20th Sunday in Ordinary Time – A 19 August 2017

 St. Maximilian Kolbe once said, “If anyone does not wish to have Mary Immaculate for his Mother, he will not have Christ for his Brother.”  St. Maximilian’s point is that salvation is a precarious thing, and if we don’t give ourselves to Mary and have her motherly help in our lives, it’s likely we won’t know Jesus as we should.  It is Our Lady’s vocation, if you will, to round up souls for her Son, to bring us to her Son. And it is Mary who keeps us close to Jesus once we’ve found Him. This is why we Catholics have such a devotion to her, why we have her image everywhere, why we pray the Rosary.  Our Lady’s intercession is so powerful, so influential, so effective that no wayward soul is beyond her reach. If anyone comes to her in humility and faith – no matter how grave his sins – she will not leave him bereft of her help.  One of my favorite saint stories in this regard is the story of Blessed Bartolo Longo, a former priest of satan who is now known within the Church as the “Apostle of the Rosary”!  Longo was born in 1841 to a pious Catholic couple in southern Italy. After his mom died when he was 10, he slowly began to drift away from his faith. During his college years in Naples, Bartolo became involved with the occult, and eventually became a satanic priest.  Not only did Bartolo practice all sorts of occultism and necromancy, he also became a very outspoken enemy of Christ and His Church, publicly ridiculing the Faith and convincing many Catholics to leave the Church.  As is usually the case, though, with people who turn to satan, Longo became very dissatisfied with his life. He was seriously depressed, suffering from paranoia and anxiety, and he experienced demonic visions that ultimately caused a mental breakdown.  In his despair Longo turned to an old family friend who introduced him to a Dominican priest, who heard his confession and helped Longo to reclaim his life. This same priest, Fr. Radente, counseled Bartolo Longo to turn to Our Lady for help and to promote the rosary.  Longo then renounced his participation in the occult and devoted the rest of his life to promoting the Rosary and serving the poor in Pompeii – and to marvelous effect!  He repaired a beaten-up old church in Pompeii, installing within it an image of Our Lady holding the Christ Child, with St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena to the sides, that he procured from a local nun and had restored: an image now known as “Our Lady of Pompeii.”  Within hours of putting this image into the church, miracles began to happen such that people began flocking to the church in great numbers. Eventually this old church was torn down and a beautiful basilica has grown up in its place. It’s a wonderful place for a pilgrimage.  Now in Pompeii, a city known for death and destruction, can be found the hope for eternal life through the powerful and sure intercession of Our Lady of the Rosary.  And a man, Bl. Bartolo Longo, who did not know God – who hated God, is on his way to sainthood because he humbly turned to the Mother of Christ in a time of need.  As we pray in the Memorare: “never was it known that anyone who fled to [Mary’s] protection, implored [her] help, or sought [her] intercession was left unaided.”  I bring up this story because our readings today speak of our Lord’s desire to help even those who do not know Him, those who are foreign to Him.  In our first reading from Isaiah, our Lord says that even “foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,” who love “the name of the Lord, and [become] His servants” will be brought to His holy mountain.  In our second reading from his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul speaks to Gentiles. While strictly speaking Gentiles were simply the non-Jews of Jesus’ day, the Jews – priding themselves on being the “chosen people” – used the term “gentile” in a pejorative way.  The Jews of Jesus’ day held the Gentiles in contempt because they did not worship the one, true God. But St. Paul makes clear that even they are eligible for God’s mercy.  In fact, St. Paul makes the point at the end of our epistle today that God allows us to fall away from Him, to become foreigners to Him, so that He might show us His mercy! It’s not that God wants us to sin. But when we do sin, He can bring a great good out of that evil.  Lastly, in our Gospel we have the story of the Canaanite woman, another foreigner, who comes to Jesus looking for healing her daughter who is tormented by a demon. While Our Lord rigorously tests the Canaanite woman’s faith, He eventually does as she asks.  What we learn from our readings, and from the life of someone like Bl. Bartolo Longo, is that no one is beyond God’s mercy. Even those who are the greatest sinners, those who are most foreign to our Lord, can be saved.  For those of us who do know God – who are so blessed to be a member of His Body, the Church – today’s readings call us to reconsider how we view and act toward those who are foreigners to God and enemies of His Church.  In our world today that is so marked and influenced by the actions and ideals of those who are enemies of Christ and His Church, it’s easy for us to judge those who do not love God. It’s easy for us to look down upon those whom we judge to be faithless or even evil.  If we’re not careful, we can develop a sort of spiritual xenophobia toward those whom we consider foreigners to God. Yet, if we are not willing to engage these folks, how can we ever lead them to the knowledge of Christ?  My point is that we have to develop within ourselves enough magnanimity and charity that we can look at those whom we believe to be foreigners to God and enemies to His Church as God looks upon them: as souls in need of saving – and look for ways to evangelize them.  God gives to each man all the graces he needs to be saved. Sometimes God knocks a sinful man off of his horse, as he did with St. Paul. Sometimes he allows one of His enemies to be broken by the despair of his sins, as he did with Bl. Bartolo Longo.  Yet when that happens, someone has to be willing to lead that man to God rather than stand aloof from him because of his past sinfulness. Where would the Church be had Ananias not been willing to help Saul become Paul after his encounter on the road to Damascus?  Like the parable of the Good Samaritan, someone has to stop and tend to the injured soul so that they may be healed of their sins and reconciled to God.  Even when the foreigners of God attack us personally, we must be big enough people to overlook their sins against us in order to help them convert when the time is right.  With this in mind, it’s important for us to think about those whom we know who are away from God. Perhaps it’s a college-age son or daughter who is missing Mass, or an adult child who is living in sin, or a sibling who has left the Faith altogether.  We need to pray sincerely for them, to fast for them, and to be there for them when they’re ready to return. Remember: our Lord wants every person to be saved, and through His Mother He gives to each of us the grace we need to repent and accept His mercy.  Mindful that we are all sinners in need of God’s mercy, let us keep our hearts open to those who foreigners to God and enemies of His Church. Through prayer, fasting, and the intercession of Our Lady, may we be instruments in God’s hands to lead souls back to Him.  And by making Immaculate Mary our Mother, may we all know Christ as our brother.