A few years ago, we had a service for the Anointing of the Sick, for the elderly. Many of the elderly were brought to the church, some by ambulance, some of them had been shut-ins, and sick. So one of the elderly couples asked if they could bring their granddaughter and I asked what was wrong with her. They said that their granddaughter had AIDS. She was six years old. After the ceremony, I found the little girl wasn't there. The grandparents said she was too sick to bring to church. So I asked if I could visit the home. They said she was living with the other grandparents and they would have to check because this little girl was born with AIDS and the family was very angry. 

As it turns out, we found out the mother had AIDS. It was unknown to the father and they were treating her for many things but not AIDS and eventually the mother died of AIDS. And then the husband found out the daughter had AIDS. 

So they gave me permission to visit the home and this little girl. Her name was Teresa. She was lying on the couch. Her stomach was extended, her body was extremely thin, she could hardly talk. So I knelt down beside her and I told her that Jesus was with her; and then I began to anoint her with the Anointing of the Sick. She couldn't talk but a little tear came down the side of her face. 

That night her grandparents had called me and they said, "I don't know what happened, but could you come back tomorrow? This was the first night Teresa didn't suffer." 

So I returned regularly, week after week. In fact, she was not yet of age before her first Holy Communion. They all thought she was going to die. So I started giving her Holy Communion, which was a great joy to me. In God's goodness, two years later, she received her First Holy Communion officially and she was growing stronger. That night, she crowned the Blessed Mother. It was May and she crowned the statue of Our Lady. A few days later, her parents or her grandparents had a birthday party for her and she sat on my lap. Her whole family was there: her grandparents, cousins, her uncles. It was a wonderful gift because she was getting better, getting stronger. 

She sat on my lap and she said, "I would like something special for my birthday." and I said, "What." she said, "For you to hear my family's confession." I said, "Teresa, I will have to work on it." She said, "I really worked on it." So I went down to the basement and her grandfather came down, and her father, and her grandparents, her grandmother, all her uncles, and cousins and the whole family went to Confession during the birthday party. And her grandmother said to me, "We don't know if Teresa will live, but Teresa brought us back to God. Therefore, everything will be OK." 

All of us have an opportunity to lead people to God; all of us have an opportunity to overcome evil with good and very often it's not in our strength that we do so. Very often, it is in our weakness. Jesus says he uses the weak of the world to confuse the strong. In each day, God gives us an opportunity to be victorious in Jesus, to overcome the darkness with the light of Christ. Let's pray today to St. Michael to make us courageous, unafraid, to stand up for what we believe, and if necessary to die for the Truth, for the Truth is Christ, Amen.