There's one short sentence I would like you to keep in mind, just for awhile, in the back of your head. And the sentence is, "Here's Monday again, Lord. Give me a hand....... Here's Monday again, Lord. Give me a hand."

Today we just read about John the Baptist. This is when Our Lord begins His public life, teaching. And John the Baptist is this great, great witness, really the first witness. He says, "There He is. That's the One.... That's the One we've been waiting for. I've been getting you ready, to point Him out. I testify that's the Son of God!" He was a witness, John. And the Greek word for "testify" is very strong. "Testify" is a little weak in English. But it means, "WOW! There He is at last! That One! You follow Him now."

So, this morning, with your help, I want to think about witnesses to Christ, witnesses to His words and His life and how He's trying to help us get through life..... Witnesses! And you're on the list. There are six that I picked, witnesses. And, in my opinion, often, in my life anyhow, the best witnesses to Our Lord have been wounded witnesses, wounded by sin or wounded by pain or just wounded by the vicissitudes of being on this planet. But they are wounded and, when they become witnesses they are the best, I think. And there are tragic, comic, historic, cinematic (That's movies.), scientific, and prosaic. (That's us, that last one, prosaic, day by day, ordinary witnesses.)

The first is tragic. When I was teaching in that school I keep talking about, when we got to the Commandments and we dealt with abortion, we had a team come in. We were right close to St. Francis Catholic Hospital. We would have a team come in, you know, every year, doctors and nurses. Some of them were the parents of the kids we had in school. And they would talk about and explain about the Church's teaching on abortion, the moral theology and the medicine, and how they could get help and where they could go for help.

One day, a young woman came to me and she said, (She was a woman who was out in the business world.) "I used to sit in those desks, Father, and now I'm working. I'm single. But I fell in love with the wrong guy, and I got pregnant, and I got an abortion. And I remember how you used to bring a team in, and they were great. They were fine. But I want to talk to the kids, if you don't mind." And I said, "You sure???" She said, "Yeah. I do because," she said, "when I was sitting there as a senior girl or a junior girl, just the word scared me." She said, "It's fear. I had a friend in college who went twice to an abortionist as casually as she went to her orthodontist." She said, "I think the kids in this school, if any of them are facing this thing, they're scared. I'd like to talk...." And what she said (I would listen, year after year.) in essence (And I am rushing this, because she didn't use this phrase. This phrase is a contemporary phrase.); but what she said so beautifully and powerfully was, "Been there. Done that.... Don't!" And she had really done some homework because she brought with her areas where the kids could get help, right along the Eastern seaboard, where all the colleges were that most of our kids went to, where a scared and terrified young woman could go for help and care. "Been there. Done that..... Don't!" She is still doing that, and she is a wife and mother of kids herself now. She is still doing that work. Wounded, wounded witness, but so powerful!

The next is comic, a kind of comic witness, a boy in high school. I mentioned him once to you a year ago. He lost his father when he was in high school, and he was furious at God..... understandably in a way, you know. "Sophomore in high school and my dad died...." Anyhow, when he went to college (This was early 60's.) there was at that time a Russian cosmonaut, if I have the right word, who went out to outer space, in early 60's, a Russian astronaut, cosmonaut. And he came back (This was in the New York Times and papers.) and he said, "I've traveled to outer space and I saw not a single sign of God." And this kid heard another kid in college say, "That damned commie didn't fly high enough!" Forgive the language. I am quoting.

And this fellow came back and he said, "I'm back. I'm back to the church, and I'm not as mad at God anymore." I said, "Because some clown said 'That damned commie didn't fly high enough'? That's very bad theology. We know God is outside the spatial/temporal dimension...." He said, "I know, Father. I know. But it made so much sense because what the guy was saying was, he was talking about a depth, a profundity of the mystery of God, that no cosmonaut is expected to see. It's as if when I was an altar boy, someone had bribed me to hold the host in my mouth after I had received Holy Communion and then brought it to a scientific laboratory and looked through the microscope and announced, 'I don't see any Jesus!' " And then he kind of reproached, very gently, me and the whole religion department. He said, "Why are you guys always trying to talk away the mysteries? Mysteries are the best things you guys got." Meaning Christ is in the Eucharist! It's not just a cracker. There is a God Who cares intimately about each one of us, that there is a Lord Who rose from the dead, Who hears every prayer. That's mystery.... mysticism. Don't throw it out. It's the best thing you guys have got. And then he added, as he went back to college, "People are starved for mystery. They're hungry for it. Don't start watering it down." He was a wounded witness because he had suffered the death of his dad, but now he's an eloquent one.

The third is historic, history witness. We've got so many in the Catholic Church and all we seem to hear are all the mistakes the Church has made. If I hear one more thing about Galileo, I'll go back to hard liquor! We can't whitewash the Church telling Galileo to keep his mouth shut. It was a dumb mistake to make. But there are so many wonderful things that the Church just historically has done.

One quick example of a wounded witness in history... In college, we were given an assignment: write a term paper on a pope, any pope. So I did a quick flip through the Catholic Encyclopedia, and then I saw a photo of Pope Pius VII. He was small of stature, feeble of physique, and timid of temperament. And I said, "That one!" Pius VII was pope during the reign of Napolean as the Emperor of Europe. And Napolean, as you may remember, wanted, as most dictators do, to take control of the Church, as well as everything else. And he was going to draw up the syllabus for religion teaching. And he was going to close down convents and orphanages so it could become state property, etc. etc. etc.... And this very timid, feeble little pope said, "No. You are Emperor of Europe. You're not the Emperor of the Church and the teachings of Jesus Christ." And Napolean kidnapped the Pope. Now, I checked this with Protestant historians. It's not just some little Catholic myth. He kidnapped the Pope. Those were the days! Those were the days! Full of drama and excitement. He kidnapped the Pope. The Pope was alone, no advisors. He couldn't even bring books.

The Pope was kept in a room under the watch of Napolean's guards. Napolean would send for Pope Pius VII regularly, and he would sit him in a chair. And every so often, Napolean, who had a ferocious temper, would rock the chair the Pope was sitting in with his foot, back and forth, back and forth,... And on one occasion he got so exasperated at the Pope's steadily saying, "No. You are not the Emperor of the Church. Christ is." that Napolean gave the chair one furious final flip and the Pope went backwards and splayed all over the floor. And it says that Napolean (I wish I could quote the French.) "roared with laughter."

Well, eventually, as you know, Napolean met his Waterloo, and he was exiled to Elba where he died in exile. Now, before Napolean died, he said to his lieutenant (He had his lieutenant with him in exile!) "Go to the mainland and get me a priest." And his lieutenant said, "Yes. We'll do that in a few days." And Napolean said, ""You'll do it NOW. I wish to see a priest. I wish to confess and receive the Eucharist. I have kept my Emperor waiting too long." That is exactly what he said.

Meanwhile, back in Rome, the Pope was carried in in triumph... Why don't they make a movie of this?... Carried in in triumph, this old feeble man. He found out that Napolean's family was bankrupt. Once they found out Napolean was no longer Emperor, the whole family was bankrupt, had to move out... The Pope said, "Everyone in Napolean's family shall be housed and fed at our expense. No one should have to suffer." Two wounded witnesses, Napolean because of his pride and ego and the Pope from constant humiliation, witnesses to forgiveness.

The next is cinematic, movies. Sometimes a movie or music or a painting can be a wonderful witness, as I think you know, to Our Lord. There is a novel written by Gustave Flaubert, perhaps considered the greatest French novel, as far as prose. Flaubert spent twenty years writing "Madame Bovary." In the morning, he would put in a semicolon and in the afternoon, he would take it out. You have perfect prose. Emma Bovary is a suburban wife and mother who is very bored, and she has a series of adulterous affairs. By the end of the novel, her latest lover has dumped her and she breaks into a chemist's shop and she swallows arsenic powder. It's a horrible way to die. And she is dying in the novel.

And they are going to make a movie out of it, the whole story of Emma Bovary. Five versions of that movie have been made. The one I am talking about is an early French version. Now the director of Madame Bovary said, (This is the final scene where she has tried to kill herself and she is dying and a priest comes in and anoints her, the final last sacraments of the Catholic Church... "Oh, we have an extra here in a priest's suit.") "No. I want a real priest," said the director. "Go to the local parish. Get the abbe to come in, a real priest, to show us how it is done." So the priest agreed to simulate the Last Sacrament, the way it used to be done, the full Last Sacrament of the dying. And they shot it in a single take. They didn't cut any of the footage. And all the priest did was, with the oils, all through the body, "May the sins these eyes have committed be washed all away. May the sins this mouth has committed be washed and cleansed and the hands that have sinned, may they be cleansed of all sin..." all the way down to the feet. "And these feet that have run to sin, may they be cleansed and forgiven and brought to the Lord." They did it in a single take and the priest went back to the rectory. And because I love movies so much I read about this. The director and seven members of the crew went back to the Church, simply seeing a movie of what the Church does for someone who is dying. Wounded by adultery and suicide and despair, but coming.... coming back.

And the last, almost the last, second to last, is scientific witness. The young mind is eager for proof. Well, we all are. And again, it is a senior guy. I'll call him "Igor." (The girls are "Tallulah." The boys are "Igor.") But they are real people! And Igor, in his senior year of Catholic School, twelve years of Catholic School, "Well, unless.... I want evidence.... " So I had read this book in 1955. Now this was in the 80's when this kid said, well it's all made-up stuff. I said, "Read this book." (In fact I had a whole bunch of kids...) It's called the "Miracle of Lourdes." It's written by a Protestant woman who went to Lourdes, I think in a way maybe to expose it, as a fraud. Well, she later became a Roman Catholic. But, before she did, she wrote this complete scientific study of the physical miracles of Lourdes, with everything about the Medical Bureau and the x-rays and thousands of incredible miracles. I said, "Read this." And he came back, and he had read it, and he said, simply, "WOW!" I think sometimes we are a little embarrassed about miracles because there are so many bogus ones, you know, weeping statues and things, that we are kind of shy. We shouldn't be ashamed that there are still miracles going on. This is a clinical objective study of miracles. The lady later became a Catholic, and I read about it in the "Saturday Review of Literature," which is not some Catholic journal about St. Brunhilda of the Green Thumb curing halitosis!... "Saturday Review of Literature!" Marvelous book. That kid and so many young minds and hearts can be wounded by cynicism and sneering and sophistication. We don't have to be ashamed that there are still, even physiologically, miracles on this earth.

And the last is yourselves, about being witnesses. I told you a couple of weeks ago I really truly believe you are witnesses just by sitting there on a Sunday morning, by walking in the door. You are witnesses to a kind of dogged faith. Now, this came out on New Year's Day. And this is the last example, about that word that I gave you at the beginning. "Here's Monday again, Lord. Give me a hand." This came out on New Year's Day, a report from the National Sleep Foundation Society. I'll try to summarize it fast.

The worst night for Americans to sleep is Sunday night, obviously, in anticipation of Monday. And there is a professor at Stanford, Dr. Kuhl, who has made a mammoth study of this, and he says, "Sunday night, there's restlessness and tension and insomnia, even if you don't mind your job so much. It's the whole... new... week... ahead." Well, I love teaching. I was so lucky to have a job I loved, but even so, Sunday night loomed large, with a kind of amorphous menace. People who have bills to pay and a job that is grueling, if only from routine, much less genuine fear, it's tough. So it's hard to sleep, according to this big report from the National Sleep Foundation. Little suggestion to witnesses who are wounded. (If you are past the age of four, you are wounded, just being on Planet Earth, I think...or broken heart, at one point, or people that are giving you grief and fear, or paying the bills for Christmas... whatever.) Now it hints in the article (It is a huge study.) that if you say a little prayer.... wounded by life, fatigue, exhaustion, and "Oh, God! I got to go to work!" The prayer that was suggested to me by a layman, "It's Monday again, Lord. Give me a hand. I'm wounded just by being on this planet, by putting my feet off the bed and planting them on the bedroom floor, already I'm a wounded witness." But sometimes the wounded witnesses are.... the best!