On January 16, 1917, French mystic Claire Ferchaud wrote a letter to the president of France, Raymond Poincaire. In it, she called on him to win the war by gaining Christ’s blessing on the country. This he was to do by rejecting Freemasonry, placing the image of the Sacred Heart on the French national and battle flags, and giving images of the Sacred Heart to soldiers to wear. She underlined these appeals by visiting him personally on March 21, at which time he said he could do nothing because of the country’s anti-clerical laws, and that it was a matter for Parliament. Five days later, at the Basilica in Paray-le-Monial, the flags of the allied nations were solemnly blessed by the British Archbishop of Westminster and the French Bishop of Autun. On May 15, allied soldiers gathered again at Paray, and were solemnly consecrated to the Sacred Heart by Cardinal Amette, the Archbishop of Paris. Official reaction was swift. In July, the government prohibited soldiers to be consecrated to the Sacred Heart or carry its image; nor could military flags carry the device. Despite the ministers in Paris, reality prevailed to some degree at the front. On June 7, 1918, in defiance of the law, Marshal Ferdinand Foch, having allowed the image of the Sacred Heart to be borne on flags and worn by soldiers, privately consecrated his army to the Sacred Heart at the parish church of Bombom. A few days later, he and his men defeated the Germans at the Second Battle of the Marne — which decisive victory he attributed to the Sacred Heart. In November, he accepted the German armistice. The war was over. In the world, fear rules and the cost is our grave. God Himself is asking us to fear him alone and look to Him for solutions. I am not criticizing those brave soldiers who went and paid the price for our freedom, many of our ancestors. My point is the fear of the world leads to terrible devastation.
It is not lost on me either that the day of the Armistices is also the feast of St Martin of Tours. St Martin of Tours was a great soldier, a centurion known for nobility and bravery. He was studying to be a Catholic and while out one day he saw a beggar shivering in the cold he took out his sword and cut his cloak in two and gave half to the beggar. That very night he had a dream that it was Christ that he had clothed. He went on to quit the army and when the emperor accused Martin of being a coward, Martin said, “I will go into battle tomorrow with no armour or weapons trusting only in Jesus.” Martin feared God and became the father of western monasticism.
In today’s readings, we have stories of weak widows with great faith. Great trust in God. Both of the widows were willing to put their own lives in God’s hands and say Thy will be done. It is very interesting, as one person in RCIA pointed out to me, that Jesus sits down watching the people put money in the treasury, quite an odd thing for Jesus to do. The Apostles saw many rich people put in large sums of money. They probably were thinking When we start a faith, people will put large sums of money in our treasuries. Yet, Jesus was looking for the one who came to deposit a large sum of faith. Like the man hanging from the cliff, Jesus is watching us. He is asking us what do you and I put our trust in? Do we have a new diet or herbal remedy? Do we have money or a credit card? What do we trust in as people? Not only what do we trust in but what do we fear? When we can let go of the fear of the world, we can start the gracious journey of fearing God and that means to trust in Him. Many people even pray out of fear and come to Church out of a worldly fear. As long as we have that fear we won’t be able to really experience God. We are not believing, we are simply hedging our bets. I will go to Church, say some prayers and I will also do all the world tells me to do to be successful. Like the Viking king who, before he died, paid for a human sacrifice and 100,000 Masses to be said. As long as our hearts are in the fear of the world, we will only make small progress. God is inviting us to trust Him to give ourselves to Him, to fear Him alone, because that is freedom.
Let us challenge our idea of freedom – what do you think makes you free in this world right now? Does any of it have to do with God? What you think will make you free? Today we celebrate a day of earthly freedom where people, many of our ancestors, paid a price for freedom. If they came back, they came back broken for the most part, not always physically but always mentally and spiritually. They witnessed things, fear like they never thought could be possible. Freedom isn’t free, it costs much. Think of all the effects war had on the next generation growing up with the scarred adults, the survivors of the Great War, only to be fighting in the next one themselves. Look at the men and women who came back, they were not able to process what had happened to them and we know it would have taken its toll on the families and societies because fear is an ugly thing. All of us are scared when we seek worldly freedom. God is inviting freedom in a real sense by our simple fear of Him. We can go on, it is true, and keep fearing the world but that will, like the wars our ancestors fought, harden us to true freedom. Fear of God is true freedom.