by Fr. Tommy Lane
Recently I heard a program on EWTN in which Fr Benedict Groeschel, a well-known American priest told how he and a brother of his community, Bro Fidelis, and retired 83 year old Bishop George Lynch had been sent to jail because they knelt down praying the Rosary in the parking lot outside an abortion clinic. He said the offence was not praying the Rosary, but that they knelt down. The bishop was sent to jail for 15 days, the religious brother for 10 days and Fr Benedict Groeschel for 5 days. They were strip searched three times during the first twenty four hours. When asked afterwards how they were treated Fr Groeschel said “like garbage, like garbage.” (The program is in the audio archive and you can listen to the program with Real Player. The story about the jail is near the beginning.) It is an example of suffering for one’s faith. There are many other examples we could think of. Think of all the bishops and priests behind the Iron Curtain who were sent to prison before the collapse of communism. (One example is Cardinal Swiatek)
There are also many ordinary humble everyday examples of people suffering for their faith that are closer to home. Think of one member of a family who is misunderstood and ridiculed because they pray or go to daily Mass. Think of children in school in our country who are afraid to admit to their peers that they go to Mass. Think of the people who come to Mass here but would not want to be considered as religious in a pub conversation because their reputation would be finished. There is a sense in which it is true to say that now Christians are “like lambs among wolves.” (Luke 10:3)
It all reminds me of our first reading (2 Macc 7) in which we heard of a Jewish mother and her seven sons suffering persecution because they refused to eat pork forbidden by the Jewish law. One of the sons said, “We are prepared to die rather than break the law of our ancestors.” What was it that gave them the strength to endure such torture? What is it that gives so many of our present day the strength to endure suffering? It is faith, belief in the existence of the next life, faith in the resurrection, belief that all wrongs of this life will be put right in the next life and our love for Jesus. So in our first reading one of the sons said, “you may discharge us from this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up.” Another said he hoped to receive his dismembered limbs again in heaven. The fourth son also said he was “relying on God’s promise that we shall be raised up by him.”
Our faith in God, faith in the resurrection and our love for Jesus enable us to live with the pain of the present. We believe that all wrongs will be righted in the next life. Since we all believe in heaven and all long to go to heaven we sometimes wonder what will heaven be like. It will be completely different to what we experience now. In our Gospel Jesus said that if a woman had seven husbands during her life she would not be married to any of them in heaven because there is no marriage in heaven. Marriage is for this life only. So heaven is completely different to this life. That is why John says in one of his letters, “we are already children of God but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed; all we know is that when it is revealed we shall be like him because we shall see him as he really is.” (1 John 3:2) Looking forward to heaven gives us the strength to endure present trials whenever we have to.
Because of their faith in the
resurrection the Jewish family in our first reading endured suffering. Because of our faith in the resurrection
we are able to endure suffering now. We
do not know what the next life will be like but we know that what awaits us
gives us the courage to suffer for our faith now if necessary. On another occasion Jesus said, “I tell you, if anyone openly declares
himself for me in the presence of human beings, the Son of man will declare
himself for him in the presence of God’s angels.” (Luke 12:8)
This homily was delivered when I was engaged in parish ministry in Ireland before joining the faculty of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, Emmitsburg, Maryland.
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Belief in the Resurrection (excerpt of funeral homily)
homilies for All Saints