(Fourth Sunday of Easter (C): This homily was given on May
12, 2019 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Acts 13:14, 43-52; Psalm 100; Revelation
7:9-14; John 10: 27-30.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Fourth Sunday of Easter 2019]
“Patient
dead. Mother prayed. Patient came back to life.” Those words were written by the first doctor
who treated 14-year-old John Smith on January 19, 2015—the day he fell through
the ice on a frozen lake near his home in St. Charles, Missouri. By the time the first responders located John
and pulled him out of the icy water, he wasn’t breathing, had no pulse, and had
been without oxygen for a full 15 minutes.
They immediately started CPR and took him to the local hospital, where
doctors and medical personnel continued to work on him feverishly for 43 more
minutes—with no response. The medical
team finally gave up, and called in John’s adoptive mother, Joyce, so that she
could pay her final respects to her son before they officially declared him
dead.
But Joyce Smith was not ready to give up hope for her son’s
recovery! And so she began to pray over
his lifeless body—in a loud voice that could be heard throughout the emergency
room of the hospital. She doesn’t
remember her entire prayer that day, but she does recall saying these words to
God: “Please send your Holy Spirit to save my son!”
Suddenly, without any further medical intervention, the
boy’s heart monitor began to register a pulse—which put him on the road to what
has become a full and complete recovery.
John’s miraculous story is the subject of the
recently-released film, Breakthrough,
which is in theaters now. I highly
recommend it, since it’s a beautiful testimony to the power of prayer, and to
the faithfulness of a mother’s love.
The reason I mention it in my homily today is primarily because
of that last point. It’s Mother’s Day weekend, and this story witnesses in a
powerful way to the faithfulness of a mother’s love—a good mother’s love. The love
of a good mother is not conditional; it does not depend on circumstances. The love of a good mother is consistent and
hopeful and selfless. Some of us,
unfortunately, might not have experienced that kind of love from our moms, but thankfully
many of us have. We should praise God
today for that.
This kind of love was certainly present in Joyce
Smith. Here I think it’s important to
note that even after John began to register a pulse in the ER, most of the
medical personnel involved in his case were not very hopeful. Neither was John’s adoptive father. They all believed that even if John did
somehow manage to survive this ordeal, his quality of life would be extremely
poor—since he had been deprived of oxygen for so long and had probably
experienced severe brain damage in the process.
Only Joyce persevered in her hope for a complete
recovery. Only she continued to believe
that a positive outcome was possible. She
never gave up! She had the kind of determination
and perseverance that Paul and Barnabas exhibited in today’s first
reading. There we were told that these
two apostles went into the synagogue in Antioch in Pisidia on two consecutive
sabbaths, where they proclaimed the gospel message with clarity and
conviction. But not everybody liked what
they heard on those two occasions—and these opponents of the apostles were
definitely not quiet in their
opposition. As the Bible puts it, “They
were filled with jealousy and with violent abuse contradicted what Paul
said.” Ultimately they threw the two
apostles out of town. But notice that
Paul and Barnabas did not throw in the towel!
They didn’t give up their mission to preach and teach in the name of
Christ. They didn’t stop doing what they
believed God wanted them to do.
They simply shook the dust of Antioch in Pisidia off their
feet, and took the gospel message to the next town. And they did it joyfully,
in the power of the Holy Spirit.
In her faithful love for her son, Joyce Smith (like Paul
and Barnabas) refused to give up. Yet
her love was not perfect—as you’ll find out if you go to see the movie Breakthrough. But that should not surprise us, since no
earthly mother (however good she might be) loves her children with a perfect
love. However the good news is that we do have a Mother in heaven who does love
us in that way! Regardless of what our
earthly mother is or was like, our heavenly mother Mary loves us
unconditionally and with a perfect faithfulness, always praying for us to grow
closer to Jesus. She never gives up on
us or on any one of her children—even when they’re in the state of mortal sin
and as dead spiritually as John Smith
was dead physically.
Some people would probably say that Mary’s faithful love
for her children (that is to say, for all of us) is like Joyce Smith’s faithful
love for her son John—but that would be wrong.
It’s actually Joyce’s imperfectly-faithful love for John that’s a bit
like Mary’s perfectly-faithful love for us.
Mary’s love is the standard! Her
love is the perfect standard by which every earthly mother’s imperfect love is
measured. So let’s conclude now by
seeking Mary’s prayers for all earthly moms (especially all the moms here
present): that they will love their children in the future more like Mary loves
her children always. And so for all
mothers we pray, “Hail, Mary …”
