Tuesday April 1, 2003 Homily by Fr. Robert Altier Fourth Week of Lent
Reading (Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12) Gospel (St. John 5:1-16)
We see, in the
first reading today, this river that Ezekiel talks about which comes out from
underneath the altar and flows out from under the temple. As we have seen
before, this is precisely what happened in ancient Israel, and that little
river went down to the Pool of Bethesda. That is why the Church has these two
readings connected. But again, I think what is important for us to be able to
see is how what begins by looking as just a trickle coming out from underneath
the altar suddenly becomes a river that is only able to be crossed by swimming
and how it continues to grow and to get deeper. That is precisely what happens
with the grace of God. It starts out in us as not looking like a whole lot. How
many times, after prayer, do we walk away and think that nothing has happened?
We come to Mass and receive Holy Communion and we think that nothing has
happened inside of us. Even though we know we have received the Lord, we do not
see any major change. One would think, after all, if we received Jesus into
ourselves that there should be an immediate change, sort of like the man who
picked up his mat and walked: He was paralyzed at one moment and the next moment
he was walking around carrying his mat. And one would say, “Well, shouldn’t
that be the way it works? If we’ve received Our Lord into ourselves, there
should be profound things happening.” There really are profound things
happening; it is just that we are not aware of them, just as this river that
Ezekiel talks about started out as a trickle, and then he could get up to his
ankles, and then to his knees, and then to his waist, and so on. It just grew
very slowly but very steadily.
That is the way
God’s grace is going to work within each one of us. As we continue to pray and
as we continue to come to Mass and to grow in holiness, the grace of God grows
steadily and slowly within each one of us. That grace (again, I think it is
very important to recognize) flows from the altar of God. It is not something
that we are doing on our own. It is purely from God and it is not anything that
we can make happen; it is not anything that we have any control over. All the
grace flows from the altar because it is on the altar that Jesus Christ is
sacrificed, and it is there that Our Lord gives Himself to us. So every single
grace is going to flow from the altar. And it just begins appearing very small
and very slight to us. Our Lord is not even recognized. You cannot see Him; you
cannot feel Him; you cannot taste Him; you cannot sense Him; but He is there.
And what begins to happen within us is that as we begin to recognize more and
more clearly the presence of the Lord in the Eucharist, as we begin to
recognize what is happening within us, suddenly we realize there are changes
that are happening. The river is now up to the ankle, and then to the knee, and
then to the waist. So it continues to grow. This is the fountain that Our Lord
spoke of, the river that will well up, spring up, to eternal life. It is the
grace that is given and the power of the Holy Spirit at work within us.
God can do this in
any way He chooses, but normally it is going to be exactly in the way that it
is shown. It starts out very slight because God is not going to do something
that is going to violate us. If God shifted us so quickly, like He did with
this man who was lying crippled for all of these years, many of us probably
would not be able to handle it very well. We would probably become so proud
that we had gotten rid of so many of our sins all at once and we are doing so
well that we would find ourselves in exactly the situation Jesus warned this
man against in the Gospel when He said to him that he needed to make sure he
did not sin anymore so that things did not get worse. Remember, Our Lord told
us when He kicked out a demon that they would go into the arid places and when
they would find anyplace to come back to they found seven demons worse than
themselves – and then they come back and take up residence once again. And so
what the Lord does, because most of us could not handle the way it would work
if it was very swift and radical, is that He works it very slowly. The grace
builds and develops within us; we grow in holiness; and finally we find– in a
way we did not even realize was happening – that now there is a river of grace
within us that can only be crossed by swimming. Our Lord wants us to be able to
recognize that that is the way it works so that we keep going, so that we do
not give up, because sometimes when we look and we do not see the progress that
we think ought to be there, we get frustrated and we wonder if this is worth it
or if anything is happening at all.
Notice that it is
every 1,000 cubits that Ezekiel has to wade through. It was not “take another
step and look at the difference” because in one more step he would not have
noticed the difference. That is the same with us. It is like looking in the
mirror everyday: You do not notice that there is a difference, but if every 1,000
days you looked in the mirror, you would notice quite a difference. So too with
God’s grace: On a day-to-day basis, we do not notice much difference, but if we
went every thousand days and looked back, we would notice a huge difference.
That is what Our Lord wants us to understand. So continue along that journey;
continue walking with the Lord; continue coming to His altar and allowing that
grace to fill you. Recognize that what is happening is that what started out a
long time ago – or, perhaps in some of us, it has just begun – as a little
trickle of grace within, is growing to become a torrent, to become a huge
river, a river of God’s grace in which we can immerse ourselves. That is the
way God wants it to be. Do not give up because you do not see the progress that
you think ought to be there. It is happening slowly and imperceptibly, but very
real. And that river of grace is growing within you.
* This text was
transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing.