When God seemed absent... 8th day Novena of Carmel 2019

Today’s theme recalls the story which Jesus told privately to his disciples.  The story therefore is for them and about them – it’s not about the pharisees, or the Herodians, or the Jews who oppose Jesus, no.  It’s a story made for his disciples.  In other words, this story of Jesus is for us and about us.  

For several days now in the novena we have gleaned lessons from different encounters with God by the young men and women in the bible -  from Joseph’s own encounter, to Samuel’s;  from David’s and Gideon’s encounter with God, to the encounters of Solomon and Jeremiah, of Ruth and the Jewish servant girl, and the encounter of the younger son with his father in the gospel parable known as the prodigal son.  In all these we also saw Mary’s own encounter with God.  And we learned lessons from these, and from these we even saw parallels in our own encounter with God.

Today however our focus is quite different.  Because today we are invited to encounter God who is long in coming.  We are invited to encounter God who is not yet, who might even be absent.   Long in coming, not yet, not here.  Have you gone through these experiences in your own spiritual life, in your relationship with the Lord?  Long in coming, not yet, not here.  

In a 2013 survey here in the Philippines, the national average of Catholics going to church, to mass every Sunday is 47 percent – meaning out of 100 catholics only 47 go to church.  That’s very low.  In Vietnam its 98 percent and they don’t even have catholic schools.  Of this 47 percent many are elderly, women and very young children.  In a new study in the United States aptly entitled Going, going, gone, it is said that half of the young people, catholics, leave the church by the age of 18, and 78 percent leave the church by the age of 23.    I am not saying that this is the same in our country.  I think we are a little better.  But I want to highlight the observation of those who studied this.  They said in one of their conclusions, “when a soul walks away from the Church, that soul usually leaves when it is young.”

Why?  Why so many are leaving?  There are three factors.  But for this homily I will just get one.  They call them, the injured – young catholics who left the church – the injured.  Who are they? “The ‘injured’ are young people who experienced a hardship or tragedy in which God seemed to be absent. Despite their prayers, their parents separated or loved became sick and  died.”  One young person recalled  the start of his falling out from God.  He remembers family and loved ones praying  for his grandfather with lung cancer, “everyone is praying for him, probably over 150 people. Personally praying for him and still there was nothing done to help him and that was my first skepticism.”  Long in coming, not yet, not here.  

And yet this non-encounter can be in fact a real encounter with Jesus.  I remember when I was in my younger years having difficulty walking, everyday dealing with pain as I was starting my ministry as a priest, one well-intentioned parishioner told me Father if you have faith the size of a mustard seed you can tell that pain to go away and it will be gone.  And that made me think.  Am I lacking in faith then?  And for a time I believe I was – despicable me, miserable me.  But then I realized that it took greater faith in Jesus to climb mountains I cannot move; it took greater love and therefore greater dedication to serve when the body and the mind wanted me to quit.

Waiting and the feeling of abandonment in God’s absence is part of the spiritual dynamics, it is part of growing up in our relationship with the Lord.  It is during this difficult interim that God is preparing us for a spiritual upgrade.  And yet many succumb to this and move out ,what with the feeling of being shut out, the feeling of being unknown to the God whom you thought loves you.

So what do we do in the waiting and the absence?

There are ten bridesmaids.  As I said at the start, this story of Jesus is about us.  The ten bridesmaids were categorized by Jesus into two groups – the five who were wise and the five who were foolish.  Were they different from each other?  Not much.  After all, they were all bridesmaids. They all have their torches ready and lighted.  They were all waiting for the long-delayed bridegroom.  At a certain point in the long wait, they all felt drowsy, and eventually they all fell asleep.  They were all equally sincere and devoted.  So what’s the difference?  The only difference is this, five of them felt it would be wise to provide some extra oil.

And what does this oil symbolize, what is this extra oil that we should always bring with us?  St. Augustine said, the oil is love.  Why?  Because oil will always float on water, it rises above all, as St. Paul has said, “I show unto you a way above the rest. If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.” And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.  Love is the way above the rest.  “Like oil it never falls, it never fails.”

In our journey of faith, there will be times when understanding fails, when we begin to doubt even our faith, when hope becomes dim.  In our journey of faith and this is true especially to young people, we will experience getting stuck waiting, we will encounter eerie absence.  But what would gain us entry into the marriage feast is that extra oil we bring, our love, our love for the bridegroom, our love for Jesus, our love for each other.  We never run out of oil.  We never run out of love.  We never stop loving.