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 A Thought on Sunday:
We Met a Miracle Man
From the desk of Fr. Ignatius Waters c.p.
Sunday ,September 7 , 2010
On a Sunday morning recently, three ladies emerged from the church here long after the 8 o’clock mass had ended. They were chatting happily together until they spied me slipping out to the little park for a breath of air!
Then they called me; it was obvious they had happy news to tell me! "We’ve just met a miracle man!" they said, "A lovely man! All his systems had broken down; he has spent the last six months in St. James’ Hospital; he doesn’t remember anything of those months; the doctors told him they hadn’t cured him - that it must have been a higher power! He must have more work to do!"
All the bits of his story poured out. Then I saw a man coming out from the church. "Is that the man?" I asked. "Yes, yes, come and meet him!" But I said, "No, no, leave him alone; he’s talked enough for one morning!" But they insisted and I’m glad they did. He was indeed a lovely man and as he told me his name and his story, it slowly dawned on me that I had met him before; that I had anointed him and blessed him with the relic of St. Charles in St. James’ Hospital. And I began to look at him with the same wonder as the women. Here was a happy story indeed, a resurrection morning, and the women bringing the joyful news to the Apostles.
A few mornings later we had the gospel story of Philip meeting Jesus. After this, he can’t wait to introduce all his friends to Jesus, including Nathaniel. Nathaniel was an honest, sceptical sort of man, not easily taken in. And he had doubts and prejudices about anyone coming from Nazareth! To this day there are people who believe you can’t be any good if you come from certain areas. But Philip is wise enough not to argue with him. He just says, "Come and see! Come and see for yourself. Come and meet Jesus yourself!" That changed everything!
As we get back to some kind of normal after the summer break, it’s good to be reminded that summer or winter, autumn or spring, a higher power is at work all the time, as the doctors said. But we can miss out. I could have missed out on meeting the ‘miracle man’ if the women hadn’t introduced me. Many people miss out on meeting Jesus because we don’t tell them the good news and offer to introduce them. All this year members of the Legion of Mary have been visiting every house in the parish introducing people to Jesus and his story in the Gospel of St. Luke.
Jesus is the real ‘Miracle Man’ and we can meet Him in the gospel or at prayer or at mass or in one another. We can meet Him when we least expect it or deserve it, when we feel lost and lonely, full of guilt and separated from all we once believed and hoped in. For us, too, that can change everything!
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