Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Year C – Homily

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Christ the King, Year C
2 Samuel 5:1-3
Psalm 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5
Colossians 1:12-20
Luke 23:35-43
November 20, 2016

Until the days when Saul became king, Israel had not had a king.  There were leaders known as “judges” who lead the community.  The people asked God to give them a king.  Saul became the first king but he was not a good king.  It was David who did much of the work.

Because Saul had turned away from God, God had David anointed as king but David did not take over until Saul died.  Even then, a portion of the kingdom made Saul’s son king at first but then eventually became over all of the Israelites.  David was seen as a great king.

David was “anointed” as king.  Anointing happens for different reasons.  We anoint those who are sick for healing.  We are first anointed in Baptism and then Confirmation.  In this anointing we become children of God.  We are chosen as God’s children.  In being anointed, David is God’s chosen one to be king.

The Hebrew word for “anointed one” is “messiah.”  In Greek, the word for the “anointed one” is “Christ.”

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.  We tend to think of “Christ” as Jesus’ last name but it is actually a title so it is Jesus, the anointed one.

The Israelites had been waiting a thousand years for the coming of Christ.  They expected a king who would be a great military leader who would defeat their enemies and make Israel a great earthly kingdom.

Today’s gospel refers to Jesus’ kingship but we do not see him becoming a great earthly king here.  As we hear this passage, Jesus is hanging on the Cross, seemingly defeating by the enemy.  The references to him as “king” are actually people mocking him.  To them, the fact that He is being crucified proved He isn’t a king.

They are thinking only in earthly terms of power and wealth.  It is only the repentant criminal who realizes that Jesus’ kingdom is not an earthly kingdom.  Jesus rules in Heaven.

Jesus is not defeated by those who had him crucified.  As our king, Jesus hands over his life to defeat a far worse enemy, sin.

Jesus shows that a good king is not one concerned with wealth or power.  A good king is focused on serving the needs of the people.

Ultimately, Jesus is our king.  As Paul writes, Jesus is the king of “all things.”  Hence, the name for today’s solemnity “King of the Universe.”  The universe encompasses all that we see.

All this being said, while we are live in this world, we need people in positions of authority.  As Pope, in 1963, St. John XXIII wrote an encyclical called Peace on Earth.  In this encyclical, he writes about our need for authority and how real authority comes from God.  He says that people who hold positions of authority should not do so for personal power or wealth.  Those in these positions must always work for the “common good.”  I think I need to include here that the “common good” is NOT determined by popular opinion.  It is to help all live as Christ has called us.

We see authority in various ways in our lives.  In the home, the parents are supposed to be in charge of the children.  At school, it is the teachers and the principals.  At work, there are supervisors and managers.

We have leaders in the Church too.  The pope leads the whole church.  Bishop Matano leads our diocese and, as Pastor, I am the leader of our parish.  I hope you pray for me as your leader, not to do what you want but to do what God wants.

There is one more type of leaders to talk about, political leaders.  Pope John XXIII also writes in Peace on Earth about our need for governments.  In our country, we don’t call our political leaders kings but we have elected offices on many levels, village, town, country, state, and the national level.

We just went through an election.  It wasn’t easy but now it is over.  Some people are happy with the results, some are not, and some are worried.

The election is in the past and we can’t change what happened.  We need to look forward.  When I say forward, I don’t mean the next election (I just heard on Thursday night somebody in the news talk about a candidate for the president in the next election).  The next election will come.

Now is not a time to make plans for the next election.  We need to work together.  At this point, we all need to seek to come together for the common good.

What did I say I hope you do for me as your pastor?  I hope you pray for me to lead not as you want but as God wants.

We need to do the same for all our political leaders at all levels.  We need to pray that all leaders set aside any personal agendas or ideologies in favor of the common good as God defines it.  It doesn’t matter if we like them or agree with them.  We must pray for them.

Leadership is not about power.  It is not about wealth.  It is not about being famous.  Leaders need to always be about service.  Jesus’ Crucifixion is the perfect example of this.  Jesus died not for his own gain but for us.  May we put the service of others in the name of Jesus among our highest priorities.

Science and Faith Can Go Together

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Today, November 15th, we celebrate the Memorial of St. Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor of the Church.  He lived in the 13th century.  He joined the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) and became a teacher.  His most famous student was St. Thomas Aquinas.  As a Dominican priest, he was an expert in philosophy and theology.  That should not be any surprise.  With his knowledge and ability here, he served as the Provincial of the German Dominicans from 1254-1257 and became a bishop.  He was also a prolific writer and is a Doctor of the Church.

Everything I have already said is important but there is one additional field that St. Albert was an expert in, the natural sciences.  Some people today claim that if one believes in science, then one should realize there is no God.  For people like this science has all the answers.  To them religion was just something used to explain what people didn’t understand.

What these people don’t realize that science and philosophy were once a combined discipline.  This is true for St. Albert and we can see it in people like Aristotle (4th B.C. philosopher and scientist) and Pascal (known as a 17th Century mathematician but also wrote on philosophy).

Today, philosophy centers on the question of why, searches for meaning in life, and ethics.  Science is considered the place we turn to when we seek the answer to “how” things happen.  There can be no doubt that science does answer more and more questions of “how” things happen but it still doesn’t answer them all.  More importantly, science does not bring meaning to things.  Yes, science provides us with the Big Bang Theory and the Theory of Evolution.  So what?  What and/or who caused Big Bang to happen?  If evolution is purely a scientifically explainable process, why did things develop?  If apes developed into humans, why are there both apes and humans today but not the various steps in between?

I write all this as a person who studied and used to work as an engineer because I liked Math, Chemistry, and Physics.  Studying and working as an engineer never led me away from faith.  Yes, I didn’t go to church for a number of years but I still had some faith.  For those who think if you are a person of science you can’t believe in God, remember I used to work as an engineer for the New York State Department of Transportation.  For the last two years I was there, almost everyone I worked with was an engineer.  At least a third of them were Catholic and most of that third regular church goers.  At least another 5-10% were regular church-goers.

There is a man named John Polkinghorne.  For 25 years he worked as a Quantum Physicist.  That means studying subatomic particles that probably were barely thought of a hundred years ago.  For those who think that people of science don’t believe in God, there should be no doubt that he won’t believe in God.  They would be wrong.  After 25 years as a Quantum Physicist he became an Anglican Priest.   He says it was the beauty that he saw in the subatomic world that helped convince him that there is a God.  There is so much order and beauty in the world that only God could have made it so.

We can see God in the beauty of nature, in the trees and the leaves, in the animals, and in the land formations, and the seas. This is seen on a macroscopic level.  John Polkinghorne saw the same thing on a microscopic level.

Peace,

Fr. Jeff

P.S. Rev. John Polkinghorne has written several books about science and faith.  The one I first read, and suggest for anyone interested to start with is Quarks, Chaos, and Christianity.  Crossword: New York.  1994.

If you would like to know more about what the Catholic Church says about evolution, you can read my article “Catholic Teaching and the Question of Evolution” on my website.

 

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily

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33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Malachi 3:19-20a
Psalm 98:5-6, 7-8, 9
2 Thessalonians 3:7-12
Luke 21:5-19
November 13, 2016

Our readings this week continue on the theme of what the End Times will be like.  The question presented this week is when will it happen.  With this in mind, they ask, “what sign will there be”.

Jesus answers them by saying there will first be wars and insurrections, that nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  That there will be earthquakes, famines, and plagues.  Lastly there will be “awesome sights and mighty signs from the sky.”

Well, let’s see.  Wars and insurrections, nation against nation… well there is currently Syria and ISIS.  There’s Iraq and Afghanistan.  Before that there was Vietnam and Korea, World War I & II, and that is just the last hundred years.  I think there has been enough wars to check that off the list Jesus gave.

Earthquakes, well, this year there has been the earthquakes in Italy where most of one town was wiped out.  There was the devastating earthquake in Haiti a few years back.  Further back, there has been significant earthquakes in our own country, particularly on the west coast.  So, I think we are also safe to cross earthquakes off the list.

Then Jesus listed famines.  Well, there are some people who go hungry across the world but especially in some third world countries.  So we can check off famines.

Then there is plagues.  One might think of Ebola, Zika, or the bird flu.  If you want really big, there was the Black Plague in the 14th Century.  So we can check plagues off too.

That just leaves “awesome sights and mighty signs from the sky” but that’s not a sign the Second Coming is close.  That’s what’s going to happen at the Second Coming.

Actually, there is one more thing Jesus talks about before the Second Coming, persecution.  While in our country we are not executed for our faith today, we can be ridiculed for our faith.  People try to force us to do things contrary to our faith.  For instance there are people who want to make doctors perform abortions and make pharmacists provide contraception and abortifacients.  There are even people today who talk about making all, including Catholic hospitals, provide physician-assisted suicide.

There can be no doubt that it can be a challenge to live out our faith.  It might seem like the simplest thing to do is to be quiet about our faith.  We might say we’ll do anything to keep the peace.  Keeping quiet might seem the easiest way to keep the peace but Jesus doesn’t call us to keep quiet.  He calls us to give testimony to our faith.

What kind of testimony is silence?

Sometimes we do need to pick and choose our battles.  Yet, keeping silent isn’t the best solution.  The problem with keeping silent is that if we never say anything, then people tend to assume we agree with them.

Am I telling you should into arguments, not necessarily.  Sometimes the best thing we can do when a group of people we are with talks about something we disagree with is to simply say, “I disagree” or “that’s not what I think.”  If they ask what we think, then we can say more, if not, at least we have given testimony that we don’t disagree.

We might not want to say anything out of fear of being ridiculed for our beliefs but maybe there is another reason we don’t want to speak up.  Maybe we are afraid that they will ask us questions about what we believe and we don’t feel like we can answer them.  Maybe that just means we need to put some/more effort into learning why we believe what we do.

Do we want to learn more?  There is a saying “ignorance is bliss.”  We are also taught that there are three criteria for something to be a mortal sin.  It must be something grave.  We must know it is a sin and lastly we must consent.  The second, knowing it is a sin, might fit nicely with “ignorance is bliss.”  If we don’t know, we aren’t culpable in the same way.  The problem with that is that if we choose to not know, then we sin.  Our Church says we must follow our conscience but it also says we must make the effort to have a well-formed conscience.  Do we?

One last point – to go back to when I started, I never told you when the Second Coming might happen.  We might all like to know so we can be ready.  The simple answer to “when will the Second Coming happen” is that it doesn’t matter.  The time to change our lives, to learn more about our faith is now.  We are not called to live like Christians just before the Second Coming.  We are called to live like Christ every day.

What do you need to work in your life to be able to give testimony?

What do you need to do to be ready?

We Live in a Busy World

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In mid-October, I went on retreat for a week.  I was at a place in Pennsylvania on a quiet road surrounded by woods.  It was very peaceful and I was able to do a lot of spiritual reading and fruitful reflection.

Then, I came back to St. Michael’s in Newark, NY and have been the busiest I have been since I became the pastor here at the end of June.  Your first thought here might be to think the busyness is because I was away for a week and needed to catch up.  Actually, only a little of the busyness had anything to do with being away.  The rest has been just a convergence of meetings ranging from having some parishioners confirmed at the Cathedral to a quarterly financial meeting to a special deanery meeting.  No one of these required a tremendous amount of my time.  It just all added up to a lot.  It also happens that I am doing my next adult faith presentation this week (“The Roots of Catholic Social Teaching”) but I did a lot of the preparation for the presentation before I went on retreat.

Lest you think I’m writing tonight just to complain about being busy I am not.  I do have a point.  When I get busy, I get irritable.  This might sound like a normal reaction and, in a way, it is.  What I want to mention here is why I think I get irritable.  Certainly, it starts with the fact that when I get busy, I feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.  I’ve gotten better here about realizing that not everything needs to get done right away.  Still, when I get busy, I find myself rushing through things just to get them done.  That means I might make mistakes or, at the very least, don’t give something the attention it deserves.  What I most worry about here is that when I am busy, I find it difficult to give things the deeper thought that I feel they deserve.

I do my best to prioritize.  This can be a challenge for all of us.  Then, there is the person who thinks their situation is an “emergency” so I rearrange my schedule to meet with them only to feel like whatever their issue is, it isn’t an “emergency” to me.  I emphasize to me because this is a place of learning for me in the last couple weeks of busyness.  Through God’s grace I realized there were two reasons it wasn’t an emergency for me.  First, it wasn’t “my” problem.  Secondly, they involved situations I had expressed with other people.  They were bad situations where they did need some spiritual advice. It really was urgent for them.  I just had seen similar situations before so I can see a path forward easier than they could, which, as I think about it, is the very reason they came to me, hoping that I could give them some advice.

As I think about it, I just thought about a third reason the situation didn’t seem like an emergency to me.  Both in my own life before I was a priest and through my ministry as a priest, I have come to realize that many things just aren’t as urgent as I first think them to be.

So. in a way, I am thankful for the people who came to me recently with their “emergency” so I could discover what I have just shared with you and to remember, if I let him, God will help me through it all to get done what really needs to be done.

Peace,

Fr. Jeff

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily

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32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14
Psalm 17:1, 5-6, 15
2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5
Luke 20:27-38
November 6, 2016

When I arrived here just four months ago, we were all hot.  That was summer.  Now, summer is over and we are almost halfway through Fall.  This means the temperatures are getting colder and with that the gardens have died off and the leaves have been changing color and falling to the ground.

As we see this “dying” our church year will come to a close soon and a new church year will begin with Advent.  As we approach the end of this year, our readings begin to look at the end times.  This week the question of the Resurrection is presented.

The Sadducees ask Jesus a question about the Resurrection.  They don’t believe in the Resurrection.  They just want to trap Jesus but Jesus is not afraid of them.  He tells them the Resurrection will be different than anything we have experienced.

In the Resurrection everyone who believes in God will be raised up body and soul to Heaven to be with God.  This changes the way we look at death.  The mother and seven brothers in the first reading are tortured for their faith but they are strengthened by faith in the Resurrection.  They know that even though they suffer in this world, there are better things to come in Heaven so they patiently endure the sufferings and speak of their belief in Heaven.

As we think about the Resurrection, Paul’s words to the Thessalonians invite us to find “everlasting encouragement and good hope” that we our hearts be encouraged and strengthened by our belief.  Our belief in the Resurrection helps us to endure our earthly sufferings.

As Paul speaks of the strength we have from our faith he also says “pray for us.”  The “us” is ministers like Paul who work to spread the Gospel.

This is fitting as this week we celebrate National Vocations Awareness week.  A vocation is a calling from God.  We are all called to use the gifts that we have been given for the building up of God’s kingdom.

So we can think about both the Resurrection and vocations.  As we do this, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Fr. Felix.  Friday was the first anniversary of his death so we pray that he now shares in the Resurrection.  We can give thanks for the years that he served God, beginning in Ghana and eventually coming here where he led you for over six years.

Who has helped you to know God?  Perhaps it is priests like Fr. Felix.  Maybe it is your parents or grandparents or godparents.  Maybe it is your religion teachers, maybe a nun.

When I think about my own vocation, I think of three things I most enjoy doing as a priest.  First, if you haven’t figured out yet from my homilies I like hearing confessions because I love to help people know God forgives them.  Second, I enjoy saying Mass.  The third is teaching.  I like to help people learn about Jesus.  That’s what I try to do in my homilies, with my website, and the presentations that I do (like the one coming up this Wednesday).

I like the teaching part for two reasons.  First, as I already said, I like to help people learn about Jesus.  Secondly, as I prepare for the presentations, I learn more myself.

Our lives are a gift from God.  We accept this gift and begin to follow Jesus in baptism.  In baptism, we are anointed as priest, prophet, and king to serve.  Who has helped you learn about God?  How so?  How can you help others know about Jesus?

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily

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31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Wisdom 11:22-12:2
Psalm 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13, 14
2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2
Luke 19:1-10
October 30, 2016

Zacchaeus is described as being “short in stature.”  He was short enough that he couldn’t see Jesus through the crowd.  Being small, he probably won’t have been able to fight his way through the crowd.  It was important enough for him to see Jesus that he ran ahead of the group enough to find a tree to climb so he could see Jesus.

This might not seem like a big deal.  Kids climb trees but in the culture of the time no self-respecting wealthy man would do such a thing.  It would have been embarrassing but Zacchaeus didn’t care about that.  He wanted to see Jesus.  It sounds like he was getting his priorities in order with Jesus at the top.

When Jesus comes to the tree, he took the initiative to look up and tell Zacchaeus he will stay at his house.  Zacchaeus is thrilled.

Physically we all start out small.  I remember as a little child and going to parades always wanting to be up front when we went to parades.  Otherwise, I couldn’t see anything.  But here in church, being “short in stature” can talk on a whole other status.

Our God is an infinite God.  God is all-knowing and all-powerful.  God is everywhere.  So what are we compared to God?  Are we even a grain or a drop of morning dew?  How can we ever make ourselves worthy of his calling?

Does God even notice us?

Of course, God notices us.  We are not too small for God to see us.  God is everywhere and aware of everything.  Even when we try to hide behind something, God sees us.

We might think we don’t matter much to God.  What have we done to make ourselves worthy of God’s love?  We might feel like we are nobody special.  We might think we aren’t worth noticing but we would be wrong.

We are worthy of being noticed by God not because of what we do.  We are worthy because God makes us worthy.  We are all created in God’s image to be loved by God.  We are made great when we accept what God has given us and use it for the building up on God’s kingdom.  We pray thy kingdom come.  We need to make this our goal in the here and now.

I spoke before about “hiding from God.”  It might seem odd to think about hiding from God as we gather here in church.  Church probably isn’t the place to go to hide from God but just as “short in stature” can take on a deeper meaning in feeling insignificant, “hiding from God” can taken on a deeper meaning.

We are not going to hide from God in Church but we might want to hide aspects of our lives from God.  Most specifically we might want to hide our sins.  We know they aren’t good and we hope God doesn’t notice them.  The thing is, since God is everywhere, of course He notices our sins.  God is present with us even when we commit the sin.

Yet God loves us.

One might suppose that because God is so great and needs nothing from us that if we sin, then God won’t love us anymore.  Fortunately, God doesn’t think that way.

God doesn’t have to love us.  God chooses to love us.

For those of you who are parents, think of a time when your child did something really bad.  You might have gotten very upset, very mad with them but did you stop loving them?  God doesn’t.

For those of you who are children, have you done something that really mad your parents upset?  Did they stay upset?  God doesn’t.

Unfortunately, as parents or children we are not perfect so forgiveness is not easy but God always offers it.  When you doubt God’s mercy, look at Jesus hanging on a Crucifix.  If God doesn’t want to forgive you, then why did Jesus die on the Cross?

God wants us to know his love.  God wants us to know that we are not too “short in stature” for him to notice us.  God wants us to know that He is aware of our sins and will forgive us.

We might think that if God is aware of our sins, then we don’t need to confess them.  But we need to realize that in going to confession and admitting our sins, then we open ourselves to feeling God’s love.  If we keep our sins hiding inside us, then we are blocking out God.  When we confess them, God wipes our sins away and makes us great by bestowing his grace upon us.

On our own, we might be “short in stature” but God raises us up.  We open ourselves to Christ and work together so God’s kingdom can come.  Then we are all “Raised in Christ.”

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily

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30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18
Psalm 34:2-3, 17-18, 19, 23
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Luke 18:9-14
October 23, 2016

Today Jesus tells us about two people praying, a Pharisee and a tax collector.  One becomes justified but not both.

As we know, the Pharisee was one of the religious leaders of the time.  As such, he knew what the Law said.  He knew what he was supposed to do.

He is the first to pray.  He begins properly with, “O God, I thank you,” but it might not seem much like prayer or thanksgiving to us.  It seems like boasting.  He’s thankful that he isn’t like the other people who are greedy, dishonest, or adulterous.  He fasts twice a week and pays tithes.

Everything he says to do or not do is good.  It is what the Law prescribes.  Yet, he is not justified.

Then the tax collector comes in to pray.  He has no grandiose words to say.  He won’t even look up.  Instead, he beats his breast and prays, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”  He knows he has sinned and that he is not worthy of God’s love but he hands it all over to God’s mercy.   For this he is justified.

Now, I want to take a look at what Paul says today.  Paul speaks of how he is “poured out like a libation.”  He says, “I have competed well, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”  Paul’s words might be seen as resembling the Pharisee.

Yet there is a difference.  Does Paul talk about what he has done?  Obviously the answer is yes but he also gives the credit to God when he says, “But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the proclamation might be completed.”

Paul gives the credit to God.

We know that pride is one of the seven deadly sins.  When we are prideful, we take the credit ourselves and act like we don’t need God.  Opposite “pride” is “humility.”  As much as “pride” is a sin, “humility” is a virtue.

I think we get confused about what humility is.  Some seem to think that since it is the opposite of pride that if we are humble, we don’t talk about the good we do.

Proper humility acknowledges the good we do and gives credit to God and anyone else who helps us.  We need to pray for God to give us proper humility so we can rejoice in the good that is done and thank God for all his help.

We pray in different ways.  We can praise God in our prayers, thanking him for the help He has given us.

We can ask God for help.  This can be in guidance or for strength.  It can be to pray for grace and healing.  Included here is our prayers for our own needs as well as the needs of others.

We can pray in different perspectives.  We can pray quietly at home or we can pray together in Church as we celebrate the Mass.  Either way, we might be looking for God to give us what we want.

With this is mind, sometimes people feel like they don’t get anything out of Mass so why come.  What’s in it for me?  In thinking this way, we miss something.

Praying at Mass isn’t all about “me.”  Are we strengthened by the Eucharist we receive?  Absolutely, but praying at Mass isn’t just about ourselves as individuals.  Thinking that every time we come to Mass we should feel instantly better misses something.

As we celebrate Mass, we come together as a community.  We pray together.  Think of it this way.  During this first half of Mass, our celebration focuses on God’s Word from the Bible.  This helps us to know how God is calling us to live.  I want to emphasis “us” because God is not speaking to each of us individually but rather as a community of believers.  The Bible is not the story of one person.  It is the story of God’s people over thousands of years.  We hear how God has cared for his people in the past and so we know He will continue to care for us today.

Mass does strengthen us as individuals but not as isolated individuals.  What we do at Mass is meant to help us realize that we are not alone.

Occasionally, someone will say to me after Mass that they felt during the homily that I was speaking directly to them.  Three comments here.

First, I’m glad to hear they were listening to what I said.

Second, I’m glad the homily was something they could relate to.  That’s the Holy Spirit guiding me to know what the people need to hear.  I want to note that I said “what the people need to hear” not what the individual needs to hear.  By this I mean whatever you are going through in your life, you should realize that you are probably not the only person going through it.  So, as you pray for yourself, pray for everyone else who is going through the same thing.

My third comment to the idea of the homily speaking to people is actually about when we might think the homily doesn’t relate to us as an individual.  Maybe it doesn’t relate to you that week but pray that it does help someone.  Pray that those who most need it, hear what God is saying to them.

So, as we pray today, we pray not just for ourselves but for each other, that we all come together as God’s people.

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily

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29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Exodus 17:8-13
Psalm 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
Luke 18:1-8
October 16, 2016

The Israelites had to defend themselves from an attack by Amalek.  Joshua leads the battle but Moses is instrumental in the success of the battle.

Moses does not physically engage in the battle.  Do you remember what Moses did when it was time for the Israelites to cross the Red Sea?  He raised his staff and extended it over the waters.  By God’s power the Red Sea parted.

Now, as the Israelites must defend themselves from Amalek’s attack, Moses again raises his staff.  As long as he does, “Israel had the better of the fight.”  But Moses grew weary but whenever he “let his hands rest, Amalek had the better of the fight.”

Moses needed to persevere for the Israelites to succeed but he could not do it alone.  Aaron and Hur “supported his hands.”

We are not in battle against Amalek today but we continue to battle against evil.  How often do we grow weary?  How often dDo we fail in our battle against temptation?

How are we to persevere?

Three things come to mind for me here and they are all found in today’s readings.

I’ve already mentioned how Moses grew weary.  He needed the help of Aaron and Hur.  If we are to persevere against evil, we need to help and support each other.  That’s #1.

#2 is found in the second reading.  Paul wrote to Timothy to offer him support and encouragement (further examples of people in the Bible helping each other).  As Paul writes where does he direct Timothy to?  Sacred Scripture.  If we are to persevere against evil, we need to know our Bible.  As Paul writes, it is “wisdom for salvation….inspired by God…useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”  Sacred Scripture equips us “for every good work.”

Sacred Scripture is, of course, the Bible.  As Catholics, we have a reputation for not knowing the Bible.  If I asked how many of you have a Bible at home, probably the majority would say yes.  If I asked how many had read the Bible recently, let alone knew where it was in their house, I might guess not so many would raise their hands.

The good news is that does not we mean we are ignorant of the Bible.  Every time we celebrate Mass on Sunday we hear readings and a psalm from the Bible.  Then the homily should help us open our ears to what the Bible is trying to tell us today.

But the readings are not the only reference to scripture at Mass.  Some of our prayers at Mass are direct quotes from the Bible.  Part of the purpose when we started using the new translations five years ago was to make the Bible verses more recognizable.  For instance, we used to sing “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of power and might.”  Now we sing “Lord God of hosts.”  If you read the Old Testament you will find the phrase “Lord God of hosts” several times.

Related to the Bible, we have a resource that Paul did not have, 2,000 year of church history.  Throughout the 2,000 years that have passed since Jesus rose, the world has changed.  Our Church has been guided by the Holy Spirit to apply the Scriptures to our lives today.

Take what you learn here at Mass and read the Bible on your own to know it more fully.

So, in our battle against evil, #1 is supporting each other.  #2 is knowing the Bible.  #3 is found in today’s gospel reading.  We need to “pray always.”

Remember Moses?  When he let his arms rest, the Israelites began to fall in battle.  We need to pray always but how?  We need to sleep.  We need to work.  We need to eat.  How can we pray always?

When we think of prayer we probably most often think of reciting the prayers we have memorized, praying the Rosary, or another devotion.  We pray at Mass.  We pray when we offer God our list of needs.  We might pray a lot but how do we “pray always”?

To understand what it means to “pray always” we need to look at prayer a little differently.  Everything I mentioned in the list is a way of praying but ultimately we pray to have a relationship with God.

To pray always is to always be in relationship with God.  How much do you think about God throughout the day?  Maybe we can’t stop and pray much throughout the day but when something bothers us how about a Hail Mary?  Before we respond to something someone has said or done that upsets us, how about a quick prayer to ask God to give us the right words or action to respond with?

We struggle with evil.  We need to support each other.  We need to know the Bible.  We need to pray.  Then God can deliver us from evil.

What is the Point of Prayer?

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I don’t think many people would argue with the statement that prayer is important.  Well, actually they might without meaning to.  By this I simply acknowledge the fact that not everybody prays.  Maybe they mean to but it isn’t the most important thing to them and so they let all their time be taken up by other things.

I’ve entitled this post “What is the Point of Prayer?” but I do not intend to present an argument for the importance of prayer.  I don’t intend to teach you about different forms of prayer.  If that is what you are looking for you might start by reading “Prayer and Devotions” on my website.  Or you might choose to read my previous blog posts on prayer.

Today I want to write about what my goal in praying is.  To put it simply, I pray to know God.

I hope you noticed that I didn’t say pray to know God’s will.  I didn’t say I pray to God to ask for strength.  I want to be honest so I have to say that at times I pray hoping God will tell me what to do.  At times, when I don’t think I can accomplish what I am supposed to, I pray that God will give me the strength I need.  I might pray at times that God give me the courage to do what I am supposed to.  In this I can ask for the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and courage.  

I view all of these as pieces of the puzzle.  They are all important.  It can be  It is a struggle to know God’s will.  There are times when it can be a struggle to do God’s will.  We can turn to scripture to hear stories of how God has revealed his saving power (see my homily from last Sunday).  In reading the scriptures we see that God is there for his people.  This is the beginning of knowing God.

We pray in various ways.  We go to Mass.  We can pray the Rosary.  We can read the Bible.  Sometimes I find the most important thing for me to do in prayer is to stop what I am doing and simply be quiet so that I can become aware of God’s presence.  This is the goal of contemplative prayer.

We can pray looking for answers.  Sometimes we are not capable of understanding the answers.  Sometimes we pray looking for a way out of our suffering when what we really need to pray for is to know God is with us through our suffering.  This is what I was referring to earlier when I said, “I pray to know God.”  My greatest aid is when I simply know God is with me.  This is the core goal of my prayer.

Peace,

Fr. Jeff