Homily for Sunday Ordinary 27 C (Sanktuarium Pasyjno-Maryjne, Poland)

I am preaching this homily on our pilgrimage in Poland. We visited Auschwitz/Brirkenau camp this morning; we are celebrating Mass in Sanktuarium Pasyjno-Maryjne, where Karol Wojtyra (St. John Paul II) came on pilgrimage as a boy.

When I visited Krakow in 2001, we toured the Wawel Cathedral. There's a great bell in the tower, like Big Ben in London. It weighs 11 tons and it takes 12 people to ring it. This bell is named Zygmunt, and it has been rung for every major event in Poland since it was cast in 1520.

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Transcript

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. 

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith." The Lord replied, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. 

Who among you would say to your servant, who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here immediately and take your place at table.' Would he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for me to eat? Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink. You may eat and drink when I am finished.' Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded? So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants. We have done what we were obliged to do.'" 

The Gospel of the Lord. 

The disciples want Jesus to fix things by giving them more faith. The prophet Habakkuk wanted the same thing. He was praying that God would intervene and put an end to the chaos he saw all around him. 

God gave Habakkuk an interesting response. Change the channel. Put a different image on the screen. Write the vision. Make it plain on tablets so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time. It speaks of the end and does not lie. If it delays, wait for it. It will surely come. It will not be late. 

Maybe the problem isn't that we need more faith. What we really want is certainty when all that we are given is enough to be faithful. A mustard seed is tiny, but the plant spreads like wildfire, and it is nearly impossible to eradicate. Paul reminds us that it only takes a spark. I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God bestowed when my hands were laid on you. The spirit God has given us is no cowardly spirit, but rather one that makes us strong, loving, and wise. 

We visited Auschwitz-Birkenau camps this morning, and we are celebrating Mass in Wodowice, Poland, where St. John Paul II was baptized. When I visited Krokow in 2001, we toured the Wawel Cathedral. There is a great bell in the tower, like Big Ben in London. It weighs 11 tons, and it takes 12 people to ring it. The bell is named Zygmunt. It has been rung for every major event in Poland since it was cast in 1520. 

On October 16, 1978, the news came in the night that Karol Wojtyla, the Bishop of Krocow, had been elected pope. They wanted to ring the bell, but the tower was locked, and they couldn't get in. It wasn't until the next morning that they got into the tower and began to ring the Zygmunt bell. Pretty soon, all the bells in the churches in Krocow began to ring. Our guide told us it was very loud. The people began to gather in the town square right in front of St. Mary Cathedral, the pope's church, when he was their bishop. They started dancing, because on that day, October 17, 1978, they knew that communism was over. The communists didn't get the memo, and it wasn't until 1989 that communism finally collapsed. But on that day, everyone knew that something had changed. 

Write down the vision. If it seems to tarry, wait for it. It will surely come. It will not delay. 

When Viktor Frankl arrived at the Theresienstadt camp ghetto, he was separated from his wife and family, never reuniting with them again. Frankl was stripped of his most precious possession, a manuscript that was his life's work, which he had hidden in his coat pocket. He had to undergo and overcome the loss of his mental child. In his memoir, "Man's Search for Meaning," Frankl writes, "Not yet did I notice that an answer to this question with which I was wrestling so passionately was already in store for me. I had to surrender my clothes, and in turn inherited the worn-out rags of an inmate who had already been sent to the gas chamber. Instead of the many pages of my manuscript, I found in a pocket of the newly acquired coat one single page torn out of a Hebrew prayer book containing the most important Jewish prayer, Shema Israel, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one." 

Frankl continues, "How should I have interpreted such a coincidence, other than as a challenge to live my thoughts instead of merely putting them on paper?" 

When I went to Auschwitz the first time in 1994, I had gone up to the second floor of block 11, the same building where St. Maximilian Kolbe died. It was summertime, and the windows were open. I overheard a guide in the execution yard below telling the story in English. That's where I first learned about Maximilian Kolbe. The recently released film, "A Triumph of the Heart," is a powerful reflection on the faithfulness of this man who offered his life in exchange for another's. The consequences of Kolbe's actions are barely chronicled. The identity of his nine comrades is unknown, and eyewitness accounts are sparse. Most fascinating may be the consideration of the calm and consolation St. Maximilian Colby brought to the cell. 

One survivor, the block janitor Bruno Borgowiak, recounts how the prayers and hymns from within Kolbe's cell resonated through the confines of the camp, providing solace to fellow prisoners in adjoining cells. Their voices would also have been heard by victims in the execution yard above. In those moments, Kolbe's words and deeds were a testament to the power of faith, even in the face of despair. 

The German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer spent two years in Nazi prisons. He was executed at the age of 39, just a month before the Germans surrender. Bonhoeffer was permitted to write. His letters and papers from prison, published after his death, are a powerful witness of faithfulness. 

Bonhoeffer wrote this prayer on Christmas morning, 1943. "O God, early in the morning I cry to you. Help me to pray and to concentrate my thoughts on you. I cannot do this alone. In me there is darkness, but with you there is light. I am lonely, but you do not leave me. I am feeble in heart, but with you there is help. I am restless, but with you there is peace. In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience. I do not understand your ways, but you know the way for me." 

Gott, lass meine gedanken sich sammeln zu dir/ 

• God, gather my thoughts to you.

Bei dir ist das licht, du vergist mich nicht./

• With you is the light, you do not forget me.

Bei dir ist die hilfe, bei dir ist die geduld/

• With you is help,/with you is patience.

Ich verstehe deine wege nicht/

• I do not understand your ways.

Aber du weist den weg fur mich./

• But you know the way for me

Taizé