The Salt + Light TV blog has posted the text of Cardinal Levada's wonderful homily here in Ottawa last Monday. It also gives the date for Fr. Tom Rosica's interview with the Cardinal — Sunday March 28 at 8 p.m. ET.
I loved this homily when I heard it. It stands up just as well to see it in print. Here's an excerpt, but be sure to go over the Salt + Light and read the whole thing.
I offer a word of thanks to Father Raymond de Souza, who has coordinated this visit. He told me that to pray with and for Catholic Christian Outreach meant supporting the work of the new evangelization in Canada. It is a joy to so, and I would like offer a word of encouragement this evening to the young missionaries present, and all who support them.
In today’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus returns to His hometown of Nazareth and it does not go well. He is driven out of town; the people who watched Him grow up are filled with rage. It is a disturbing scene. It is possible to find here some encouragement the young missionaries of Catholic Christian Outreach? How does this scene illuminate the challenge of preaching the Gospel on the university campus? Perhaps we can arrive at an answer to these questions with some help from our first reading from the Second Book of Kings.
The story of Naaman presents us with a contrast of power and weakness, the extraordinary and the ordinary. He is a powerful military commander afflicted with the disease of leprosy. He goes in seek of a cure, following the advice of his Israelite servant girl. He finds Elisha the prophet. He arrives at Elisha’s house with horses and chariots, the entourage of a man rich and mighty. Yet Elisha does not even come out to greet him, instead sending a message: Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean.
Naaman is angered by what he regards as dismissive treatment by Elisha. He wanted the prophet to work great signs and wonders to effect a cure. He considers bathing in the Jordan too plain and too simple. And then his servants come with an argument powerful in its logic: If the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it? All the more now, since he said to you, ‘Wash and be clean,’ should you do as he said.
Naaman wanted the Lord to heal him in a spectacular fashion. He was willing to do great and arduous tasks to earn that healing. The Lord instead wanted to heal Naaman with utmost simplicity, in a manner unadorned, uncompleted, unremarkable. Wash in the river and be clean.
As Catholics we see here a foreshadowing of the sacraments – those simple signs of water and oil, bread and wine, which work the greatest wonders of all. The Catholic sacramental imagination teaches us what Naaman had to learn, namely that the extraordinary lies just on the other side of the ordinary. The proudest boast of the human race is an unknown virgin of Nazareth. The Sovereign Lord of the universe lies in manger in Bethlehem. The redemption of the whole world is accomplished between two thieves. The Risen Lord comes to us in the humble elements of bread and wine. The divine power to forgive sins is entrusted to sinful men themselves. This is the sacramental economy, in which the most extraordinary things are accomplished in the most ordinary way.
We meet characters both ordinary and extraordinary in this passage from Second Kings. There is Naaman, the valiant military commander; there is the King of Aram; there is the King of Israel; there is the prophet Elisha. They are mighty figures, men of power and influence. But who is it that persuades Naaman to seek out Elisha? A humble servant girl. Who is it that persuades Naaman to listen to Elisha? His servants. Naaman is healed and comes to know the God of Israel because of humble people, unknown to the world, who had the courage to speak to him about listening to God’s voice, and heeding His will.
My dear missionaries, you work today in a campus environment marked by great learning, impressive technology and a vast array of options for personal and professional development. Given the sheer size of the modern campus, you may well feel small and isolated, a person of no great importance, like a servant in the entourage of a king. Yet you are called precisely to speak of God to those who otherwise may be considered more successful, more influential, more powerful in the world.
When you share your faith with others, simply and directly, are you not like the servant girl who tells Naaman that he needs to find the God of Israel? When you persuade your peers to return to Mass and to go to confession – sometimes for the first time since they were children – are you not like the servants who encourage Naaman to bathe in the Jordan? When you open the Scriptures to those who do not know Jesus Christ, are you not helping them to discover the cleansing waters of Baptism, where the leprous wounds of our culture can be healed? Are you not bringing others back to their own baptism, the graces of which have been buried under sin and indifference?
Here's an excerpt from the story I wrote about Cardinal Levada's talk to Catholic Christian Outreach's Meet the Movement Fundraiser last Monday night.
The Catholic faith is worth passing on because it is true and offers something every young person seeks: authentic enduring friendship, Levada said.
"The truth of our faith is personal. It is personal in its object, Jesus Christ and all that he has taught; and it is personal in its subject, the human person."
He praised CCO for helping students "discover the truth of Jesus Christ and to see all their other endeavours in the light of that relationship, what CCO calls, I'm told, 'the ultimate relationship.'"
"The hearts of the young yearn for meaning, for some purpose towards which they can direct their energies and talents, for some cause to which they can devote their lives, he said. "The campus mind seeks knowledge; the campus heart seeks a great mission."
Universities are full of young people with the capacity for great ideals and an eagerness to make sacrifices, yet many do not know Jesus Christ, he said.
"We hand on the Catholic faith on campus because there are eager souls looking for that one mission among a thousand options," he said. "The mission we propose is greater than any other on offer."
Co-founder Angele Regnier told the gathering CCO's mission was unveiled to her and her husband Andre when they were attending the University of Saskatchewan. She was an evangelical Protestant convert to Catholicism who saw the hunger among ex-Catholics for the Christian faith.
It broke her husband's heart to hear so many ex-Catholics saying "they thought they had to leave the Church to encounter Jesus," she said.
When students understand that God is not distant or dead, but real and intimate and loving, the whole Church becomes alive to them, Regnier said.
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