2019년 7월 28일 연중 제17주일
오늘의 복음 : http://info.catholic.or.kr/missa/default.asp
1독서
창세기. 18,20-32
그 무렵 20 주님께서 말씀하셨다. “소돔과 고모라에 대한 원성이 너무나 크고, 그들의 죄악이 너무나 무겁구나. 21 이제 내가 내려가서, 저들 모두가 저지른 짓이 나에게 들려온 그 원성과 같은 것인지 아닌지를 알아보아야겠다.” 22 그 사람들은 거기에서 몸을 돌려 소돔으로 갔다. 그러나 아브라함은 주님 앞에 그대로 서 있었다. 23 아브라함이 다가서서 말씀드렸다.
“진정 의인을 죄인과 함께 쓸어버리시렵니까? 24 혹시 그 성읍 안에 의인이 쉰 명 있다면, 그래도 쓸어버리시렵니까? 그 안에 있는 의인 쉰 명 때문에라도 그곳을 용서하지 않으시렵니까?
25 의인을 죄인과 함께 죽이시어 의인이나 죄인이나 똑같이 되게 하시는 것, 그런 일은 당신께 어울리지 않습니다. 그런 일은 당신께 어울리지 않습니다. 온 세상의 심판자께서는 공정을 실천하셔야 하지 않겠습니까?”
26 그러자 주님께서 대답하셨다. “소돔 성읍 안에서 내가 의인 쉰 명을 찾을 수만 있다면, 그들을 보아서 그곳 전체를 용서해 주겠다.”
27 아브라함이 다시 말씀드렸다. “저는 비록 먼지와 재에 지나지 않는 몸이지만, 주님께 감히 아룁니다. 28 혹시 의인 쉰 명에서 다섯이 모자란다면, 그 다섯 명 때문에 온 성읍을 파멸시키시렵니까?”
그러자 그분께서 대답하셨다. “내가 그곳에서 마흔다섯 명을 찾을 수만 있다면 파멸시키지 않겠다.”
29 아브라함이 또다시 그분께 아뢰었다. “혹시 그곳에서 마흔 명을 찾을 수 있다면 …… ?” 그러자 그분께서 대답하셨다. “그 마흔 명을 보아서 내가 그 일을 실행하지 않겠다.”
30 그가 말씀드렸다. “제가 아뢴다고 주님께서는 노여워하지 마십시오. 혹시 그곳에서 서른 명을 찾을 수 있다면 …… ?”
그러자 그분께서 대답하셨다. “내가 그곳에서 서른 명을 찾을 수만 있다면 그 일을 실행하지 않겠다.”
31 그가 말씀드렸다. “제가 주님께 감히 아룁니다. 혹시 그곳에서 스무 명을 찾을 수 있다면 …… ?”
그러자 그분께서 대답하셨다. “그 스무 명을 보아서 내가 파멸시키지 않겠다.”
32 그가 말씀드렸다. “제가 다시 한 번 아뢴다고 주님께서는 노여워하지 마십시오. 혹시 그곳에서 열 명을 찾을 수 있다면 …… ?”
그러자 그분께서 대답하셨다. “그 열 명을 보아서라도 내가 파멸시키지 않겠다.”
제2독서
콜로새서. 2,12-14
형제 여러분, 12 여러분은 세례 때에 그리스도와 함께 묻혔고, 그리스도를 죽은 이들 가운데에서 일으키신 하느님의 능력에 대한 믿음으로 그리스도 안에서 그분과 함께 되살아났습니다.
13 여러분은 잘못을 저지르고 육의 할례를 받지 않아 죽었지만, 하느님께서는 여러분을 그분과 함께 다시 살리셨습니다. 그분께서는 우리의 모든 잘못을 용서해 주셨습니다. 14 우리에게 불리한 조항들을 담은 우리의 빚 문서를 지워 버리시고, 그것을 십자가에 못 박아 우리 가운데에서 없애 버리셨습니다.
복음
루카 11,1-13
1 예수님께서 어떤 곳에서 기도하고 계셨다. 그분께서 기도를 마치시자, 제자들 가운데 어떤 사람이, “주님, 요한이 자기 제자들에게 가르쳐 준 것처럼, 저희에게도 기도하는 것을 가르쳐 주십시오.” 하고 말하였다.
2 예수님께서 그들에게 이르셨다. “너희는 기도할 때 이렇게 하여라.
‘아 버지, 아버지의 이름을 거룩히 드러내시며, 아버지의 나라가 오게 하소서. 3 날마다 저희에게 일용할 양식을 주시고, 4 저희에게 잘못한 모든 이를 저희도 용서하오니, 저희의 죄를 용서하시고, 저희를 유혹에 빠지지 않게 하소서.’”
5 예수님께서 다시 그들에게 이르셨다. “너희 가운데 누가 벗이 있는데, 한밤중에 그 벗을 찾아가 이렇게 말하였다고 하자. ‘여보게, 빵 세 개만 꾸어 주게. 6 내 벗이 길을 가다가 나에게 들렀는데, 내놓을 것이 없네.’ 7 그러면 그 사람이 안에서, ‘나를 괴롭히지 말게. 벌써 문을 닫아걸고 아이들과 함께 잠자리에 들었네. 그러니 지금 일어나서 건네줄 수가 없네.’ 하고 대답할 것이다.
8 내가 너희에게 말한다. 그 사람이 벗이라는 이유 때문에 일어나서 빵을 주지는 않는다 하더라도, 그가 줄곧 졸라 대면 마침내 일어나서 그에게 필요한 만큼 다 줄 것이다.
9 내가 너희에게 말한다. 청하여라, 너희에게 주실 것이다. 찾아라, 너희가 얻을 것이다. 문을 두드려라, 너희에게 열릴 것이다. 10 누구든지 청하는 이는 받고, 찾는 이는 얻고, 문을 두드리는 이에게는 열릴 것이다.
11 너희 가운데 어느 아버지가, 아들이 생선을 청하는데, 생선 대신에 뱀을 주겠느냐? 12 달걀을 청하는데 전갈을 주겠느냐?
13 너희가 악해도 자녀들에게는 좋은 것을 줄 줄 알거든, 하늘에 계신 아버지께서야 당신께 청하는 이들에게 성령을 얼마나 더 잘 주시겠느냐?”
July 28, 2019
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Daily Mass : http://www.catholictv.com/shows/daily-mass
Reading 1
In those days, the LORD said: "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great,
and their sin so grave,
that I must go down and see whether or not their actions
fully correspond to the cry against them that comes to me.
I mean to find out."
While Abraham's visitors walked on farther toward Sodom,
the LORD remained standing before Abraham.
Then Abraham drew nearer and said:
"Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty?
Suppose there were fifty innocent people in the city;
would you wipe out the place, rather than spare it
for the sake of the fifty innocent people within it?
Far be it from you to do such a thing,
to make the innocent die with the guilty
so that the innocent and the guilty would be treated alike!
Should not the judge of all the world act with justice?"
The LORD replied,
"If I find fifty innocent people in the city of Sodom,
I will spare the whole place for their sake."
Abraham spoke up again:
"See how I am presuming to speak to my Lord,
though I am but dust and ashes!
What if there are five less than fifty innocent people?
Will you destroy the whole city because of those five?"
He answered, "I will not destroy it, if I find forty-five there."
But Abraham persisted, saying "What if only forty are found there?"
He replied, "I will forbear doing it for the sake of the forty."
Then Abraham said, "Let not my Lord grow impatient if I go on.
What if only thirty are found there?"
He replied, "I will forbear doing it if I can find but thirty there."
Still Abraham went on,
"Since I have thus dared to speak to my Lord,
what if there are no more than twenty?"
The LORD answered, "I will not destroy it, for the sake of the twenty."
But he still persisted:
"Please, let not my Lord grow angry if I speak up this last time.
What if there are at least ten there?"
He replied, "For the sake of those ten, I will not destroy it."
R. (3a) Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.
I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart,
for you have heard the words of my mouth;
in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;
I will worship at your holy temple
and give thanks to your name.
R. Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.
Because of your kindness and your truth;
for you have made great above all things
your name and your promise.
When I called you answered me;
you built up strength within me.
R. Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.
The LORD is exalted, yet the lowly he sees,
and the proud he knows from afar.
Though I walk amid distress, you preserve me;
against the anger of my enemies you raise your hand.
R. Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.
Your right hand saves me.
The LORD will complete what he has done for me;
your kindness, O LORD, endures forever;
forsake not the work of your hands.
R. Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.
Brothers and sisters:
You were buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him
through faith in the power of God,
who raised him from the dead.
And even when you were dead
in transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
he brought you to life along with him,
having forgiven us all our transgressions;
obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims,
which was opposed to us,
he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross.
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
"Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."
He said to them, "When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test."
And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend
to whom he goes at midnight and says,
'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey
and I have nothing to offer him,'
and he says in reply from within,
'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked
and my children and I are already in bed.
I cannot get up to give you anything.'
I tell you,
if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves
because of their friendship,
he will get up to give him whatever he needs
because of his persistence.
"And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
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?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"
http://evangeli.net/gospel/tomorrow
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
“ Ask and you will receive …Knock and the door will be opened to you.” Luke
As I write this, I’m finishing “Grace Will Lead Us Home,” an outstanding book by Jennifer Hawes about the white supremacist who killed nine blacks attending Bible study in a Charleston church. Knock. Knock. Knock. Where were you that awful night, God?
The news is full of horrific pictures of the migrants including children that our government has locked into packed cages. Knock. Knock. Knock. Where are you God?
On a more personal note, my cousin’s husband is undergoing chemo instead of taking their dream trip to Japan. Knock. Knock. Knock. Can you hear us pounding, God?
In a world like this, it’s hard to believe what Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel. “Ask and you will receive …Knock and the door will be opened to you.” If only it were so simple! But other than despair, what choice do we have but to hope and believe?
Many of us routinely ask God to help solve our problems, especially in the way we want them solved. If this doesn’t happen, is God is turning a deaf ear to our pleas? People can be forgiven for thinking so.
I have lived through a couple of life-altering episodes that give me faith that God is responding but not always in the manner I urged. Doors have closed and new doors have opened.
A year ago, I told a close friend experiencing a health crisis to remember the old cliché that “God writes straight with crooked lines. ”IF she recovered, she would be healthier than before. So far so good but there are no guarantees.
I also believe that if we DON’T ask, we are less likely to receive and that if we fail to knock, doors of any sort are less likely to open. Our own attitude can make some difference. A wise Jesuit once asked, “Am I drowning in bad news because I am failing to be good news?”
Even when things are awful, we can usually find SOME way to be good news to other people. Hint: if you are disturbed by those pictures from the border, send a donation to the Sisters of Mercy for their work in El Paso.
Blessings to all who are knocking on God’s door. May he write straight on your crooked lines.
http://www.presentationministries.com/obob/obob.asp
I DARE YOU | ||
| "Lord, teach us to pray." �Luke 11:1 | ||
One of the most daring things we can do in life is to ask Jesus to teach us to pray. St. Augustine called prayer "the exercise of our desires." St. Thomas Aquinas says in reference to the Lord's Prayer, "In it we ask, not only for all the things we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence that they should be desired" (Catechism, 2763). Authentic prayer is about exercising, screening, and correcting our desires. Prayer concerns crucifying our "flesh with its passions and desires" (Gal 5:24). Prayer is laboring (see Gal 4:19) and struggling not to get what we want from God but to give up what we want so as to obtain the desires of His heart. This means that the Lord frequently tells us "no" in prayer because our desires are out of order. This is so frustrating that we feel like quitting. However, we must persist (see Lk 11:8), not to win God over to our desires but to let ourselves be broken of our selfishness and rebellion. The Holy Spirit "helps us in our weakness" in prayer (Rm 8:26). In the Spirit (see Lk 11:13), we persist in prayer until we let God knock down the sand-castles of our desires. As we used to say before praying the "Our Father," I dare you to ask Jesus to teach you to pray. | ||
| Prayer: Father, impelled by love in the Spirit, I have decided to enroll in Jesus' school of prayer. | ||
| Promise: "Even when you were dead in sin and your flesh was uncircumcised, God gave you new life in company with Christ." —Col 2:13 | ||
| Praise: "Praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted; His majesty is above earth and heaven" (Ps 148:13). |
http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/
"Give us each day our daily bread"
Do you pray with joy and confidence? The Jews were noted for their devotion to prayer. Formal prayer was prescribed for three set times a day. And the rabbis had a prayer for every occasion. It was also a custom for rabbis to teach their disciples a simple prayer they might use on a regular basis. Jesus' disciples ask him for such a prayer. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray he gave them the disciple's prayer, what we call the Our Father or Lord's Prayer.
God treats us as his own sons and daughters
What does Jesus' prayer tell us about God and about ourselves? First, it tells us that God is both Father in being the Creator and Author of all that he has made, the first origin of everything and transcendent authority, and he is eternally Father by his relationship to his only begotten Son who, reciprocally is Son only in relation to his Father (Matthew 11:27). All fatherhood and motherhood is derived from him (Ephesians 3:14-15). In the Lord Jesus Christ we are spiritually reborn and made new, and we become the adopted children of God (John 1:12-13; 3:3).
We can approach God confidently as a Father who loves us
Jesus teaches us to address God as "our Father" and to confidently ask him for the things we need to live as his sons and daughters. We can approach God our Father with confidence and boldness because Jesus Christ has opened the way to heaven for us through his atoning death and resurrection. When we ask God for help, he fortunately does not give us what we deserve. Instead, he responds with grace (his favor and blessing) and mercy (pardon and healing). He is kind and forgiving towards us and he expects us to treat our neighbor the same.
We can pray with expectant faith and trust in the Father's goodness
We can pray with expectant faith because our heavenly Father truly loves each one of us and and he treats us as his beloved sons and daughters. He delights to give us what is good. His love and grace transforms us and makes us like himself. Through his grace and power we can love and serve one another as Jesus taught - with mercy, pardon, and loving-kindness.
Do you treat others as they deserve, or do you treat them as the Lord Jesus would with grace and mercy? Jesus' prayer includes a petition that we must ask God to forgive us in proportion as we forgive those who have wronged us (Matthew 6:14-15). God's grace frees us from every form of anger, resentment, envy, and hatred. Are you ready to forgive others as the Lord Jesus forgives you?
Parable of the late night guest
What can we expect from God, especially when we recognize that he doesn't owe us anything and that we don't deserve his grace and favor? Jesus used an illustration from the hospitality customs of his time to show how God is always ready to treat us with the best he has to offer. The rule of hospitality in biblical times required that every guest, whether stranger or friend, be warmly welcomed, refreshed (which often involved the washing of feet), and fed with the best food and drink available. It didn't matter what time of the day or night the guests might show up, it was your duty to stop what you were doing so you could give the guests the best care and shelter you could provide. If there wasn't adequate sleeping accommodation for both your guests and your family, the family slept outside under the stars. When guests showed up in a village, the whole community could be prevailed upon to provide whatever was needed.
Jesus' parable of the importunate and bothersome neighbor shows a worst case scenario of what might happen when an unexpected guest shows up in the middle of the night! The family awakens, unbolts the locked door to receive the guest, then washes the guest's feet, and the wife begins to prepare a meal. When the wife discovers that she has no bread to set before the guest, she prevails on her husband to go and get bread from a nearby family, who by now is also asleep with their door bolted shut. In a small village it would be easy for the wife to know who had baked bread that day. Bread was essential for a meal because it served as a utensil for dipping and eating from the common dishes. Asking for bread from one's neighbor was both a common occurrence and an expected favor. To refuse to give bread would bring shame because it was a sign of inhospitality.
God's generosity towards us
If a neighbor can be imposed upon and coerced into giving bread in the middle of the night, will not God, our heavenly Father and provider, also treat us with kind and generous care no matter how troubling or inconvenient the circumstances might appear? Jesus states emphatically, How much more will the heavenly Father give! St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) reminds us that "God, who does not sleep and who awakens us from sleep that we may ask, gives much more graciously." The Lord Jesus assures us that we can bring our needs to our heavenly Father who is always ready to give not only what we need, but more than we can ask. God gives the best he has. He freely pours out the blessing of his Holy Spirit upon us so that we may be filled with the abundance of his provision. Do you approach your heavenly Father with confidence in his mercy and kindness towards you?
"Father in heaven, you have given me a mind to know you, a will to serve you, and a heart to love you. Give me today the grace and strength to embrace your holy will and fill my heart with your love that all my intentions and actions may be pleasing to you. Help me to be kind and forgiving towards my neighbor as you have been towards me".
Psalm 138:1-8
1 I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart; before the angels I sing your praise;
2 I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness; for you have exalted above everything your name and your word.
3 on the day I called, you answered me, my strength of soul you increased.
4 All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O LORD, for they have heard the words of your mouth;
5 and they shall sing of the ways of the LORD, for great is the glory of the LORD.
6 For though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly; but the haughty he knows from afar.
7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me.
8 The LORD will fulfil his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures for ever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.
Daily Quote from the early church fathers: The privilege and responsibility of calling God Father, by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD)
"For the Savior said, 'When you pray, say, 'Our Father.' And another of the holy Evangelists adds, 'who art in heaven' (Matthew 6:9)... He gives his own glory to us. He raises slaves to the dignity of freedom. He crowns the human condition with such honor as surpasses the power of nature. He brings to pass what was spoken of old by the voice of the psalmist: 'I said, you are gods, and all of you children of the Most High' (Psalm 82:6). He rescues us from the measure of slavery, giving us by his grace what we did not possess by nature, and permits us to call God 'Father,' as being admitted to the rank of sons. We received this, together with all our other privileges, from him. one of these privileges is the dignity of freedom, a gift peculiarly befitting those who have been called to be sons. He commands us, therefore, to take boldness and say in our prayers, 'Our Father.'" (excerpt from COMMENTARY on LUKE, HOMILY 71)
http://www.homilies.net/
17 Ordinary Time
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle C
Luke 11, 1-13
A prayer-master advised his listeners to adopt the APU program when they pray. When predictably they asked what the acronym meant, he said with a smile, "Be aggressive. Be persistent. Be unreasonable."
His disciples balked at such an approach to the Almighty. But the guru directed their attention to Genesis 18. There Abraham is in conversation (or is it prayer?) with God. Abraham the text shows is aggressive, persistent, and unreasonable.
on the evidence, God should have destroyed the immoral and infamous cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. They deserved whatever they got and then some. But Abraham proves to be an able negotiator. By clever maneuvering over some time, He causes God to back down on His original plan. Perhaps even at surprise to Himself, Yahweh allows Abraham to win the day. The cities are spared. Chalk a big victory up for Father Abraham. More importantly, do take a page out of his how-to-pray manual. If Abraham could get the gold ring in his prayer, why cannot you and I? Abraham has convincingly shown us that God is a soft touch. And His own Son happily confirms that point in today's Gospel.
Also we have a big edge over Abraham. Jesus instructs us today to address God as "Father." That translates as you know into "Daddy" or "Pop." If we think the APU plan is off the wall, Abraham would think calling Jehovah "Daddy" or, worse, "Pop" completely ludicrous. As proof, note that in Genesis 18 Father Abraham addressed God most solemnly as "Lord" four times in the framework of a few seconds. Imagine what Abraham might have accomplished with his APU approach if he felt able to call his exalted Lord "Daddy!" Unfortunately for him, as he would be the first to tell us, he was born centuries too soon.
So, in our prayer we must employ not merely a strong second effort but rather Abraham's third and even fourth effort. Abraham was a moose and obviously he was not designed to take "no" for an answer. Had God asked him what part of "no" he had difficulty in understanding, he would answer immediately "the whole word, Lord." If he could respond that way to God, then why not we? So, don't be afraid to nag.
After all, as someone has noted, God does have millions of people calling Him. There are times He must put you on hold. But, when He does come back to you and says, "Thank you for holding," you are in the driver's seat. At that point, Father Abraham would quickly advise you, "Go for the gold."
I was traveling through the majestic state of Arizona. I made a visit to an attractive chapel in a small town. I found the following in a pew. It ties in nicely with today's Gospel.
"I cannot say 'our' if I live only for myself. I cannot say 'Father' if I do not approach God like a child. I cannot say 'who art in heaven' if I am not laying up some treasure there right now. I cannot say 'Hallowed be thy name' if I am careless with that name. I cannot say 'Thy kingdom come' if I am not working to actualize it in the here and now. I cannot say 'Thy will be done' if I am resentful of that will for me at this moment. I cannot say 'on earth as it is in heaven' if I don't look on heaven as my future home. I cannot say 'Give us our daily bread' if I am overanxious about tomorrow. I cannot say 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us' if I am waiting to settle a score with someone. I cannot say 'Lead us not into temptation' if I deliberately put myself in a place to be tempted. (A sage teaches it is a smart person who flees temptation and does not leave a forwarding address.) I cannot say 'Deliver us from evil' if I am not prepared to pray as though everything depends on God and work as though as everything depends on me." Dag Hammerskjold wrote, "Hallowed be thy name, not mine. Thy Kingdom come, not mine. Thy will be done, not mine."
A final word! From today's Gospel, God does appear to enjoy brevity. The prayer He teaches us today has but 44 words. His Ten Commandments has a modest 297 words. The famous Twenty-third Psalm a mere 118 words. Should we not follow suit? Perhaps God is telling us He is not appreciative of long winded prayers. Furthermore, He is not hard of hearing.
Frjoeshomilies.net
17 Ordinary Time
Seventeenth Sunday: "Teach Us How to Pray"
"Teach us how to pray," the disciples asked Jesus. This is the longing of our souls. We want to pray. We want to be with God. In his book Beginning to Pray Anthony Bloom tells the story of an elderly woman who wanted to pray but had no sense of God's presence. She spoke with her pastor about her frustration. The pastor told her to just go to her room, put off any noise or distractions, and knit for fifteen minutes. He told her not to try to say any particular prayers, just knit and enjoy the quiet of her room. She did that and began to embrace the silence of her room. She realized that this silence wasn't just the absence of something, the absence of noise, it was the presence of something. Eventually she realized that at the heart of silence there is God, who is stillness and peace.
Prayer is not just a formula of words and rituals. Prayer is the awareness of God as the source of all that is good and the ultimate fulfillment of life's journey. Prayer is not the scope and breadth of the words we utter, but the sense of gratitude that compels us to give voice to those prayers.
Prayer is what we are about, not just here in Church but as people committed to the Kingdom of God. We need to nurture our dialogue with the one who became one of us, Jesus Christ. We always need to strengthen our prayer Life. We call out to the Lord throughout our day saying, "Lord, help me here, in this task you have given me. Lord watch over my loved one, my spouse, my son, my daughter, my parents. Help me to fulfill my vocation well. Many times we say particular prayers such as grace before meals, or the three meditations I foster, God loves me unconditionally, God forgives me and God is with me, or devotional prayers like the Rosary, Chaplet of Divine Mercy or night prayer. Our days are meant to be united to God in prayer. Prayer expresses who we are, the People of God. We come to Mass to pray the Lord's Supper as a community and to reverence the Lord within us in communion.
We need each other for our prayer life to grow. We need each other so we can celebrate God's presence. We need to call upon Him to become present on the altar through the actions of our priests and bishops. Mass is not just important for us. It is fundamental to our prayer life. Perhaps you have come upon people who say that they don't attend Church, but they pray on their own. They are depriving themselves of the greatest prayer, the prayer of Jesus Christ at the Last Supper, on the Cross and at Easter. By refusing to join the community they are depriving themselves of the Eucharist.
We always need to reflect on the mystery of the Eucharist. We go to communion so often that it is easy for us to forget what we are doing and whom we are receiving. When we receive communion, we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. We are united to Him as He offers Himself up to the Father for us. When we receive communion, Jesus is closer to us than our skin. When we receive communion, we worship Him within us with our whole being. When we receive communion we enter into the silence of the presence of God within us.
Here at St. Ignatius we have been blessed with the great charism of loving Eucharistic Adoration. We have Eucharistic adoration here every Thursday after the 9:00 am Mass and all day on First Fridays, as well as 40 hours during Lent. Our young people love Eucharistic Adoration. It is always the highlight of their retreats, conferences and camps. All of us love reverencing the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
Eucharistic adoration must be seen in the context of the Mass and reception of communion. Every time we receive communion we take Jesus within ourselves. He is there at the Last Supper, looking at each person here and saying "Take and eat. Take and drink." When we receive communion Jesus is present on the cross saying, "My body is given up for you. My blood is yours. Even if you were the only person to ever live, I would still accept the cross for you. I want you to have my body and blood." When we receive communion, Jesus is present within us at the Resurrection. This is the food of the new life of the Kingdom, the food of eternity, the Bread of Angels.
Jesus once told the story about a jewel merchant who came upon a valuable pearl. When he found it, he sold everything he had so he could possess it. We have
the Pearl of Great Price offered for us and to us every day. Jesus comes to us whenever we receive communion. Nothing should stand in the way of our reception of the Eucharist. We need to keep our priorities straight.
"And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." We seek happiness. We seek peace. We seek union with God. The door to our spiritual fulfillment is opened for us when we receive communion.
"Teach us to pray, Lord," the apostles asked. We ask this too. He taught us the Lord's Prayer, and He gave us the Eucharist. He calls us into the silence of His Presence.
Stmaryvalleybloom.org
* Available in Spanish - see Spanish Homilies
17 Ordinary Time
Why Should We Stay?
(July 28, 2019)
Bottom line: God allows temptations and trials to combat pride, to bring us to humility. The devil on the other hand wants to lead to despair - to throw away the greatest treasure God gives.
This summer we received a nice gift: a small book titled Letter to a Suffering Church. In it Bishop Robert Barron addresses the clergy abuse scandal from a spiritual viewpoint. He begins by describing the scandal as a "diabolical masterpiece". When you consider the level of devastation it's hard not to see that the devil orchestrated these hideous sins.
What's the devil's game? Peter Blatty addresses that question in The Exorcist. You might know Blatty is a faithful Catholic. He did a lot of research before writing the Exorcist. He based his book on an actual case of of demonic possession. In his book someone asks the exorcist, "Why this girl? It makes no sense." Fr. Merrin replies, "I think the point is to make us despair - to see ourselves as animal and ugly - to reject our humanity - to reject the possibility God could ever love us".
Something similar applies to the clergy abuse scandal. The whole thing is so foul it has made people despair and reject the Church.
When tempted to despair a person needs to turn to God's Word, the Bible. Bishop Barron does that by devoting a chapter to "Light from Scripture".
Besides Scripture we need something else: a sense of history. When I was in the seminary many men were leaving the priesthood. Our seminary rector said something that has stuck with me. "The priests who leave," he said, "lack a sense of history. At first this seemed puzzling, but it makes more and more sense to me. Bishop Barron has a chapter on Church history titled "We have been here before".
He then ask the crucial question: Why should we stay? Well, as Bishop Barron argues, to leave the Church means to discard a treasure. It's like throwing away diamonds because the bag holding them has become smelly. No, wash the bag. It's the only one God has given us hold that incalculable treasure: his teaching, his sacraments, the very Communion of Saints.
In the final chapter Bishop Barron outlines the way forward. We don't need to discard God's gift even though he uses weak, sinful humans to transmit that treasure.
The way forward above all involves prayer. Today Jesus teaches us to practice bold, unrelenting prayer - persistence, even to the point of shamelessness. Filial trust - we dare to call God our Father. If we ask for a fish or egg, he will not give us something harmful. Everything that happens until fits his plan and purpose.
Parents - despite their faults - give good gifts to their children. How much more will the Father give better gifts? Even the Holy Spirit.
To move forward we need the Holy Spirit. Without the Spirit we cannot find the way. We cannot even pray; the Holy Spirit prays in us.
In confession the absolution prayer says that the Father sends the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins. The only condition, Jesus says, is that we forgive those in debt to us.
Sometimes people will say, "I am a forgiving person but what he did is unforgivable." No. For sure we may have to separate from some person, especially to protect children - as we do by removing from ministry a priest who has abused a child or youth. Even so, we cannot ignore Jesus crystal clear words connecting God's forgiveness with our forgiving those who trespass against us.
And we say, lead us not into temptation - preserve us from an unendurable trial. At Priest Days Archbishop Sartain spoke about how sometimes the ridicule seems relentless.* The he said, "People ridicule us. So what? They did that to Jesus."
The final petition says, "deliver us from evil". Yes, we have seen the power of the evil one. He has brought us low. All the more reason to turn to the Father. Next week we will see powerful reasons to turn to God.
For today remember this. God allows temptations and trials to combat pride, to bring us to humility. The devil on the other hand wants to lead to despair - to throw away the greatest treasure God gives. For that reason we pray, "deliver us from evil." Amen.
Alexmcallister.co.uk
17 Ordinary Time
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
We have a text from the Gospel of Luke today in which Jesus talks about prayer. First of all, he tells his disciples to address God as Father and gives them the prayer we know today as the Lord's Prayer. The version of this prayer we are given in Luke is slightly shorter than the one given in Matthew where he includes the additional line 'Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Almost universally throughout the Church, whether it be Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant, the slightly fuller version given by Matthew is used in the liturgy and in personal prayer. In some Protestant and Byzantine Churches, however, a doxology is added: 'For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.' We tend not to add this to the Our Father in the Catholic Tradition because it is not included in the actual text of the Gospel, although since 1970 it has been included as a separate item in the liturgy directly after the Our Father.
The Our Father is, of course, the archetypal prayer of Christians; it was given to us directly by Jesus and it forms the basis on which all other Christian prayer is modelled.
A little bit of controversy has been introduced lately concerning the words 'Lead us not into temptation.' Some people suggest that it is not possible that God could actually lead us into temptation and so have sought to amend the text. The English-speaking world has resisted this innovation but a slight change in wording has recently been introduced to the Italian translation of the mass.
The Italians now say, 'do not abandon us to temptation.' According to me there is little difference between these two texts and I believe the controversy is just a storm in a teacup. Actually, though, I think that innovations like this should generally be resisted because the text has been handed down to us in its present form for many centuries and I don't think we should change texts that we learnt off by heart in childhood with the intention that they remain with us for the rest of their lives.
For example take the Confiteor in the Latin Mass, which for centuries was the unchanging liturgy of the Church, there it is rendered 'I confess to almighty God, to Blessed Mary ever Virgin, to blessed Michael the Archangel, to blessed John the Baptist, to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul and to you brethren that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word and deed.' This was changed in 1962 to 'I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do.'
Fifty years later I was still hearing old people in the Confessional using the old form of the Confiteor and continuing to invoke blessed Michael the Archangel, blessed John the Baptist and the holy Apostles Peter and Paul. It was something that those people had learned by heart in childhood and it had become such an ingrained part of their daily prayers that they simply couldn't change it. This is why in the Our Father we still use the word 'thy' even though it is completely archaic and fell out of use in the English language as long ago as the Seventeenth Century.
Nevertheless, the Our Father is a prayer treasured by all Christians and all the more so since it was given to us by Jesus with the deliberate intention of drawing us into an ever-closer intimacy with God the Father. The ancient tradition in the Church is that it should be recited by every Christian three times a day: morning, noon and night.
The second half of the Gospel text given to us today is about how Jesus told us not to be hesitant in asking for things from God. This highlights the importance of intercessory prayer. He gives us a parable about the man who in the middle of the night asks his friend if he can borrow a few loaves because a visitor has arrived unexpectedly. He says that if the friend won't get out of bed straight away he will eventually do so because of the first man's persistence.
He implies that if God doesn't give us what we want immediately we should still go on asking for it and eventually it will be granted to us. I'm not sure the best parallel for God is a sleepy neighbour but the point is made that we should not be afraid to be persistent in our prayer.
The lovely lines 'Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you' simply underline the point. Of course, sometimes when we persistently ask God for some favour, over a period of time the request gets modified. If, for example, we are praying for healing for a person we know we might start out by asking God for a complete cure, but then with time we might modify this to ask for them to be relieved of unnecessary suffering. Then as more time passes our request might be modified once again asking God to grant them a happy and peaceful death.
one of the reasons we might modify our request is because we understand that in death they will surely find salvation and that this is actually healing at the most profound level, at the level of the soul. Again, we should realise that prayer changes us. The more we pray, the more we deepen our relationship with God and the more we begin to understand the mysteriousness of his ways.
Of course, there is more to prayer than intercession. Christ tells us to ask God for the things that we need but we realise that there are other aspects to a healthy prayer-life. We realise that there needs to be room in prayer for other things like penitence, self-offering, thanksgiving and praise. As we celebrate the mass, we realise that as it unfolds it takes us through many of these types of prayer.
And we also understand that in our life of prayer there needs to be room for silence, for listening. Yes, we listen to God through reflecting on his words in scripture when we realise that his words are not just addressed to the Apostles but also to us today, in our particular circumstances. But more than this, because a person who has deepened their prayer life also realises that God speaks through silences. And we need to learn to treasure those silent moments of prayer and as we go through life we ought to extend them where possible.
If in the first half of our lives we find that in prayer we do most of the talking, then in the second part of our lives we might find that we do most of the listening.
More Homilies
July 24, 2016 Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
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