May Faith Transfigure Our Fear
Summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily from February 20, 2005
The Transfiguration
"All the communities of the earth
shall find blessing in you." Gen. 12:4
"But Jesus came and touched them, saying, 'Rise, and do not be afraid.'"
Matt. 17:6
WE HAVE BECOME a frightened people.
Last week the Virginia Assembly introduced a number of bills that would restrict
services to immigrants. Florida has welcomed those who fled Castro, while those
who escape Haiti's chaos and violence are turned back on the high seas. Aid
goes out to South East Asia but there was little help for the 800,000 Rwandans
and the hundreds of thousands of the Sudan.
When fear takes a grip on our culture and politics, faith comes to transfigure
and transform. Rise up; rise above our insecurity.
In my recent visit to the Diocesan Mission in the Dominican Republic on the
Haitian Border I was accompanied on my journey to Santo Domingo by Georgine
a your Haitian woman with a swollen arm. She had a cancerous tumor that would
require her to lose a limb to surgery. Anna, the parish volunteer nurse from
Arlington, had made arrangements with the neighboring Haitian parish across
the Artibonito River to tkae Georgine to La Posada, a Ronald McDonald replica.
There Sister Beatrice assists our frontier parishes to provide their seriously
ill people the health service and care they need. The bumpy journey of four
hours over potholes and ramps presented a dilemma. Should one drive slowly to
reduce the pain while prolonging a difficult ride, or go fast and get it over
with? Our driver, Claudio, took the latter course. Next morning Georgine received
the surgery that would save her life. It was not available in her region of
Haiti. A life and a family was transformed.
Our Diocesan Mission and St. Charles' parish-twinning program serve to transfigure
a culture of fear into a faith filled saving world of solidarity. Let us never
abandon our closest and poorest neighbors; let us leave no community without
the blessing of Jesus' hope and healing.
