Persistence in the Face of Evil.

Homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

July 27, 2025



In 1987 an 8.2 earthquake almost flattened Armenia, killing over thirty thousand people in less than four minutes. In the midst of utter devastation and chaos, a father left his wife securely at home and rushed to the school where his son was supposed to be, only to discover that the building was as flat as a pancake.

 

After the traumatic initial shock, he remembered the promise he had made to his son, “No matter what, I’ll always be there for you!” Tears began to fill his eyes. As he looked at the pile of debris that once was the school, it looked hopeless, but he kept remembering his commitment to his son….He started digging through the rubble.

 

As he was digging, other forlorn parents arrived, clutching their hearts, saying: “My son! My daughter!” Other well-meaning parents tried to pull him off of what was left of the school saying, “It’s too late….” To each parent he responded with one line, “Are you going to help me now?” [The fire chief and police personnel tried to stop him.] To which this loving, caring Armenian father asked, “Are you going to help me now?”

 

Courageously, he proceeded alone because he needed to know for himself. “Is my boy alive or is he dead?” He dug for eight hours…twelve hours…twenty-four hours…thirty-six hours, in the thirty-eighth hour, he pulled back a boulder and heard his son’s voice. He screamed his son’s name, “Armand!” He heard back, “Dad!?! It's me, Dad! I told the other kids not to worry. I told ‘em that if you were alive, you’d save me, and when you saved me, they’d be saved. You promised, ‘No matter what, I’ll always be there for you!’ You did it, Dad!”

 

And Jesus said, “And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you….What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?” Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

 

But…here’s the problem. The father in the story illustrates persistence very well. But there were 30,000 people killed in that earthquake. Wouldn’t that mean that a lot of other prayers were unanswered, that evil appeared to triumph over good? Don’t a lot of people lose faith, give up on God because prayers don’t seem to be answered, or God seems to be deaf, or maybe there is no God after all?

 

Our faith has an answer. It may not be the answer we immediately want or prefer, but it is an answer, nonetheless. The answer our faith gives is: Easter. Jesus, as the Son-of-God-made- human, takes suffering and death to himself and brings it to the cross. And then, on Easter, when he rises from the dead, all that suffering, all that evil, and ultimately death itself—all these are smashed to pieces, and eternity of life prevails. And so, we have a home waiting for us. We have a God waiting for us with open arms. God doesn’t take away suffering, but in Jesus, he transforms it. God doesn’t take away death, he takes away its power. God doesn’t always give us what we want, but he gives us something better, something to believe in, something to hope for—Someone to trust, to seek, to put our faith in.

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