Jan 31st

Post date: Feb 01, 2021 4:7:49 PM

January 31, 2021 Homily by Fr. Karl Schray

After 14 years in a Romanian prison, Fr. Richard Wurmbrand, an Anglican

priest was released. He told how he kept his sanity by sleeping during the

day and staying awake at night composing and reciting some 350 sermons.

He recalled how one night he was startled by a faint tapping on the wall

next to his bed. A new prisoner had arrived in the cell next door and

was signaling him. Wurmbrand tapped back. This provoked a flurry of

taps.

After a while, Wurmbrand realized that his neighbor was trying to

teach him a simple code: 1 tap is A, 2 taps are B, and so on.

From this crude beginning, his neighbor who was a radio operator

taught him the Morse Code.

Wurmbrand told the radio operator that he himself was a pastor.

He asked the radio operator if he was a Christian.

After a long silence, the operator tapped back, ‘I cannot say so.’

Regardless, every night the two men spoke through the wall.

One night, the radio operator tapped out this message:

‘I would like to confess my sins.’ Fr. Wurmbrand was deeply moved

by the request. The confession lasted long into the night.

When the radio operator was finished, Wurmbrand slowly tapped back

the words of absolution and forgiveness. Then the operator tapped:

‘I am happier at this moment than I have been in many years.’

You see the radio operator recognized the authority of Jesus in

Fr. Wurmbrand and the priest granted him the absolution of his sins

through the authority Jesus gave to His Church.

If we are a little skeptical about the Church, let us remember

that it is His Gathering. It is not a self-appointed organization,

but a community established by Himself. The Church is commissioned

to be an extension of Christ in its devotion to truth and in the exercise

of compassion in authority, not as oppression but as a service.

She is there as a teacher, of course, as well and to make us feel loved.

If we do not feel loved by the Church, there is something wrong,

either in perception of her or in the reality she presents to us.

Whatever her faults, and the sins of her leaders and parishioners,

the Church does her best to provide the pastoral care

that her members need even in these difficult times.

As Jesus did in today’s Gospel, the Church must follow up her teaching

with action as well.

All of us are Church, which means all of us are meant to be caring.