficient for eternity.

Fr. Dan

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