Sermons from the Latins/Sermon 54
Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost.
The Grounds of Faith.
" Unless you see signs and wonders you believe not." — John iv. 48.
SYNOPSIS.
Ex. : I. St. Januarius's blood. II. Seeing and believing. III. Thomas and Peter.
I. History: 1. Miracles often useful. 2. Capharnaum. 3. Nazareth.
II. Towns: 1. Prerequisites for miracles. 2. Nazareth rejects Him. 3. Woe to Capharnaum.
III. Persons: 1. In Samaria and Capharnaum. 2. Mary. 3. Faith always demanded.
Per. : 1. Modern miracles. 2. Proper attitude. 3. Invisible miracles.
SERMON.
Brethren, in the old Italian city of Naples there is a vial of St. Januarius's blood, which, though hard and dry on all other occasions, is miraculously liquified on the saint's festal day. I remember standing for hours by the side of an infidel watching and waiting for the miracle. At length it took place, but having, unfortunately, turned aside for a moment, I saw it not; my companion saw it and believed. Behold herein the mercy and the justice of God. By carnal means He would fain have enlightened, howsoever imperfectly, that darkened soul with some glimmer of faith in Christ, but from me, a Catholic, a priest, He exacts that higher and more perfect faith which, independent of signs and wonders can turn to Christ, and on the sole testimony of His word confess that verily He is the Son of the living God. And so it is and ever has been. The faith most precious in the sight of God is not that founded on the miraculous, but faith blind and unquestioning. There is, in one respect, a close analogy between faith and contrition, for just as contrition is imperfect or perfect according as it springs from fear of sin's material consequences or from the pure love of God, so faith is imperfect or perfect in proportion as it climbs gradually upwards on the evidence of miracles, or soars above and beyond them directly to the throne of God. The primary object of Christ's ministry was, that men might believe in Him to life everlasting on the evidence, not of His works, but of His words. It was only when His words failed of their effect that He had recourse to signs and wonders, saying: " If you believe not My words, believe at least My works." The miracles of His lifetime and of the Church's earlier years were wrung from an unwilling Christ by the very necessity of the case: viz., because He had to deal with a stiff-necked, stubborn, unbelieving race. " Unless," He says, " you see signs and wonders you believe not." What thanks to you if, having seen them, you believe? Ah! how Christ's sacred heart must have longed for some one who would first openly confess Him and afterwards, if need be, seek evidence to strengthen his faith! How it must have thrilled with pleasure when it found such a one — when the poor father of the lunatic boy fell at His feet crying: " Lord, I believe. Lord, help my unbelief! " Brethren, this is the truth I would have you learn this morning — the secondary position of miracles in the Christian dispensation: that they take from faith its true value and merit. I would not have you be a doubting Thomas refusing to believe in the risen Saviour, unless you put your hand into His side and your fingers into the place of the nails; but like blessed Peter, relying not on the testimony of flesh and blood, but on the revelation of your heavenly Father, I would have you blindly and unhesitatingly confess Christ to be the Son of the living God. And as, for that grand profession of faith, Christ made Peter the rock whereon to build His Church, so will He make your faith, if like to Peter's, the base for a superstructure of virtue that will reach and carry you up to the very throne of God. For " blessed are they that have not seen and have believed."
Brethren, briefly stated, my contention is this: Miracles as stimulators of faith are a lamentable necessity rather than an unmixed blessing. They served their purpose in the hands of Christ confronting a bigoted and a pagan world; in the hands of the infant Church struggling for existence; in the hands of a Francis Xavier in the van of civilization and Christianity. They are useful in a Lourdes, to stem the rising tide of infidelity, and in a Naples, where Nature is so beautifully arrayed that the people would fain worship her as a God; but in an ideal Christian community there should be no place, no necessity for them. For faith, according to St. Paul, is the substance of things to be hoped for; the evidence of things that appear not. The evident substantial basis of belief in Christ is the submission to and reliance on His word alone, and without such faith it is impossible to perfectly please God. Take the community of Capharnaum as a case in point. Of all the towns of Galilee it was the most favored, as the home of Christ and the scene of His greatest miracles. It lies on the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee; twenty-five miles to the southwest is Cana, and a few miles further on, Nazareth, while eighty miles to the south lies Jerusalem. When Jesus inaugurated His public ministry by the changing of the water into wine at Cana, He was on His way from Nazareth to Capharnaum, and for the rest of His stay in Galilee, Capharnaum was His home. Here lived the fishermen, Peter and Andrew, and the sons of Zebedee; here Matthew was called from his office in the custom-house to be an Apostle and an Evangelist. In the local Synagogue Jesus expounded His doctrines, among others, you remember, the forgiveness of sins, but the people believed not. Then, and then only, did He prove His words by signs and wonders, such as the cure of the man sick of palsy. The opportunity He gave them for the exercise of perfect faith they rejected, and regretfully He had recourse to miracles. And what stupendous miracles! Not to mention the miracle of Cana a few miles away, in Capharnaum itself occurred the cure of the ruler's son and of the man possessed by an unclean spirit. What a commentary it was on the incredulity of the people that that spirit instantly confessed Christ to be the Holy One of God! Here, too, He raised up Peter's mother-in-law from a raging fever, and cleansed the lepers, and cured the palsied. Here He healed the centurion's servant, and the woman afflicted with an issue of blood, and here He raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead. In the little harbor the Apostles at His word took the miraculous draught of fishes; farther out on the lake He stilled the storm at sea; on the opposite shore He multiplied the loaves and fishes, and on the return voyage that same night He came walking on the waters to the rescue of His storm-tossed followers. These are but a few of the hundreds of recorded and unrecorded miracles performed in or near Capharnaum. So many indeed that His native town of Nazareth became so wildly jealous that on His return His fellow-citizens attempted to fling Him over a cliff for refusing to repeat among them the wonders He had done at Capharnaum. Now see the proofs of my contention. It appears that as a necessary condition for miracle-working Christ demanded at least the beginnings of faith, which beginnings He then would raise by miracles to a higher, but far from perfect, development. So intimate with Him as boy and man were the Nazarenes that they could see in Him only the son of Joseph, the village carpenter. " Jesus," says the Gospel, " marvelled at their incredulity and could do no miracles among them." They demanded the carnal realism of miracles as a condition of faith; Christ demanded faith as a condition of miracles, and on that issue His own unhappy town was the first to reject Him. But even had He granted a sign to that perverse people would their faith have become perfect? Alas! no. Look at Capharnaum. Its faith, founded on material signs and wonders, was itself material and unenduring. I see the Christ, on His last journey to Jerusalem and death, turn like an avenging angel to Capharnaum and pronounce a woe upon it. "Woe to thee, Capharnaum.,, You believe, yes, but your faith began not as true faith should, in submission of will and mind and heart, to My words. If in pagan Tyre and Sidon had been wrought such mighty works, they had long since done penance in sackcloth and ashes. But thou, Capharnaum, art exalted unto heaven with worldly pride and local vanity. Your faith was born of material signs and wonders, and without them it cannot endure; whence you shall be cast down again into the hell of unbelief. Ah, how true a prophecy was that! When Christ multiplied before their eyes the loaves and fishes they would fain have taken Him by force and made Him king; but when Christ ceased His miracles, when He had utterly surrendered Himself into the hands of His enemies, when Pilate brought Him forth scourged and thorn-crowned and said: " Behold the man, behold your King," many a Capharnaum tongue shouted back: "Away with Him; we have no king but Caesar."
Brethren, it is a fearful thought for us Christians and Catholics that from Jerusalem to Capharnaum the only persons who turned with perfect faith to Christ were a heathen, outside the circle of God's chosen people, a poor old woman, and an heretical community. When Jesus went from Nazareth to Capharnaum, He, after two days, went south to Jerusalem to the feast of Passover. In Jerusalem his miracles and words aroused but opposition and unbelief. Returning into Galilee He passed through Samaria, whose people the supercilious Jews regarded as heretics and little less than heathens. Yet there Christ found the faith He sought. The poor woman at Jacob's well, all sinful as she was, quickly perceived His Messiasship and blazed it abroad, and though He remained there but two days and performed not a single miracle, yet the citizens believed in Him, " not for the word of the woman but because of His own word." " Because," said they " we ourselves have heard Him and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world." What a disappointment, then, on His arrival at Cana, as to-day's Gospel relates, to find a man from Capharnaum, a Jew, petitioning for the life of his son, but unwilling to believe until he had seen signs and wonders! What a disappointment again when Jairus, also a Jew, asked Him to raise up his dying or dead daughter, but despaired even while the Saviour was on the way to do so, and probably joined with those who on Christ's arrival laughed Him to scorn! But presently came the poor old woman, who believed first, and, believing, touched the hem of His garment and was healed of her issue of blood. Presently also came the heathen centurion, that bluff, large-hearted soldier, petitioning for the life of his servant, believing implicitly in the omnipotence and Messiasship of Jesus and deeming himself unworthy that the Lord should enter under his roof. Humanly speaking, what a glad surprise for Christ to find in these strangers the genuine faith He so vainly sought even in Israeli For all time He has made their blind, unquestioning assent the model for doubting seekers of signs and wonders. " Blessed are they that have not seen and have believed. For many such shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down in the kingdom of the Father, but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out." Brethren, you will doubtless say to me: "This is a harsh doctrine, offensive to Catholic ears. It is destructive of old and popular ideas, rather than constructive of new. It were better left unsaid." Brethren, apart from the ' fact that it is the true teaching of Christ, it also, to my mind, serves a double purpose. It throws a flood of light on certain obscure passages of the Gospel narrative, and imparts practical advice for our guidance. Have you ever reflected why Christ so often enjoined secrecy regarding His miracles on the spectators and those who were cured? The explanation offered by some, viz., that it was lest His whereabouts should become known to His enemies seems almost blasphemous. No; the real reason was lest men should be tempted to base their belief in Him on His works rather than His words, thereby conceiving imperfect and unenduring faith. Had all men minds and hearts as docile and tenacious as the Virgin Mary's, miracles would be things unknown. "Woman," He says to her at Cana, " Woman, what is there between Me, the miracle-worker, and thee? " Yet when she pointed to the bystanders unconscious of His divinity and bade them do His bidding, He, for their sake, not hers, changed the water into wine. Not once thereafter was she present at a miracle; not once did He appear to her after the Resurrection. Why? Because she needed it not; her faith was perfect. Again, did you ever reflect why Christ's humanity is always brought out in the strongest, most human, aspect on the occasion of His greatest miracles? The star shines and the angels visibly and audibly hover over Bethlehem, but within is a helpless, poverty-stricken child. Angels guard Him, and yet He flees for His life into Egypt. He astonishes the doctors in the Temple, yet He goes down to Nazareth with the carpenter and his wife and is subject to them. The Father proclaims " Thou art My beloved Son" over a village stripling seeking the baptism of John. He is tempted by Satan, and angels minister to Him. Now He is asleep for very weariness and yet He stills the storm at sea; now He is hungry but marvellously feeds five thousand; now He ministers as a slave and institutes the Holy Eucharist. Again, His enemies fall before Him, but lead Him away captive. Again, Nature trembles and the dead rise at His cry, but He dies of pain and thirst on the cross. Ah, how careful He was never to do violence to man's freedom! How quick always, and especially in the moments of greatest exaltation, to present some phase of His personality that would tax the popular credulity and elicit those acts of absolute submission that constitute perfect faith.
Brethren, there is here, too, something for our guidance. Modern miracles, are they true or false? I know not, neither do I care. The age of miracles, has it ceased? Practically it has. Is this a misfortune or a blessing? A blessing, for it argues on the part of the men of to-day a deeper mental insight into the nature of Christ and His institutions, and a more docile heart to receive His teaching. Brethren, what shall I say to you? Be not overanxious for material miracles nor over-credulous regarding them to the detriment of your faith. There are, thank God, invisible miracles — invisible, yet very real — happening around and in us every day. There is the cleansing of sin from the soul by the waters of Baptism; there is the cure of spiritual lepers by the words of absolution; there is the changing of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. These and such like are the real miracles of to-day. Believe in them, pray for them, love them, and make them the basis of your faith. They are the only miracles you can build your faith on and still deserve Christ's commendatory words: " Blessed are they that have not seen and have believed."