(the following is a homily given on the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 20, 2014)
Human Beings have the propensity of groaning
as it were, for the pleasures of this life that will fade, and
depending
on our own frailty to overcome time's
shackles. It is because of this
that, as St. Paul tells us today, “we
do not know how to pray as we ought.” We
don't know, because we don't know what to pray for.
If
we allow them, though, our readings today point how to pray
rightly.
If
you will turn to the readings and follow along, I hope you might be able to catch
the theme here of how to pray the way we are meant to pray.
In
our first reading, [Wisdom 12] we are given a foundation
for prayer by telling us
of the truth of God as God alone, having “no
gods besides [him]” and
whose might is itself the “source
of all justice.” It
goes on to say that the mark of true
justice is leniency
and kindness,
and
that if
we are to be just, we must mirror
this kindness and mercy
in our actions
with others. This
passage prepares the soil
of our heart to
comprehend what it is we are to seek; the
type of prayer
we are called to pray by showing us, first of all, that God
indeed exists, is
present to us, and
deserves our worship.
As
we follow along in the readings, we can recognize that our
responsorial psalm describes not
just that there is a
God, but who
this God is: The“LORD, good and
forgiving, abounding in kindness;... great and wondrous in His
deeds;... merciful, gracious, and faithful” (see Responsorial Psalm) This
description is meant to show us that this God is not
simply an arbiter or an overseer,
but
one who cares for those in
his keep; one who
personifies
what it means to love.
Our
New Testament reading (Romans 8:26-27) shows us that this same God of
Love knows
our weaknesses; that
we are powerless to overcome the sting
of sin and death
without his help. Paul
tells us that God sends His Spirit “to
the aid of our weakness ... [to] intercede with inexpressible
groanings”
for
us.
This
word – GROANING
– is interesting. The
Catechism of the Catholic Church
interprets it to mean the Christian
prayer of petition.
This petition “arises
from the depth of creation”
like “labor
pains”
as it awaits its redemption. (See CCC, #2630) Petitions
are made effective not
in their own power, but by
the grace given by the Holy Spirit,
who
evangelizes
this prayer, purifying
it to be in line with Christ's
prayer of his life, death and resurrection. Yes:
Christ's life was a petition – for us to the Father.
And so,
Christian petition is meant to imitate Christ, in whom we see God's
love in a way that makes love more
than an abstract thought.
It
shows us that God's love is not simply an idea
or a feeling,
but a Person.
A
Person
who is completely self-giving
and generous.
A
Person
who spreads the seed
of his grace
with abandon,
into the hearts of believers and non-believers alike;
a
Person
who “expiated
the sins of”
us
all
through his own groaning
upon the Cross
so that we
can live in His Love and so be lifted
up
to divinity.
Paul
shows us that with petition comes the cultivation
of our stony hearts because it is “founded
on the prayer of the spirit in
us
and on the faithful love of the Father who has given his only Son.”
(See CCC #2734)
In
petition, we discover a God who knows
what we need before we ask him,
but
waits for our prayers
to act because our dignity
as human beings lies in the free
will God has granted to us:
it
is what makes us share in God's image.
St
Paul challenges us by telling us that we “do
not know how to pray as we ought,”
because how we ought to pray, in the end, MUST transcend our
selfishness
and limitations, and
so imprint
the image of Christ's love
onto the core of our soul.
This is where the
Gospel reading for today comes in. Here
in Matthew 13,
we read of the “man who
sows good seed in his field”
but in the night, his enemy comes and sows weeds
along with the wheat. For
me, I read this passage on a personal
level,
the level
of the soul.
In
everyone, the
weeds of sin are mixed with the wheat
of grace
and gift from God. When
we choose to live a life nourished
by the weeds,
we move away from God's love, falling into more sins that further
prevent the radiation of His sanctification like
clouds in front of the sun.
But
if we choose to live on
the wheat of God's grace,
we will be surprised to see the fields
of our souls
will be made new.
One
of the great fathers of the Church, St.
Ignatius of Antioch
had
this to say concerning this important choice:
“two
things, life
and death,
are side by side set before us, …
Just
as there are two
coinages,
one of God
and the other of the world,
each with its own image,
so unbelievers
bear the image of this world,
and those
who have faith with love bear the image of God
the Father through Jesus Christ.” (See Office of Readings for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time)
Here,
my friends, we see what “praying
rightly” looks
like. It
is not going through the
motions of Christianity; it
is not coming to feel
better about yourself; it
is not in defining your
existence on your
productivity or
your successes
or your failures
or your pride
or your shame.
No,
right prayer is
simply receiving
what God desires to give us – and
that is everlasting life
Our
charge, then, is
found not in
choosing our own image,
but
choosing God's
image. Our
hope is found not
in
our finite selfishness,
but in God's
infinite Love. And
our salvation
is found not in
the death sown
into our hearts by the enemy of sin, but
in the
life reaped by the redemption of Christ, and
given to us here, today,
in
the Bread
of Finest Wheat.
