Homily Notes: 4th Sunday Year B

In an interview in Ireland this week, on a program called; the meaning of life, in response to the question “what if you got to the pearly gates and God was real?” Stephen Fry, the comedian and celebrated atheist, said

“How dare you create a world with such misery that is not our fault. It’s not right. It’s utterly, utterly evil. Why should I respect a capricious, mean minded, stupid God who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?”  

The interviewer, Gay Byrne, was not impressed, judging by his facial expression!

It is easy to dismiss God as a figment of imagination, as wishful thinking, as a fairy tale or to blame God for creating a world of pain, if you have no intention of pursuing God. Free will is a wonderful expression of the goodness of God, a wonderful counter to the jibe… God is cruel and controlling, isn’t he? No, not at all actually, he gives free will, he is not a puppet master.

God does not hold a place in an atheist’s life, only in making denials that God does not exist, and if God did exist, he would be evil, for allowing suffering and pain.

Sometimes as people of faith, the only words we can use in the face of suffering and pain are those of silence, of mystery, of Jesus too.

Finding the right words is not easy task. It can be only afterwards that we can think if only I said this or that. Finding the right words can help defuse difficult situations, can ease worries, calm fears. Finding the right words is often not possible and a silence through a gesture can mean more.

Fortunately for us God found the right Word! That word was his only beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the Word of God, a command of love. This word is one that speaks loudly in the hearts of mankind. This word is one that heals, that inspires, that encourages, that brings life. This word restores hope and is one that echoes throughout history when men and women embrace this word and endeavour to be guided and led by it. The Word of God is also a gesture, a demonstration of the power of God for good. In the gospel for this weekend Jesus silences the unclean spirit and commands it leaves the man. The Word of God, Jesus, reduces evil to silence. On the cross when Jesus speaks his words of forgiveness all of evil cowers in defeat. Love triumphs! God’s loving Word evaporates all fear, destroys death, wipes away sin and restores hope for all mankind.

There are some gospels that leave us to revel in awe at the goodness of God and help us realise how fortunate we are to be loved and cared for by such a loving Word!

Source: http://humblepiety.blogspot.com/2015/01/homily-notes-4th-sunday-year-b.html