In today's Gospel, our Lord told his disciples that if they had faith in him,
that they would be able to do the works that he did.
That anything that they asked him in his name, if they kept his commandments, he would do for them.
Our Lord redeemed us and brought us every grace that will ultimately lead us to heaven
by becoming poor for our sake, by divesting himself of the glory of his divinity,
and by becoming the child of Mary.
As I said a few days ago, St. Francis says that our Lord became poor for our sake that we might become rich.
And when our Lord did that for us and took upon our human nature
and lifted that human nature up to God and bestowed upon humanity every grace,
he did so by means of signs and wonders, by miracles and healings and the raising of people from the dead.
He wanted us to know that what he said was really true,
that anything that we ask in his name, he will do for us.
And those who are living in that grace, who keep his commandments, who have faith in him,
understand that his will for us...
is our salvation.
And that while there are many things that we want in this world and desire and sometimes even think we need,
as our Lord said to St. Martha, who was worried about many things,
he said only one thing is really necessary, and that's ultimately our salvation.
So when our Lord says that he'll do all things for us, it is in the context of our salvation.
And we have to trust him, but also pray.
And we have to pray to him with great faith.
St. Bernardine of Siena, whose feast day we celebrate today,
was a man precisely like this.
He had faith in God and heard the call from God
and threw away everything he had and entered into religious life and lived poorly.
And he did it at a time when the order was in need of reform.
And after he had been ordained a priest, he became...
a pillar of the reform and a great figure in the church in the 14th century.
And he went from town to town in an itinerant way with no place to lay his head
and preached the gospel throughout Italy
and brought many, many, many people to conversion.
Wherever he went, there would be huge crowds, 20,000, 30,000 people,
crowds so large that they couldn't fit them in the churches,
so he'd have to preach in the public square.
And his homilies, his sermons would become major events for the town,
so it would last all day.
Sometimes his homilies would be four to six hours in length.
And the result was many, many conversions.
He had a retinue of priests, friar priests that would come with him
who would hear confessions and many times during these events and in these towns,
peace was restored civil civil strife was ended and people were brought to their knees
and back to the sacraments and wherever saint bernardine went he begged god for for the
conversion of souls and for the restoration of the church and he knew that it wasn't through
the power of his preaching but through it was in actuality as saint francis told the friars not
not the the preachers who brought about conversion but the humble and poor friars who were faithful
to the rule and that's why saint bernardine tried to be as faithful to the rule as he possibly could
because he knew it was his fidelity more than his words that would bring conversion uh to people
and um and in a particular way he preached devotion to the blessed
mother and devotion to the holy name of jesus and this devotion of the holy name which you know
spread throughout the whole church on many church buildings you'll see the monogram of i believe it's
on the front of this pulpit actually the monogram of our of our lord's holy name uh this was
something that goes back to the preaching of saint paul but which is particularly became a
devotion during the time of saint bernardine it was even of course uh you know uh hijacked you
might say by the jesuits they used to preach the holy name of jesus and they used to preach the
holy name of jesus as their monogram as well but it was uh really a franciscan devotion and the whole
idea behind it was that just something very simple such as the name of our lord the name by which we
are all saved the name that was given to the one who came down to heaven and became poor for our
sake something a name that we can all pronounce because he's become near to us it's not like
the name of god in the old testament which was forbidden to be even said this was the name that
his mother bestowed on him this name is our power if we believe uh that in his name and we ask in his
name he will do it for us and if we are trying to keep his commandments and if before anything else
we are praying to be saved and to be pleasing to god then then he will do it and we need to
believe that and sir saint bernardine brought people to this belief with this very simple
but wonderful devotion to the holy name of jesus so we beg saint bernardine for the grace that we
really really will have faith in our lord in every moment of our life especially when we're
challenged and ask the lord for all things in the name of jesus because he will answer us and the
answer will be yes
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