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Perhaps some of you may recall a pro football player who suffered a severe spinal injury during an NFL game
nearly one decade ago. Maybe some of you were even watching the game
as the injury happened.
Whether you saw the
“hit” live or on videotape replay, the impact caused Dennis Byrd to
drop to the turf like a cooked piece of overcooked linguini. The sound of
the impact was enough to send shivers up spines; but, it was the sight of
Byrd falling to the ground raised goose bumps on people’s
arms. Seeing Byrd’s immobile body placed on a gurney and put
into the waiting ambulance raised the specter of the fragility of
human life, even for NFL “supermen.”
After diagnosis of his injury, physicians told Dennis Byrd he’d never walk
again. But, today, Dennis Byrd walks very well. He credits
the miracle to faith.
But, consider how Dennis Byrd defines that term:
·
faith
in God:
Dennis Byrd believes there is something good to be learned even in
the most tragic situations. What needs to be learned may not
be apparent at first, but emerges as we trust that God is in charge.
When difficulties arise or tragedy suddenly hits us smack dab
between the eyes, we oftentimes only see
the bad and we become obsessed with it.
“God
can’t possibly be present in this,” we privately think to ourselves.
We may also find ourselves wondering, “Why did God do this to
me?” Seeing only the bad, we blind ourselves to the good and
become immobilized.
·
faith
in doctors:
Dennis Byrd believes that God gives human beings divine power to
effect miracles. The achievements of medical science are
attributable to the power of God working through human beings who
are vessels of God’s
continuing creative activity in our world. Have you ever
considered how God has entrusted you with some special talent, gift,
or ability? Once you have identified this it, how can you use to help others get up when they believe
all they can do is to lie in bed flat on their backs? How can
you lift others up from their pain and misery?
·
faith
in family and friends:
Dennis Byrd attributes the unfailing love of his family and friends
to God, firm in the belief that God worked through all of them to inspire Byrd
to accept the challenges and to embrace the suffering that achieving
his goal of walking again would bring. We don’t
oftentimes attribute the immense amount of good we are able to accomplish through
a simple kind word, a gentle and genuine smile, or simply by being present to someone
is flat on one’s back. Yet, all of those small but genuinely
human good things reveal to others
the God dwelling in us. Have you ever considered how you
can be a revelation of God to others in their suffering? how
you can inspire others? how you can lift them up and help them
to walk again?
·
And
lastly, faith in himself: Dennis Byrd believes that, despite
one’s failures, weaknesses, and the many obstacles that life
oftentimes throws our way, there exists within each human being a
divine power—God’s
power—to achieve whatever good we set our minds and hearts on.
Ultimately, however, none of us has the power to achieve much of anything,
if anything at all.
But, with God’s
power guiding us and working through us, God is able to
achieve a great deal of good through us. When difficulties and
tragedies besiege us from all sides, we wonder why God is
“the
Great Absent One”
in our lives. Yet, what we don’t consider, because we’re all
wrapped up in ourselves and our pain and suffering, is how God has
already gifted us with the power―God’s power―to
overcome our difficulties and tragedies. Aphorisms like
“smell the
roses,” “there’s more here than meets the eyes,” “the glass is half
full,” and “all’s not lost” convey this truth.
Dennis Byrd says that his miraculous recovery had absolutely nothing to do with
luck, fate, or chance. Today, he preaches to audiences that his recovery is a
gift of God, that is, a gift of faith: faith in God, faith
in other people; and, faith in oneself.
Today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles presents a
tragedy and a triumph, both of which also teach us about faith,
especially faith in God’s
love, mercy, and forgiveness.
The tragedy is seen in Judas, whom all of us know as “The Betrayer”
or “Son of Perdition.” Judas is the apostle―perhaps
Jesus’ favorite because Jesus entrusted the apostles’ bank account to
Judas―who,
for thirty silver pieces, handed Jesus over to evil men who, in
turn, put him to death. The true tragedy here is not what
Judas did (as bad as that is), that he felt deep remorse
for it (as good as that is), or that he tried to undo his evil deed
(as good as that is). Tradition has it
that Judas so clung to his grief and remorse―he
became so frozen in his evil past―that
Judas took his own
life. The true tragedy is that Judas did not believe he could
ever be forgiven for his treachery. Had Judas possessed faith
in God’s
mercy, love, and forgiveness,
perhaps his tragedy would have become a triumph and the name of
Judas would not be reviled but praised.
How much are we—like Judas—ready to betray another person for a few
moments of self-satisfaction that we live to regret later on? How often do we find ourselves:
·
despising others:
you know the justification
and rationalization―maybe that person got something or achieved something we really
wanted? how about the person driving the car during rush hour who
just cut us off? maybe the co-worker who spread malicious gossip about
us? the sibling who always achieved beyond you?
·
nurturing hostility:
you know how it is bred—ignoring your spouse’s
or child’s need for attention;
withholding respect and honor for your parents; not including your
little brother or sister in your plans and activities? planning ways
to embarrass another person?
·
growing distant:
you know how easy it is to put ourselves first―turning away from your spouse and delving into distractions like TV,
hobbies, or surfing the Internet; putting off or dismissing a
demanding child because
“I’m too busy”; being unresponsive to an unreasonable, aged parent?
All of this is the stuff of evil. Like Judas, what matters is not what
we’ve done (after all, we can’t undo it), but whether we are opening
the doors of our hearts wider and wider to the power of evil and
allowing it to enjoy an even more spacious and comfortable place to
reign in our hearts. Then, like Judas, what we’ve done―as
evil as it is―begins
to make eminent sense. We become righteously indignant and
believe ourselves right for doing the wrong we did. That’s
how
we
become a “child of perdition.” Or, we become ashamed of what we
did, perhaps feeling contrition and remorse. Judas certainly did. But, the
power of evil we have invited into our hearts ultimately has devoured the
humility that would have enabled us to seek forgiveness. The
end? Quite literally we’ve
freely chosen to destroy the one life God has entrusted to us because we did not possess faith
in God’s
love, mercy, and forgiveness.
That is a true tragedy! Think of the life we could have lived,
that is, if we had not destroyed it by not having the faith that could transform
this tragedy into a triumph.
Let us not forget that there also was a triumph in today’s
reading from the Acts of the Apostles. The triumph is found in
Peter, the apostle who denied Jesus, not once but three times. This
is the arrogant and boasting Peter, the one filled with pride and
bravado, who vowed that he’d never turn his back on his friend,
Jesus.
Like Judas—and like us all—Peter allowed evil to make its home in his
heart. With any humility devoured by the power of evil
residing in his heart, Peter became full-throated in his righteous
indignation. He didn’t
even know “that man”!
(Imagine calling your
“best friend” “that man”!)
Following these denials, again like Judas, Peter recognized his sin and
he felt keen remorse for it. But, in contrast to Judas, Peter
had faith in
God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness.
Faith is what set Peter free
and now, we just read from the Acts of the Apostles, the apostle who once denied Jesus
three times has become the cornerstone upon whom the other apostles
are to rely for guidance.
Peter’s triumph—in contrast to Judas’ tragedy—is an abject lesson in
faith. Do we fear the truth about ourselves, knowing what it reveals about the
true state of our souls? Or, do we believe that it is that truth
which will set us free? The answer to that question is posed
by another question: Do you place your faith in God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness?
Like Judas, people who live in fear of the truth experience shame.
They also wallow in
remorse for the past which cannot be changed. Any humility to
accept the truth has been devoured by the power of evil, making
people incapable of placing their faith in God’s
love, mercy, and forgiveness. The
tragedy? These people not only destroy their lives but, to the
degree they did not live well the one life God entrusted to them,
these people can also limit if not destroy those of other people,
too. God created and sent all of those people―just
as God sent Judas―to lift up all of those others who had been hit hard and brought
down by difficulties and tragedies.
But, like Peter, there are those other people who believe the truth
will set them free. These are the people who have faith
in God, faith in others, and faith in themselves open their hearts
to God who is rich in love, mercy, and forgiveness. They embrace
the truth
and, humbled by it, allow God’s Holy Spirit to rid their hearts of evil and to empower
the indomitable spirit of God breathed into their souls to triumph over evil. The triumph?
These people rise to new life in the power of the Holy Spirit and
lift others up to new life, too.
Dennis Byrd tells anyone and everyone who is willing to listen how much his
tragic accident taught him about faith. And, because of his faith
in God, faith in others, and faith in himself,
what otherwise would have been a tragedy was transformed by the
grace of God acting through others into a
triumph. Judas’ tragedy, too, could have been a triumph, just like
Peter’s. But, Judas would have had to embrace faith,
especially faith in God’s
love, mercy, and forgiveness,
if Judas was
to be set free from his shame and perhaps surpass Peter as Rock upon
which the Church would be built.
The mantra of all people who have allowed tragedy to end their lives
is “Think about everything that could have been!” How many times have you
found yourself saying that?
In today’s gospel, Jesus taught his disciples: “The truth will set
you free.” It’s a difficult paradox to resolve because many of us
believe the truth has only the power to destroy us by revealing what
we’d
rather keep hidden. Yet, like
Peter, our tragedies can make us holy if we have faith in God’s
love, mercy, and forgiveness.
Those who
possess this faith
know exactly what Jesus is teaching because they have already experienced the
fulfillment of Jesus’ own words in their hearts and its
transformative power in their lives. Problems and tragedies didn’t
end their lives—they don’t spend their time recounting regrets and say
with remorse “Think about what could have
been”—but, through faith and God’s grace, have risen to new
life. They know what Jesus taught is true: “Your hearts will rejoice with a joy no one
can take from you.”
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HOMILY
