Deacon Bob’s Homily for September 24th, 2023

This (parable of the generous landowner) is one of those parables that shows us that God’s ways are not our ways. It does seem that the landowner (God) is unfair. The first group started working at 6:00 in the morning. The last group started working at 5:00 in the evening and they both got the same pay.

Clearly the kingdom of heaven is not like earning a wage. It’s more like a gift. I’m not going to get into details on what we need to do to be saved. For now, I’ll summarize it very briefly by saying at some point in our life, responding to God’s grace, we choose God, we say Yes to Him, and He gives us Heaven. The key point in today’s parable is that it doesn’t matter whether we say Yes at the beginning of life, or the end of life. Either way, He gives us heaven.  

There are 3 practical points I want to reflect on.

First, the heart of God is mercy. As St. John of the Cross said, if anyone is seeking God, he should know that God is seeking him much more. God wants every one of us to be with Him in heaven. He said through the prophet Ezekiel “I swear I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, but rather in the wicked man’s conversion, that he may live.” Ez 33:11 God wants everyone to be saved including the most evil people. And, he wants us to be part of it, even though we have our own weaknesses and failings, He still wants us to pray and help convert others. 

This can be tough. We know people who have done evil things to others. We know people who are pushing evil in our culture. It can be really challenging to love them, to sincerely pray for them and hope that they will be in heaven.

Joni has a good way of looking at this. Imagine that it’s your son or your daughter. If for some reason, your son or daughter went down a bad path, wouldn’t your greatest desire be for them to come back? That’s God. We’re all His children in the sense that He loves everyone and wants everyone to be with Him in heaven.

So that’s the first point. The heart of God, the heart of Jesus, is mercy even for the most evil, and He wants us to do what we can to help save them.

The second point is that His generosity gives us hope. I’d be willing to bet that everyone here has family members that no longer practice the faith or have never had faith. Jesus is telling us that as long as a person turns to Him, even if it’s at the very end of his life, He’ll bring him into heaven.

I’m going to illustrate both these points with a story of St. Therese the little flower and then she introduces a third point that I think is really important.

One Sunday, Therese was looking at a picture of Our Lord on the Cross, and she was struck by His wounds. She heard the cry of Jesus continually in her heart, “I thirst”!  Looking at His wounds, she found herself consumed with a desire to save sinners.

At this time, she heard of a great criminal who was condemned to death for some horrible crimes. He was showing no remorse, and all indications were that he would die impenitent. She wanted to do everything possible to save him. Since she felt that she herself could do nothing, she offered the infinite merits of Our Lord (like what we do when we pray the chaplet of divine mercy). She had a Mass said for him and got her sister Celine to join her in prayer.

She then says that she felt certain that her desires would be granted. She was sure that God would pardon this man, even if he went to his death without any signs of repentance. She was absolutely confident in the mercy of Jesus. But she begged God for a sign simply to console her heart.

Her prayer was answered. He went up to his execution and there was a priest there holding a crucifix out to him. Just before he was executed, he took the cross and kissed the wounds of Jesus 3 times. It was a perfect sign for it was the wounds of Jesus that inspired Therese to pray for him.

It’s a wonderful story to illustrate the first 2 points, but she introduced another – her confidence. Therese was totally certain that her prayer for this man would be granted, even if there was no sign of his repentance. What’s her secret, and can we have that same confidence for our loved ones?

I think there are 2 things that explain her confidence. First is she had a very strong sense of God’s love for her, and second, and I think this is her secret, is her littleness. Here’s what she said in a letter to her sister Marie:

My “virtues, talents, gifts, etc.” are nothing; they are not what give me the unlimited confidence that I feel in my heart. I really feel that it is not this at all that pleases God in my little soul; what pleases Him is that He sees me loving my littleness and my poverty, the blind hope that I have in His mercy … That is my only treasure …

She then said to Marie: why can’t this be yours as well?

As one author put it, she had great confidence because it was not based on her or anything she did, it was based totally on God’s loving mercy. If we look to ourselves and we think it depends on us, we can have doubts because we know how weak we are; but if we trust totally in Him, we can have confidence. He may leave us for a long time with our weaknesses and faults precisely so we can get the message that it’s not us, it’s Him. As St. Paul says, we are saved by grace, and this is not our own doing lest anyone should boast. It is a gift. See Eph 2:8-9.

As for our loved ones, I’m going to quote from another priest writing about St. Therese who specifically addressed this question. He said first of all pay their ransom by your Masses, your Communions, your prayers – offering the infinite merits of Jesus just like St. Therese. Add to the blood of Jesus your own tears and sufferings united to His sacrifice. Be resolved to do this until He chooses to answer your prayer. Then, be at peace. Say like one mother “Jesus, You love them too much not to save them.” Thank Him in advance for the heaven He is preparing for them.  

We are saved by grace. If we are pleading with God to send His grace to someone we love, He’s not going to say No to that prayer!!! I know many stories of people who have come back to faith after someone was praying for them, sometimes at the very end of their life. I don’t know any stories of someone praying for another person and that person rejecting God all the way to the end. I’m not saying it hasn’t happened, or it can’t happen. But I don’t know of any stories like that and I know many stories of prayers answered.

It may be a while. St. Monica prayed for her son for many years; I’ve heard 17 years; I’ve heard 30 years, either way it was a long time. And we may not even see the fruits. I shared several years ago a story I heard from Fr. Brault of a woman who was dying of cancer. Between the way she lived those final weeks of suffering and the love Fr. Brault showed in his visits, after she died all her kids and their families came back to the Church. She never saw it, but her prayers were answered.

So let us imitate St. Therese in her thirst for souls and her absolute confidence in God. To quote Padre Pio whose memorial we celebrated yesterday, Pray, Hope, and don’t worry.   God Bless you.