Today's Gospel illustrates to us that the providential care for God towards
humanity does not take any rest, and so the works of God cannot rest on the Sabbath because
the works of God are works of true love, and so our Lord sustains us in all things.
And indeed, in today's Gospel, he tries to draw the Pharisees and the scribes who are present there
to this most profound understanding that we all depend upon the providence of God and his grace
in order to make any progress in human life, and so he would work an extraordinary miracle,
for often when we describe in the English translation a withered hand, we do not
understand the depths of what is transpiring. Often that term, when it relates to the miracles
of our Lord, indicates a soul who did not have a hand in the very place that ordinary men
have a hand, and so when he says,
stretch out your withered hand,
it often meant that a hand or an arm would appear where one was no longer present,
and so it was not merely a shriveled up limb, but often it was a limb not present that was
miraculously given to the soul by Almighty God, and so all should have concluded by such a work
that truly this was no mere man, but also the true Son of God who watches over the good and the bad
by his own hand.
And so, in the dispensation of mercy, our Lord wishes to teach us that he desires one thing, that all may be cured,
and so he cures both body and soul, and more importantly, the soul, and so we must be grateful to the Lord for his grace,
and so we must be grateful to the providential care of Almighty God, and most especially in those mysteries
that are so extraordinary, and we often don't appreciate, because our Lord has made them the ordinary means
of the salvation of all, that is, his care for each and every one of us through the sacramental life
of the Church, which begins in baptism when Christ himself claims us, no longer are we children of wrath,
but we become children.
We are children of God, and every other sacrament sustains all souls in the mystery and the life of Christ,
and so the sacrament of matrimony will primarily communicate to graces the parents to help each other first
in order that they may work out their salvation and to always keep their children on the right path,
that is, the path to heaven and not to the path of happiness on this earth, and so parents will instruct
their children on the extraordinary providential care of Almighty God.
Indeed, this care is often indicated in the most simple of things.
For St. Francis de Sales, when marveling at the providential care of God, sought to determine how extraordinary it was,
and so he would note that if we even eat a single potato during the course of the day,
that in the dispositions of Almighty God, that single potato was two to three years,
that in the dispositions of Almighty God, that single potato was two to three years,
in planning, for God had to inspire the farmer, he had to have him gain the seed, till the soil, rotate the crops,
all types of effort just to provide for us one potato, and we all know that no one can survive on merely one potato a day.
So the abundance of God's creation is to indicate to us the abundance of his love towards us
and his providential care in every aspect of human living.
Both that aspect that we can see and that aspect that we cannot see,
and most especially where we are tempted by the devil to be led astray.
And so, let us always have recourse to the providential care of Almighty God,
and let us always remember that it is all possible for us because on that faithful night for humanity,
the Blessed Virgin Mary would give that most extraordinary fiat in which the Son of God,
would become man, and Our Lady could do it because she truly, amongst all creatures,
always and everywhere, believed in the providential care of God, and so from the first moment of her immaculate conception,
she began to pray for the Savior of the world, and let us always take Our Lady's disposition,
for when she declares that she is the handmaid of the Lord, she is declaring that she absolutely knows in the very depths of her heart,
that she depends on her good God for all things.
And so, let us at all times, in good times and in bad, struggling with temptations,
and when we do not struggle with temptations, let us always remember and to be aware
that we cannot do even the simplest good thing without the providence of God and the grace that that provides us to do all things well.
And so, let us strive to our faults and failings,
and all that and all that draws us down let us always strive to remember God has
not abandoned us and most especially he has provided for us by sending his
eternal son that he may be sacrificed for our sins in order that we may truly
become children of God and then he provides for us the grace to persevere
through the sacramental life of the church and so we become aware that the
greatest thing we can do in this life is to worthily receive our Lord in the
holy sacrifice of the mass in which we bring to him all our faults and failings
and all our struggles and commend ourselves and the whole world to his
providential care with complete confidence that God will work miracles
in the lives of those who need them to love him and in the lives of those who
do not need miracles the Lord will send other graces
that they may help to cooperate, to bring about the conversion of the world, so that
the love of Christ may be known by every nation and every people, and all may come to work
out their salvation in fear and trembling in this life, in order to enjoy the eternal
vision of God in the life to come.
Amen.