My Dear Parishioners,

Doreen Modena passed away unexpectedly more than two weeks ago in the small hours of the morning.  She was taken from this world quite unexpectedly and rather shockingly.  I have been preoccupied with her death, but now, I could begin to imagine what our good Lord might have said to her upon her arrival at His judgment seat, “Woman, great is your faith!”  That woman had been in constant excruciating pain for a long time, but no amount of pain could distract her from fixing her eyes on Christ, from knowing that Christ alone saves, from asking for Him constantly.  It seemed the priest (me!) could not come with Holy Communion often enough for her!  In a situation of sickness where no precise prognosis could be given, Doreen gave all into Christ’s hands; she surrendered her entire illness into Christ’s hand.  Because she knew only Christ would save her.

“Woman, great is your faith!”  Doreen had great faith, not because she experienced miraculous healings, in fact, just the opposite!  In fact, she never received even a hint of a miracle!  Her pain was relentless.  That is why I say what I say now: perhaps, as soon as she arrived at Christ’s judgment seat, before she could bow before the Great Judge, “Woman, great was your faith!”  Great was her faith because she believed that Christ was truly with her in the Sacraments, that Christ could not be less present now with her than He had been 20 centuries ago with the Apostles or with Mary Magdalene, or 9 centuries ago with St. Francis.  Great was her faith because she welcomed our Savior into the thick of her tremendous suffering, her unrelenting pain! “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Ultimately, it is not about the tremendous miracles, the witty words, the fascinating parables one reads in the pages of the Bible.  It is about the believer attaching himself to God, his clinging to Him, his adhering to Him, when the evidence on the ground seems to oppose it!

In the end, "Faith is to say You to Him who has said You to me first!"