Homily for May 1st, 2017: John 6:22-29.
AThis is the work of God,@ Jesus says in the gospel reading we
have just heard, Athat you believe in the one he sent.@ Or as another translation has it: Ahave faith in the one he sent.@ What is faith? For many of us, I think, faith means belief in the truths
contained in the creed which we recite every Sunday at Mass.
Some Alpine guides in a Swiss village
organized a climb late in the season, after all the tourists had departed. They
reached their chosen summit without difficulty. They were disappointed,
however, not to have found an edelweiss, the delicate star-shaped white flower
that grows only at high altitudes and is prized by mountaineers as a souvenir
of their exploits.
The group had already started their
descent when one of them spotted a single edelweiss on a narrow ledge some
thirty feet below. To get it someone would have to be let down on a rope. There
was no time to linger, for the weather, which changes rapidly in the mountains,
was deteriorating. The climbers turned at once to the youngest and smallest
member of the party, twelve-year-old Hans, making his first major climb with
his father. It would be easy to let him down. In five minutes they could be on
their way again.
AWhat about it, Hans,@ they asked. AWill you do it?@
Hans peered anxiously at the narrow
ledged with the treasured white flower C and at the sheer drop of hundreds of
feet immediately beyond.
AI=ll do it,@ Hans replied, Aif my father holds the rope.@
That=s faith B unconditional trust! That is what
Jesus is talking about when he says in today=s gospel: AThis is the work of God: that you
believe in the One he sent.@
We pray in this Mass that, through
the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit, we too may receive the trusting faith of
that twelve-year-old boy.
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