20 February 1992
Guatemala

My dear Sisters and my dear Confreres,

I don't suppose a week passes but we read or hear about the results of some opinion poll that has been taken on some topical question. Presidents, prime ministers and politicians are being continually subjected to scrutiny by those professional organizations that sample public opinion on their political performance. We, too, have had surveys or polls on the moral attitudes of people at the present time. We tend to think of such surveys or opinion polls as a phenomenon of our time.

In today's Gospel, however, we have Our Lord presented as a person who was interested to know the results of an opinion poll which He thought some of His disciples might have carried out. "And Jesus asked His disciples, `Who do men say that I am?'" (Mk 8:27).

The disciples gave the results quickly, even if they did not give exact percentages. They replied, "Some John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others one of the prophets." (Ibid., v. 28). The fact that Our Lord probed further with the question, "But who do you say that I am?" (Ibid., v. 29), is proof that the opinion polls were completely wide of the mark. With a blinding flash of intuition--or should I say faith?--St. Peter stepped forward with his 'Credo'. "You are the Messiah." (Ibid.). How grateful we are to Peter for getting it so right and for expressing the truth so simply and so profoundly.

St. Peter's `Credo' was not, however, as Our Lord assures us, his own composition entirely, as St. Matthew records the incident. It was an enlightenment which he had received from our Father who is in heaven. It is one of the marvelous facts of our experience that each one of us here has been transfused by the same light from the same source, even if in different degrees of intensity.

When St. Peter was an elderly man, he compare that light to a flickering lamp in the darkness of this world. "You will do well," he wrote, "to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts." (2 Peter 1:9).

In our increasing secularized society it is more difficult to keep alight the flickering lamp of faith than it was some decades ago? The variety of different opinions on questions of morality and of faith that seem to have cropped up in the last two or three decades can have the effect, if not of shaking our belief, at least of increasing the darkness that seems to surround us. To whom shall we turn and what shall we do?

When you are groping along a dark passage by the light of a single candle, it is wise not to peer too much into the darkness, but rather to look at the light which will enable you to take the next step. What I think is important for each of us is to let the light of faith fall fully on the simple immediate steps we must take, the simple immediate actions we must do in our lives. I think that it is very significant that Our Lord said that it will be the pure of heart who shall see God. (cf. Mt 5:8). The more pure our hearts, the more clearly will we penetrate the truths of God and be less likely to be carried away by merely human opinion polls. When St. Vincent placed such importance on the virtue of simplicity, he did so in order to strengthen in us the light of faith. That faith will enable us to take little but sure steps towards Jesus Christ, the light of the world, and at the same time to take steps towards meeting Him in the persons of the poor.

When the celebrated Cardinal Newman of England was experiencing much difficulty on the road of his conversion to the faith, he wrote a hymn entitled, "Lead Kindly Light." One of the lines of that beautiful hymn reads: "The distant scene I do not ask to see. One step enough for me."

I have come almost to the end of this homily without making any illusion to the first reading from St. James'letter. St. James was not a speculative theologian, but rather a man who would have subscribed to a proverb in your language which reads: "Obras son amores y non buenas razones." (Love is action and not just good reasons.). Certainly his remarks about favoritism of the rich in today's world do not call for any elaborate exegesis. St. James' message is simple and clear as daylight.