Abp. Aymond: God never turns a deaf ear to our suffering

At the beginning of the 11 a.m. Mass at St. Louis Cathedral, Archbishop Gregory Aymond told the congregation: “As we come together, we're very mindful of all of our own personal needs. But also we pray as an archdiocese, as a local church, as the people of God. We pray for all those who have been so terribly affected by Hurricane Ida. We pray for them. We pray for their families. As so many people now within our own archdiocese of New Orleans and especially in the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux that are rebuilding their lives and their homes. And so our hearts and our prayers go out to all of them.”

His homily followed:

Sometimes when people show an understanding of what we are going through – they have a sense of grasping what's in our mind and heart and in our own experience – there are moments when we say, “Welcome to my world! Welcome to my world!”

Today in the Gospel, Jesus enters into the world of the deaf man. We have an opportunity, in a sense, to more deeply appreciate those who are hearing-impaired as we have an interpreter for this 11 o'clock Mass on Sunday. And it gives us an opportunity to get into the world of those who have hearing problems. In the Gospel, we find that others bring this man to Jesus for healing. He not only has a hard time hearing, but he also has a speech impediment. 

And Jesus enters into that world with him with great compassion. We see this compassionate Jesus. Whether it's someone who is deaf or is hearing impaired or whether it's you and me and others who have been through Hurricane Ida, he has an ability to show compassion. 

And for Jesus, compassion is the ability to suffer with another person – not just to concentrate on our own sufferings – but the ability to suffer with, to get into their world, to enter into another person's pain. 

Jesus promises that he will never turn a deaf ear to us, and this is very appropriate\, as he gives this healing. We realize that he has heard everything that you and I have said since last Sunday's experience of Ida. Yes. He has not turned a deaf ear. He has heard every wish, every hope. He has heard our “why is this happening?” He has heard, “Wasn't Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago enough?” He's heard us say, “Not again, not again, why this suffering?” And he's heard some of us say, “Where were you?”

My sisters and brothers, as we face this challenge of Ida, let us remember that our God does not does not send storms and hurricanes. Sometimes it seems, the way people talk about this God, he has this heavenly weather station and sits at his weather station and he presses the button and says, “This one is named Ida and it's going for Louisiana” and presses the button and the storm takes place. 

That's not the God of love. It's not the God of compassion who has created us. It's not the God who walks with us on the journey of life. 

Our God allows the forces of nature to take their course. And as storms are formed off the coast of Africa and move into the Gulf of Mexico, we know how it creates danger. And we have seen the result of that danger during the past week. 

As this has happened, it's important for us, as we come together in prayer today, to recount what Ida has done, which has caused great suffering for many, many people, certainly in our own archdiocese and certainly in our neighbors in the Houma-Thibodaux Diocese.

There has been an incredible loss of property. There is no power, with unbearable heat, incredible and grave inconveniences that we have suffered. Walls have been crushed in homes and businesses. Trees have fallen all over the place and into homes. There has been danger for those who are ill. There is flooding. Roofs have been ripped apart and water has been pouring in from roofs, as well as from doorways and windows. 

Yes, the pictures we have seen somewhere – either on social media or television – we have seen them. And as we see them, we are very much aware, my sisters and brothers, that these are the crosses that many people are bearing right now, and these crosses of Ida cause an emotional response. 

And how have many people responded? Some have responded with helplessness, some with fear, some with frustration, some saying, “I don't want to have to relive the trauma of Katrina. I don't want to have to relive that again. I don't want to have those wounds reopened.” Some have responded with hopelessness, some with anger toward life and toward God and some with that age-old question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

But as we know, as Christians, as the people of God, God does not send suffering into our lives, but allows nature to develop (and we) walk the Way of the Cross with the Lord Jesus. 

So we ask the question, “Where was Jesus during the storm?”

He was walking in the stormwaters with those who were trying to escape. He was in the attic with those persons who were fearful for their own lives, not knowing if the storm waters or the winds would tear them apart. He was with those who were trembling in the 150 mile an hour winds. He was with those in the evacuation centers. 

The Lord Jesus didn't just didn't abandon us, even though some people don't fully grasp that this Lord Jesus is a God of compassion. This Lord Jesus desires to suffer with us, to enter into our world of suffering. And he does not want us to be deaf, but to hear above the 150 mile an hour winds. He wants us to hear above that, (to hear) his voice in the midst of this challenge; in the midst of the tragedy, he wants us to hear his voice.

And what is his voice saying? He is saying, “In this suffering, I call you to unite your sufferings to those of Jesus. In your suffering, I ask you to walk the Way of the Cross with Jesus himself.”

What is he saying? “Through this suffering, you will grow in faith. You will grow in faith in a unique way.” He is saying that we can learn dependence on him in a radical way during this time. It's no fun, it's inconvenient, it's painful, it's difficult. But we can learn dependence on God and we can learn that we are not in control of nature.

My sisters and brothers, our God wants to make sure that we are not deaf. He says to our open ears but more importantly to the ears of our hearts – he wants us to hear him say to us, “You are my beloved, but let me remind you that, in many ways, you are powerless at this time.” He wants us to hear him say, “I weep with you. I never leave you abandoned. Don't give up on me.”

 Our God says, “In your times of disbelief or unbelief, I will help you.” And our God, the Father, reminds us that as Jesus became truly who he was through suffering – and he did, he became the Messiah through suffering – that through our suffering, we can be united more closely to this Messiah. We can feel his sufferings as he walked to Calvary. And we also know that we can never, ever fully understand human suffering. It is simply impossible. That's why we say – and many people have said in the past – “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Because we cannot grasp suffering. 

We have a choice to make. We can give up on God and try to go it alone or we can hear Jesus say, “I come to calm the storms of your heart. I come to calm the storms of your heart.”

During the past week, I've been around many parts of the archdiocese – at food distribution centers, visiting hard-hit areas, at the convention center, as we saw hundreds of people evacuating. And we say and many people have said, “We are a resilient city. We will get through this.”

And I certainly agree with that. But I have something to add. We not only are a resilient city – and we will get through it. We are a people of faith, and faith is different than resilience. Resilience is an ability to jump back in. But we do more than that. We have faith. And I have been very impressed by the amount of faith that I have seen, and I have heard people say, and I quote, “I lost everything, but I have life. Therefore, I'm blessed.”  I've heard people say, “Dreams have been shattered, but I have God” – and they point upward. “Nightmares come and go, but I have God.”

 And I've heard people say, “Through this experience, as unpleasant as it truly is, I will be stronger in faith.”

My sisters and brothers, all of those who have been affected – to whatever level, to whatever extent – hearts are broken, people are disappointed, pain and loss is a reality, and such reality is not grasped by the human mind.

We don't understand human suffering, but let us not turn a deaf ear to Jesus. He promised not to turn a deaf ear to us when he heard our prayer and our concerns and our frustrations. Let us not turn a deaf ear to him when he says, “You are not alone. I am with you. Let me carry you to rebuild your life, to rebuild your home. You are not alone. Be not afraid. I will never, ever abandon you.”

May those words give us comfort, give us hope, give us perseverance. We're not only a resilient people. We are a people of faith.