Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

Pray SIMPLY, Pray PERSISTENTLY, 

Pray EXPECTANTLY

Genesis 18: 20-32; Colossians 2:12-14; Luke 11: 1-13

“I’ll pray for you . . . Keep me in your prayers.” So often those phrases are tossed out during a casual goodbye or especially when trouble is on the loose or some worry hovers in the air. But for all our good intentions, for some reason, we neglect this rich source of strength and power for our daily lives and don’t pray. Sometimes we don’t have the time (or make the time) in our busy schedules. Sometimes we forget. Sometimes we may even doubt the value of prayer; we may lack the confidence that it really does anything.

Our Gospel is divided into three sections and in them, Jesus teaches us three very important things about our prayer. First, that we should Pray SIMPLY, knowing that God reads our hearts as well as understands our words. Second, that we should Pray PERSISTENTLY, knowing that our gracious God wants to respond with what is best for us. And third, that we should Pray EXPECTANTLY, trusting that God will pour out gifts far beyond our dreams.

Today’s Gospel begins, as it often does in Luke’s Gospel with Jesus himself praying. The disciples of our Lord saw their Master in prayer and they were so struck by this that they asked him to teach them to pray. And in response, Jesus provides the model of prayer that has come to be known as the “Lord’s Prayer” . . . the “Our Father.”

The Lord’s Prayer is something that most of us rhyme off very glibly, often thinking of other things while we are saying it. But, in praying it, we are saying the most powerful prayer known to humankind, next to the Mass itself. That prayer has been prayed continuously since the days of the early Church. People all around the world have prayed that same prayer day and night for two thousand years. And when we pray it, we connect ourselves to all believers everywhere in all time. It is considered by many to be the perfect prayer model, not just because our Lord taught it himself, but because it contains all the simple aspects of prayer which are important for maintaining the relationship we have with our Father. Through it, Jesus taught that:

• We should pray that our Father’s name be holy upon our lips and within our lives, that our lives be filled with prayer, and praise, and thanksgiving in His name.
• We should pray that His kingdom will come among us and that His will be done. Both make the point that in all our prayers our goal should be the fulfillment of God’s will, not our will. 
• We should pray for our daily bread. Asking God to provide the things we need to live is important because it acknowledges the fact that we depend on God.
• We should pray for the forgiveness of our sins and the ability to forgive those who sin against us.
• And we should pray for protection against every temptation to sin that would cause us to stumble and fall from our faith.

It’s interesting to note that Jesus doesn’t teach the disciples any special skills. He doesn’t say if you fold your hands or hold them palms up toward heaven, or rest them on the particular person you’re praying for, or kneel or stand or sit, or use a special style of language, you are more likely to have your prayers answered. Prayer doesn’t involve having special skills and saying the right words so that we can reach God’s ear. It's not the length of the prayer or it's eloquence that God hears. Praying is simply being in presence of our heavenly Father who is ready at any moment to listen to our words, our whispers, our groans and sighs, and answer with his love.

But Jesus wasn’t finished teaching his disciples when he gave them this model. He also wanted to teach them that when they prayed, they should pray persistently. And to do this, He went on to tell them a brief story about a man going to a friend at midnight to ask for some bread to feed a surprise visitor. Jesus concludes the story by stating that even though the man might have to ask several times, the friend will give the bread if for no other reason than the man’s persistence.

In an age of instant gratification, we often forget the importance of perseverance. Fast food gives us meals in an instant. Credit cards buy us goods whenever and wherever we want. Cell phones, texting and Skype allow us to communicate instantly. Entertainment is available at the flick of a switch. God does indeed listen to our prayers, but it’s only logical that He wants to see how committed we are to what we are praying for. God wants us to be persistent in our requests. Only then do we demonstrate both the sincerity of our prayer and our ultimate trust in His ability to answer it.

And then, at the end of today’s Gospel, Jesus goes on to make some pretty incredible promises to those who pray: “Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you”. Wow! What Jesus is saying is that when something is important enough that we continually ask, we should expect to receive. When something is important enough that we continually seek, we should expect to find it. And when something is important enough that we continually knock on God’s door, we should expect Him to open the door for us to know how to obtain it. Prayer is not an idle exercise. “Ask and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you” is Jesus’ three-fold promise to those who pray. Clearly, Jesus is telling us to ask LOUDLY, seek TIRELESSLY and knock SHAMELESSLY. And so . . .

• ASK: Tell Him what you want. Don’t tell Him how or when to give it to you. That’s His business. Yours is simply to ask, trusting that it will be given to you, in your Father’s time and in your Father’s way.
• Seek: Actively search out how God is answering your prayer. 
• Knock: Be bold. Don’t wait for the doors of heaven to swing open like those automatic doors at the grocery store. Bang on them. Storm the gates of heaven with your prayers. They will open to you. 

But each of us, I’m sure, can name at least one time when it seemed God didn’t get the message we had sent in fervent prayer. There are clearly times that we have sought, but didn’t find exactly what we were looking for; asked, but didn’t received what we had asked; knocked but found the that door seemed to remain closed. Yes, there are times in our lives that it appears to us that God didn’t answer our prayers. But he did answer it, and the answer was “No.” But you see, sometimes we suffer from tunnel vision, and God, well, He has peripheral vision, and because He is a loving Father, replies to our prayer, “No, I won’t give you what you asked for, but I will give you what you really need in the big picture of things.”

When my mom was alive, she would frequently give me holy cards or prayer cards. Sometimes they would be in honor of a saint, sometimes for a particular intention. But of all the ones she gave me, there is one that is my favorite. I say it every day as I begin to pray. I think it most succinctly and most beautifully reminds me of what Jesus taught about prayer and what my attitude towards it should be:

I know not by what methods rare

but this I know, God answers prayer.

I know not when he sends the word

that tells us fervent prayer is heard.

I know it comes soon or late,

therefore I need to pray and wait.

I know not if the blessing sought

will come in just the way I thought.

I leave my prayer with Him alone

whose will is wiser than my own.

In his First Letter to the Thessalonians, St. Paul tells us to “Pray unceasingly.” Good advice. Because, you know what? If we truly took Jesus at his word, I don’t think we’d ever be off our knees.

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

A Time to Do; A Time to Listen; A Time to Pray

Genesis 18:1-10A; Colossians 1:24-28; Luke 10:38-42 

The story of Jesus’ visit to Mary and Martha’s place and what happened in the lead up to mealtime was so easy to understand when we first heard it as children attending Catholic elementary school or a parish religious education class. Its message was simple and to the point – Martha was too busy in the kitchen to have time to listen to Jesus. Mary did the right thing. The lesson ended reminding us that we should always make time to spend with Jesus.

There’s nothing wrong with that kind of a conclusion, but now from an adult’s perspective, the story isn't as straight forward as it seems. Life is much more complicated as an adult. We can appreciate Martha’s point of view because our lives are packed with so many demands. We understand well what Martha was going through and how she felt. Actually, to tell you the truth, I give Martha credit because I don’t think many of us would have handled it as tactfully and directly she did. I remember several Thanksgivings growing up, as my father, brothers and I would be in the den, comfortably bonding in front of the television watching a football game, we would suddenly hear the harsh bang of a pot on the stove or an abrupt slam of a kitchen cabinet door as a not so subtle reminder that mom was alone in the kitchen preparing the feast and just might appreciate a little help or maybe just a little bit of company.

In Jesus’ time, custom required that when you welcomed a guest, you must do certain things or you would be insulting the guest. A few chapters before today's gospel, we hear that Simon the Pharisee invited Jesus to dinner and failed to busy himself doing the things that were considered common hospitality when a visitor came for a meal. Simon had failed to greet his guest and wash his feet, and Jesus was quick to point out Simon’s errors as a host. Likewise here, Martha is busy doing what was expected. Mary wasn't.

What's more important - being busy serving the Lord or sitting quietly and listening and learning? Who was right Martha or Mary?

Well, according to Jesus’ response to Martha’s complaint about Mary not pitching in and helping in the kitchen, Mary had chosen the right thing. Mary was following Jesus’ own advice, "People do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God".

But I’m confused, because as we heard last Sunday, immediately before this incident, Jesus tells the story about the Good Samaritan. A man asks what he must do to receive eternal life.  And Jesus answers, "Love God and love your neighbor." He goes on to explain how to do this with the story of a Samaritan who, unlike previous passers-by who did nothing, got busy helping the man lying wounded on the side of the road. Jesus’ final words are "Go and do likewise," meaning, "Go and get busy showing love to others whenever the opportunity arises and then you will have eternal life".

So, it would appear clear from this that being a follower of Jesus involves a lot more than sitting and listening. But today we hear Martha being taken to task because she was busy showing her love for Jesus by cooking up a storm in the kitchen.

And then, to add to the confusion, if we look ahead to next Sunday’s gospel, Jesus teaches us how critical it is that praying with persistence be a significant part of our lives as he tells us that if we ask, we will receive; if we seek, we will find; if we knock, the door will be opened for us; and then gives us the Lord’s Prayer as a model of how we should pray.

The problem is that often, hearing the gospels in small doses as we do each Sunday morning, we often look at the gospel with tunnel vision rather than with peripheral vision. We get part of the picture but not the whole picture. Each week we get one piece of the puzzle, but often times we neglect to put those individual pieces together a consolidated whole. We fail to see the connectivity between the stories.

And so, if we did, we would see that this trilogy of readings actually presents us with the three cornerstones of what should make up a healthy and balanced Christian life: service, listening and learning, and prayer. A healthy spiritual life doesn't become fixed and satisfied with one, or prioritize one over the others. It embraces and incorporates all three. In today's society, people like to boast at how well they are at multitasking. Jesus calls all of his followers to be multitasters as well, and to make service, listening and learning, and prayer part of our lives.

Last week, you heard Fr. Marc, Fr. William, or Fr. Andres talk about “the doing.” Next week, you’ll hear them speak about “the praying.” So, I guess my task this week is to say something about “the listening and learning.”

And I think it comes down to this: I think that Jesus is trying to tell us that there’s more to life than serving dinner on time. There’s more to life than getting your point across. There’s more to life than trying to prove yourself or improve your financial status. There’s more to life than trying to please a guest . . . even if that guest happens to be the Lord.

The point of the story about Martha and Mary is that Jesus desires that we be his guests: enjoying his presence . . . feasting on his words . . . basking in his love.

That sounds nice, but as Martha or any person in this church could tell you, it’s not easy. It’s not easy to ignore self-imposed expectations, nor those that aging parents or dependent children place on us. It’s not easy to ignore the pressures of high school term papers, college exams, raising a family, paying down debt, being the bread winner and putting food on the table (or any combination of the above).

But there’s another type of Food we need in order to survive. And the hunger for that Food is the reason we’re here in church today. Here, at least for a little while, the pressure to get ahead, to get caught up and be-on-time is tempered.

Today, through the gospel, Jesus reminds us it’s the Sabbath. It’s time to rest. Christ himself pulls out a chair, bids us to sit down, then proceeds to wait on us himself! Seated at the table of God, the world looks very different indeed. Seated at the table of the Lord, hanging on his every word, listening and learning what he and the Church teaches, being nourished by the meal he serves us, both inspires us to a deeper relationship with him through prayer, and sensitizes and strengthens us to be Good Samaritans and minister to the needs of our “neighbors,” to all those who are in need.

Today, through the gospel, Jesus conveys his desire that we become life-long listeners and life-long learners. He encourages us break away from the hectic pace of our lives and to sit at his feet and listen to him through spiritual reading and through parish programs like RCIA and Bible Study. And to our young people, Jesus stresses his desire that you be conscientious in learning about him in your Religious Education classes or in the Confirmation program.

With the recent changes in the Roman Missal, one of the options that I’m privileged to be able to dismiss our gathering together with each week is: “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.” As you strive to do that this week, may God bless you and help you both in your listening to his word and in your doing of it.

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C)

The Kingdom of God Has Come Near

Isaiah 66:10-14c; Galatians 6:14-18; Luke 10:1-12, 17-20 or 10:1-9

This is no way to gain a following, Jesus. This is no locker room pep-talk, no inspirational speech for sending out followers into a plentiful harvest. Sheep in the midst of wolves! Who wants to play that role?

And that is not all the bad news for these first Christian missionaries. They are commanded to go empty-handed, without even the most basic provisions necessary for the road. No purse, no bag, no sandals. Sheep in the midst of wolves. Jesus was acutely aware of how perilous the work of the gospel would be, and yet he allowed them to take no precautions as he sent them out.

As the seventy-two disappear two-by-two into the dusty roads before them, Luke tells us that they are empowered to share in the work of Jesus. No longer safe on the sidelines, these followers are now sent out, to share peace and fellowship, to cure the sick, to proclaim the kingdom of God. In short, they were called to live out and practice the faith that they had professed. And it is in the doing that the seventy are transformed from bystanders to active participants in the work of God.

Go empty-handed, Jesus commands them, something that in our modern world, we have a difficult time relating to. When we travel, whether that be on a vacation, business trip, or family visit, we like to be prepared. We carry extra clothing, equipment and other necessities because we don’t appreciate being uncomfortable. One of the latest trends in automobile travel is to have a DVD player installed in the family van in order to entertain the children. I read recently that 60% of the people who fly carry a lap-top computer. Ipod, ipad, iphone (i – yi- yi – yi – yi!) Now you can go anywhere and never have to be fearful of being in touch, knowing what the stock market is doing, or not having music to listen to. Traveling has literally become the art of taking everything on the road. We now have all the comforts of home with us on the road. We just don’t like to be without.

But these disciples are to carry with them no money or swords to display power, no food or supplies, no sandals for their feet. They must leave all of these comforts and necessities at home. The seventy-two are armed with only a message: the kingdom of God has come near. They are to speak these words to those who offer them hospitality and to those who do not. They are to be ambassadors for Christ; they are to live into God's vision for the world. They are to practice peace, do justice, live out the faith. After seeing what they had seen, after witnessing so much pain and so many miraculous moments, these followers were sent out to be doers of the word, to be kingdom carriers.

We might be tempted to disagree with Jesus in so strongly asserting that the kingdom has come near. All you and I have to do is open the morning newspaper and scan the headlines to come to the conclusion that we do not live in such a kingdom. Wars rage on with little sign of stopping. Poverty and hunger claim the lives of so many while others live in comfort with more than enough. Many are unsafe even in their own homes, while others enjoy the security of gates and fences. These are not the signs of the kingdom that we would expect. In fact, if the kingdom itself knocked on our door with no sandals, no food, and no money-we might be tempted to ask it to leave us alone and lock the door tight.

If the kingdom has indeed come near, what are the signs of its coming? Many Christians in our own time have begun to speak of the kingdom of God as a metaphorical and idyllic symbol of life as it will never be. But let's look again at the instructions Jesus gives to the seventy-two missionaries: they are to enter a town, and where welcomed they are to stay-that's Christian hospitality. They are to eat what is given to them-that's table fellowship. Then they are to cure the sick-that's compassion and care. Finally, they are to proclaim that the kingdom of God has come near. Could it be that in the faithful and loving ministry of the disciples the kingdom of God in fact comes near?

Have you felt the presence of the kingdom in your own life? Have you had those experiences when the thin veneer of ordinary human existence is broken and the glory of God shines through? There is something about the Christian faith that must be lived in order to be understood. There are some gospel truths that only make sense in the homeless shelter, or on the steps of the capitol, or at a hospital bed, or in any one of the great number of places in the world where people cry out for mercy, for bread, for justice, for compassion. Perhaps this is why Jesus sends his followers into the mission field carrying only the message that the kingdom has come. It was all they needed.

We can use our theology as a bludgeon with which to beat others who cannot muster the faith we have. We can shout louder, speak longer, or preach harder than anyone else. We can be absolutely sure of our right answers. We can stay in our comfort zones, safely hovering above any real engagement with the issues of faith that call out to us and challenge us. But if we do, if we refuse to get our hands dirty and our hearts changed-than we risk missing the kingdom of God that has already come near in Jesus Christ. We risk missing the terrifying and empowering journey that requires nothing but faith in God to sustain us, and trust in fellow travelers to support us.

Did you notice in today’s gospel that Jesus didn’t just send out the Apostles to proclaim the message of the Kingdom? No, he didn’t just send out the twelve, but six times that number, because the responsibility of spreading the Good News of the Kingdom of God was not something reserved only to the Apostles, but to all Jesus’ disciples. And so it is today. The Awesome responsibility and obligation is not something that is solely the work of our bishops, priests, and deacons, but something that must be undertaken by all those who are baptized. Jesus is sending US out into a complex and hostile world, like sheep in the midst of wolves. The good news is, the message is quite simple: the Kingdom of God has come near. But the challenge that Jesus gave to the seventy-two, the challenge he gives to us, is not merely to proclaim the messages, but to BE the message. The Kingdom of God has come near THROUGH US!