Persistence in Prayer

August 16, 2020, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081620.cfm

Today’s Gospel from Matthew could be considered the very beginning of our salvation story.  We aren’t Jewish, most of us probably never were.  Jesus, so it was thought back then, had only come to save the Israelites, the Jews, and nobody else.

Now Jesus heads off to the regions of Tyre and Sidon, probably to get a bit of an escape.  Here comes the Canaanite woman, not a Jewish woman, but a Gentile and the scene that unfolds is quite remarkable.

There are so many perspectives to take from this but let’s focus on the persistence of the Canaanite woman.   Her faith begins by calling Jesus the Son of David, a title of earthly power.  She knew Jesus was a great man and could do marvelous things but she didn’t know who Jesus really was yet. Her faith led her to believe that Jesus, whoever He was, could do great things for her.  She was desperate.  The disciples were in her way, they didn’t want her daughter healed out of compassion and love, they looked at her like an annoying fly buzzing around their faces.

His disciples came and asked him, “Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.”

Whatever Jesus had to do for her, they wanted it done and wanted her gone.  Jesus finally confronts the woman and the conversation seems harsh!  

But the woman came and did him homage, saying, “Lord, help me.” He said in reply, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” 

Context is everything when reading the Bible.  The word Jesus used for dogs, kunaria, means a household pet and not the scroungy street dogs from Jerusalem.  When I was growing up if I called a person a dog, especially a woman it was a major insult but in this case, it was not so bad.

The Canaanite woman doesn’t even seem phased.  She has the wit of a true Greek as she responds:

“Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”

What faith!  She still doesn’t give up and her persistence pays off and her daughter is healed by the Master.  Jesus saw so much more in her faith at that moment to exclaim: 

“O woman, great is your faith!”.  

She has moved from seeing Jesus as a great man who can help her to see who He really is, and Jesus notices this transformation in her as well and the fact that she is a Gentile becomes irrelevant.

The second reading from St. Paul to the Romans spells it out clearly, Jesus’ salvific mission is to the whole world, not just the Jewish people, but to all, and this includes us!

I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I glory in my ministry in order to make my race jealous and thus save some of them.

The Caananite woman, a Gentile, a non-Jew, is one of the first to take advantage of this.  Her persistent prayer of petition to Jesus is what saves her daughter from the demon.  Our Psalms today echo those prayers of petition asking for pity, blessing, and salvation.  

Now we must reflect, how are we doing in our prayer life?  Are we still persistent in asking God for help and healing in whatever is troubling us no matter how long it’s been going on?  Some things are individual troubles that affect us personally.  Some things are prayers for our families.  Some things are issues in our towns, our church community, our state, our diocese, our nation, and the whole world.  I understand now why a great saint once said pray without ceasing! There really is a lot we should be asking God for help with right now and that’s ok, our God has very broad shoulders, trust Him to handle all of our issues we bring to him. 

This to shall pass and our troubles won’t last forever. Prayer should be the main tool we use to get us through these tough times.  Sure, we may not all receive the healing that the Canaanite woman’s daughter did but perseverance in prayer will at minimum make those tougher times much more tolerable.  Pray...pray and pray some more and don’t let other things get in your way like Jesus’ disciples tried to get in the way of the Canaanite woman.

I think St. Augustine put it far more eloquently than I have when he said: 

If God seems slow in responding, it is because He is preparing a better gift.  He will not deny us.  God withholds what you are not yet ready for.  He wants you to have a lively desire for His greatest gifts.  All of which is to say, pray always and do not lose heart.

Time And A Place

 July 20th, Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.  

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/072119.cfm

In our first reading from Genesis, Abraham sees three men near the terebinth of Mamre.  The first thing I had to do is look up what terebinth of Mamre is; come to find out it’s a large tree located in a town a bit southwest of the city of Hebron.  It’s also been called the oak of Mamre.  This tree would have been home to a nice spot that would have kept Abraham’s tent cool in its shade.  

Here we see Abraham, who runs to greet these three men, pays his respects first and then waits on them, bringing them water to wash their feet, having them rest in the shade while his wife Sarah makes them rolls, a servant slaughters and prepares a steer, gets some curds and milk and sets it all out for them to eat, all the time “hastening” to get this all done for them.  

At first, Abraham had no idea that he was about to wait on two angels and the Lord.   We know that it was two angels with the Lord because later in Genesis 19 when they are talking with Lot and are identified as angels.  This is also probably the story St. Paul referenced in his letter to the Hebrews when he stated: 
Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels. 

Abraham and Sarah are rewarded for their hospitality with the prophecy when one of the three men says: “I will return to you about this time next year, and Sarah will then have a son.”  He is referring to their son Isaac who they conceive, even in their old age.  Christian tradition believes that the Lord and two angels in this story as an image of the Trinity.

Now we move into the Gospel and hear about Martha and Mary.  Mary sits at the Lord's feet and listens to him while Martha, burdened with much serving is told to relax a bit, that Mary has chosen the better part by just listening to Jesus.

So these readings, at least to me when I prayed about them, conflicted in my head.  Sarah and Abraham are rewarded for their hurried preparation for their guests while Martha is told to relax, leave Mary alone and just enjoy the moment when Jesus comes to visit.

Then, while praying about these readings in Adoration, this popped into my head - a Busch beer commercial.  Seriously!  Let me explain.  There is a commercial where two men dressed in camouflage are sitting in the reeds near a pond with a dog, duck hunting.  A man named John is on his cellphone, perhaps talking to a credit card company’s voice system saying “main menu”, and when the automated reply comes back saying “I’m sorry I didn’t get that” John frustratedly repeats “main menu” or “representative” over and over.  Finally, the camera pans to John’s hunting buddy who says “Just give me the phone” and we segue back to the Busch beer guy standing in a cool stream who states the tagline: “Time and a place”.

That’s when the Holy Spirit gave me today’s theme - time and a place.  The Holy Spirit works in very strange ways indeed.

Now imagine if the person sitting next to you in church last weekend got a phone call and started to talk to the person on the other end?  I’ve actually seen it happen in a crowded church during mass.  That’s somebody who doesn’t fully understand what’s going on at Mass. We need to be there not just in body but in mind and spirit as well, we are all here to participate, even if you are not on the altar, you still have a job at Mass. Fr. Dwight Longenecker has a great article on how we should all participate at Mass.  First, we must realize that the Mass is an offering and everyone here in Church is currently making this offering.  We are supposed to offer our life, our soul, our joys and sorrows here at Mass.  We should also offer our attention.  Fr. Dwight further states: 

“This is not passive. As Sacrosanctum Concilium says, it is ‘full and active’ This is what worship is.”. 

We accomplish this, not on our own but through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Next time when you arrive in your seat at Church, or even right now, beg the Holy Spirit to help you focus on the Mass, all of it, even the boring homily!  Put the phone and the bulletin down. “Time and a place”.

I’m often reminded of this in Adoration.  I try to do a few hours a week and sometimes it’s hard to focus on the fact that I am basking in the presence of Jesus Christ’s true divinity in the Eucharist, right there, right in front of me.  There have been times, I must confess that I have been more worried about work, or family obligations or even my phone vibrating to tell me somebody liked my post.  There are even times where I bowed my head to focus my prayer - and woken up 15 minutes later.   I’m reminded of Jesus talking to Peter 

“When Jesus returned to his disciples he found them asleep. He said to Peter, “So you could not keep watch with me for one hour?” 

“Time and a place”.

Those examples and others are when we should be Mary and not Martha.  We should be listening to Jesus with Him as our only focus as Mary did when he came to their house.  St. Gregory the Great paraphrased this well when he said: 

The merits of the active life are great, but of the contemplative, far better.

Of course, the converse also exists where we need to be like Martha as well.  For example, if we are having a party at our house and we have guests arriving that day it wouldn’t be prudent to sit on the back deck with a glass of lemonade reading scripture while the sink is full of dishes, the house is a mess and the food for the party is still at Stop and Shop.  In those moments we need to be Martha, working to prepare for the soon to arrive guests.  “Time and a place”.

How about if we are at work and we are spending hours reading scripture or praying and not actually doing our job?  Then we are leaning towards stealing time and pay from our company when instead we should be working, this becomes a moment of sin in this case.  “Time and a place”.

At confession one time, I told the priest that I wasn’t being attentive enough to prayer and reading scripture.  He knew I had children and also knew I was very involved with them teaching religious ed, coaching baseball and soccer and being a scout leader. He told me THAT is one of my prayers! As a father, if I were to be unattentive to my family that would be a sin as well.  He quoted 1 Thessalonians 5:17 “pray without ceasing”.  That is how you do it, you make the mundane tasks at work or that long and boring homework assignment an offering to God. We should also make the joyous times with family an offering to God.  When we can realize this attitude, balance scripture, prayer, work and family with the help of the Holy Spirit, then we can find that it won’t matter where we are or what we are doing but by making God present in all of our moments both great and small we will indeed understand correctly -  “Time and a place”.

If we do this we will fall in line with what St. Augustine meant when he said:

“It is not by change of place that we can come nearer to Him who is in every place, but by the cultivation of pure desires and virtuous habits.”

Keep the flame alive

On June 9th, 2019 I was blessed to be able to preach on Pentecost Sunday.  When I said I would preach however I had no idea we had so many choices of readings, including totally different vigil readings to that of Mass during the day!  

Here are the links for the readings:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/060919-vigil.cfm

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/060919-day.cfm


Easter season is coming to an end and here in Massachusetts we now enter our pine pollen season!!  All kidding aside, however, over the Easter season, our liturgy, our Church, and the Holy Spirit have taken us on an amazing journey until today’s celebration of not just Pentecost, but also the birth of our Church!  No worries, I will NOT torture you with a poor rendition of singing happy birthday to our Church but it is indeed a monumental celebration today!

During the Easter season, we had many “Holy Spirit” moments.  The bishop was here for our confirmation where the confirmandi received the Holy Spirit.  Our diocese also joined in a novena to the Holy Spirit to ask for a strengthening of the 7 gifts in each of us, the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, understanding, piety, and fear of the Lord.  We held several baptisms, our second graders received their first communion, myself as well as 8 other men with me, received the sacrament of Holy Orders as permanent deacons in the Fall River Diocese, and our friend, Fr. Ryan Healy received the sacrament of Holy Orders as a priest for the Fall River diocese.   Now today we wear red vestments to symbolize the presence of the Holy Spirit that is indeed alive and well in our little East Taunton Church just as it was over 2000 years ago.

For a moment, let’s try to go back in time and imagine what it was like so many years ago.  Jesus had been put to death around 40 days ago.  The followers of Christ were floundering around a bit, still a little lost.  Jesus ascended 10 days ago and told them to remain in the city and wait for the Helper, the Paraclete.  They listened, and now they have all gathered around together and were celebrating the Jewish Feast of Weeks also known as Pentecost where Jews would travel to Jerusalem to celebrate their delivery from slavery into freedom and the covenant Law that God delivered to Moses at Mt. Sinai.

Suddenly the promise that the Holy Spirit would arrive came to fulfillment.  There was a sound like a strong wind.  Tongues as of fire came to rest on each of them.  They spoke in tongues and those gathered could understand their speeches even though they were foreigners to each other.  This was very different from the story of the Tower of Babel where, in their arrogance, the people thought they could build a tower to God. To put an end to this silliness God came down and confused their language and stopped them from building such a tower.  At Pentecost, we see just the opposite.  The Holy Spirit gives them all the spirit of understanding, even of languages they are not familiar with.  With this divine action, the Holy Spirit is about to give birth to a heavenly “city” on earth, the Church.  The original Law that God wrote on the stone tablets for Moses to give to God’s people at Sinai will now be written on our hearts instead.

This also got me thinking - what would be the result if this event happened today in time.  If right now in our Churches we heard the driving wind and tongues of fire came to rest on each of us what would happen?  Odds are the Churches sprinkler system would kick in and extinguish the flames.  

Then that line of thinking got me wondering - what are the things in our lives that do just that, extinguish the flame of the Holy Spirit that should always be burning within us.  

Is there some sin, some passion that is contrary to the Holy Spirit that we allow to put out that flame?  Is it too much time at work?  To much time put into lawn care or sports or cleaning or anything that moves God to the side and becomes a fire extinguisher to the flame of the Holy Spirit.

Instead, we need to find the things that will fuel the fire of the Holy Spirit making it stronger than those other passions!   These things should include prayer, forgiveness, reading scripture, rosaries, frequent reception of the sacraments of the Eucharist and Confession.  Eucharistic adoration is great kindling to help fuel the fire of the Holy Spirit - we have this here in our Holy Family Parish, Monday through Friday 11 am to 10 pm in the Parish Center Chapel.   There are many other things to help fuel the fire, this is not an exhaustive list, what ideas can you come up with?

So why would we want to keep the fire of the Holy Spirit burning in us?  In our choices of readings today we see several reasons to keep the fire of the Holy Spirit going:

• Without the Spirit, we could not say Jesus is Lord.
• The Spirit is manifested in each of us for some benefit, pray about what that is and use the manifestation to build up the Church.
• If we have the Spirit alive in us we also have Christ alive in us as well, they go hand in hand!
• By allowing us to be led by the Spirit we become children of God.  We receive a Spirit of adoption that allows us to cry “Abba, Father!”
• If we are children of God then we are also joint heirs with Christ.
• If we have the Spirit then the whole trinity makes it’s dwelling within us!
• The Spirit will also come to the aid of our weakness and will teach us how to pray properly.

That’s probably where we need the Spirit the most, to teach us how to pray properly to assist us in our weaknesses.  If we can do this properly then the fire of the Spirit will not be extinguished when we leave the parking lot (or even before that) but will remain burning brightly all week long!  We no longer light the Easter candle at Sunday Mass but we must remember to keep that flame burning in our hearts, burning with the fire of the Holy Spirit and take that flame out into the world with us.

This week let's all ponder this prayer from St. Augustine:

O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.