Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle C (Children)

 

Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle C (3)

 

“Is anybody listening? Is anybody listening? Please somebody help me! My husband has collapsed and I do not know how to fly a plane!” These are the words of a desperate North Carolina woman whose husband, an accomplished pilot, had just died suddenly of a heart attack at the controls of their tiny aircraft.

She had not been very enthusiastic about flying in the first place, but it was the great joy of his life. She went along reluctantly, but she had never paid any attention to how he operated the plane. By her own admission, she had never even closed the door of the aircraft by herself before. Now there she was 3500 feet above the ground soaring through the air with no idea of how to keep the plane aloft or even more importantly, how to bring it in for a landing.

Her only thought was to press the button on the microphone as she had seen her husband do so many times before and pray that someone would pick up her desperate signal. “Is anybody listening? Is anybody listening?” Fortunately, even miraculously, someone was listening, a seasoned pilot who calmly instructed her step by step to a perfect landing.

I wish I could say that is a perfect analogy of the way prayer works. We have a deeply felt need. We bow our heads, perhaps get on our knees. We pray, “Is anybody listening?” And suddenly a voice answers and calmly instructs us step by step until all of our needs are met and all of our problems are solved. I wish it was that simple. There was a cartoon sometime back in which a little fellow said with disgust, “Uncle Jim still doesn’t have a job, Sis still doesn’t have a date for that prom, Grandma is still feeling poor. I’m tired of praying for this family and not getting results.”

Prayer is sometimes like that. It sometimes seems that there is no one listening, though in our heart of hearts we know that is not so. It seems like we do not get results, at least not the results that we had hoped for. What is the problem? Where have we gone wrong? Lucy in a “Peanuts” cartoon once told Charlie Brown that she had discovered that if she held her hands upside down she got the exact opposite of what she had prayed for. Is that the secret? Do we need to vary the position of our hands? That is absurd, of course, but the fact remains that prayer is one of the most puzzling experiences in the Christian life.

No wonder the disciples came to Jesus one day and asked, “Teach us to pray.” Teach us to pray. Does that not say to you and to me that prayer is more than the impulsive babbling of a soul in need? “Teach us to pray.” There is a right way and a wrong way to pray. There have been persons who have forsaken the faith because they prayed and did not receive what they expected. Others have prayed and it has drawn them closer to their Lord than ever, even though they, too, may have had to alter their expectations. What is the difference? Is there an art, maybe even a science to prayer?

Jesus answered his disciples’ request with a model prayer-one which we know, of course, as the Lord’s Prayer. “When ye pray, say, ‘Our Father. ‘” The beginning of the most famous prayer ever uttered. How simple it is. How brief. Like Lincoln’s Gettysburg address there is an economy of language that enhances its beauty. We do not have to be wordy when we pray. After all, the Lord knows our heart. We hide nothing.

There is an obvious structure to the Lord’s prayer. I wonder if you have ever noticed it. FIRST OF ALL, FIFTY PERCENT OF THE PRAYER IS FOCUSED ON GOD, NOT UPON THE PERSON DOING THE PRAYING. “Our Father which art in Heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” All that is said before we get to “Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

The next time you are having prayer-time, examine your prayer. How much of the prayer is devoted to your own wants and wishes? How much of you prayer is devoted to the praise of God? John Trevor Davies in his book, LORD OF ALL, tells about a society matron who went to see a famous psychotherapist. He said at the first interview, “Now tell me all about yourself.” She needed no second invitation. At the end of the hour the doctor said, “That will do for now. I’ll see you again tomorrow.” The same formula was repeated several times a week for some weeks. Finally in exasperation the doctor said to the woman, “I advise you to take the first train to Niagara Falls, and there take a long, lingering look at something bigger than yourself.”

Prayer is time spent in the presence of One far greater than ourselves. We need to remind ourselves of that. We give God praise not to remind him of who he is but to remind ourselves. He is the Creator–we are the creation. Helen Fling once used this analogy. She told the story of a young stamp collector who wrote to Buckingham Palace asking for a special stamp to add to his collection. His request for the stamp was denied, but he was granted a visit with King George V, who was keenly interested in stamps also. Afterward, as the young boy recounted his experience the stamp itself seemed insignificant. “Real prayer is like this,” writes Ms. Fling, “to have fellowship with the King of Kings is far better than to have a specific request granted.” (1)

We are such self-centered creatures. You may be familiar with a recent publication entitled, THE STATUS BOOK. In it the author, Gary Blake, tells us how to be “one-up”on our neighbors. He suggests some surefire status moves: 1. Insure your property with Lloyd’s of London; 2. become a delegate to a national convention; 3. write a song and have it copyrighted; 4. have an audience with the Pope, etc. Having an audience with the Pope will boost our feeling of self-importance, but having an audience with God will do more than that. It will help us put our lives into perspective. “It is he that hath made us and not we ourselves…..”

Consider your prayer life. Is it centered in yourself or it is centered in God? The first half of the Lord’s prayer is centered in God.

IN THE SECOND PLACE, NOTICE HOW SIMPLE ARE THE PETITIONS THAT JESUS GIVE US. “Give us this day our daily bread….” You can’t get much simpler that. “Lord, meet my needs for the day…” That is another way of stating the matter. Could you be satisfied with that kind of request–Lord, give me what I need? Would you trust God to know what you need and to provide it or do you feel more comfortable taking a shopping list with you what you need when you go to pray?

Some of you may remember a satirical song by Janis Joplin many decades ago. “Lord, please send me a Mercedes Benz. My friends all drives Porsches, I must make amends….” She has her shopping list: a color TV, a night on the town. “Show me you love me,” she sings, “and buy the next round…” Our prayers are not that bad, of course. But few of us are willing to settle for our “daily bread.”

Simple petitions, “Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us….” Of all of our emotions there are two that are the most destructive to us; two that keep us in bondage; two that keep us from achieving our noblest aspirations and grandest dreams. The two are fear and guilt. That’s what psychologists tell us. Notice how Jesus deals with both of these crippling emotions. “Our daily bread”…our need for security; and “forgive us our sins”…our need to be absolved of our guilt.

“And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil…” Plato once said that the wise man will always choose to suffer wrong rather than to do wrong. Mature Christians know that he was right. O. Henry once told a story about a young man who went from a tiny village in the countryside to a large city. In the village he had grown up among good people. In his school he sat next to a very kind young girl of whom he was fond. When he got to the city, however, he forgot his upbringing. He fell into a life of crime. He became a petty pickpocket. He thought nothing about it until one day he picked a man’s pocket as he had done so many times before, but this time a pair of eyes were on him. It was that young girl, now a young woman. He looked at her in her innocence and beauty and then at himself in his shame-filled and tawdry life. Then he leaned against a lamppost and moaned.

“I would rather suffer wrong than do wrong.” Simple petitions dealing with our deepest needs: daily bread, forgiveness of sins, help in resisting evil. Are your prayers like that?

There is one thing more to be said about the Lord’s prayer. THE ENTIRE FOUNDATION OF THIS PRAYER IS TRUST–TRUST IN THE FATHER’S LOVE AND TRUST IN HIS ABILITY TO PROVIDE FOR HIS CHILDREN. ” For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and for ever.” In the mass we say this but not usually when we pray the our father. It was the intention of many at the Vatican council too that we would join the rest of Christianity in praying those words. Paul the 6th Saint Paul the 6th added them to the mass but put a prayer that deliver us prayer in before it asking that a future pontiff remove the prayer. When the time came up for that to happen Pope St. John Paul the second decided not to make the change but left it in so that we would be familiar with the prayer ending. you have noticed that these last words do not appear in Luke’s Gospel. The church added these words as the prayer became formalized, based upon assuming Jesus used a Jewish prayer ending.. It is because God is in control of this universe that we have the confidence to pray believing that he hears our prayers and is sympathetic to our concerns. We trust that whatever answer we receive is in our best interest.

In one of his books, Bruce Larson tells about a tragic plane crash in his area. A plane flying in fog had crashed into the side of a mountain. A commercial pilot told Bruce that such crashes were tragic and unnecessary. “Pilots are taught,” he said, “To go up when they can’t see in a fog. They keep going up until they CAN see.” That’s what happens when we make our requests to God and then pray. “For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and for ever.” We are taking that step of faith that says, “Your view of my life is superior to my view. I trust you to meet my needs.”

1. Stanley Jones once told about two men praying. One prayed, “Lord, please help me to hold on.” The other prayed, “Lord, please help me to let go.” When we have made our earnest pleas to God, then we need to pray for the ability to ˜let go.” This is His world and we are His children. He will not forget us or forsake us.

The grandest prayer ever prayed. Fifty percent of it is focused upon the nature and wonder of God. When requests are made of God, they are simple requests-daily bread, forgiveness of sins, protection from evil. Underlying the prayer is a basic confidence. This is our Father’s world. We are His children. All things do work together for good to those who love. For His is ” the kingdom, the power and the glory now and for ever.”.” Amen.

1. Helen Fling “Abiding in Him Through Prayer,” Star Ideas (Birmingham: Women’s Missionary Union), p.6.

Dynamic Preaching, Collected Sermons, by King Duncan

  

Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle C (2)

Used with permission of Fr Joseph Pelegrino

“Teach us how to pray,” the disciples asked Jesus. souls. We want to pray. We want to be with God.  This is the longing of our  Prayer is what we are about, not just here in Church but as people committed to  Jesus Christ. We need to nurture our dialogue with him, our prayer Life. We come to  Mass to pray the Lord’s Supper as a community and to reverence the Lord within us in  communion. We call out to the Lord throughout our day whether it is simply grace  before meals, or speaking to the Lord the three meditations: God loves me  unconditionally, God forgives me and God is with me, or whether it is devotional  prayers like the Rosary, or night prayer. Our days are meant to be united to God in  prayer. Prayer expresses who we are, the People of God.
                    Recently, I came upon one of the invitations I sent out forty-eight years ago for  my first Mass in my home parish, St. James of the Marches in Totowa, NJ. At the  bottom of the invitation I wrote, “Come and pray with me.” It seemed right at the time,  but I look at that phrase now with a great deal of embarrassment. Now I would write,  “Come and let us pray together.” Your prayers strengthen me. The union of our  prayers intensifies the presence of God in our community. .
                    We need each other for our prayer life to grow. We need each other so we can  really celebrate God’s presence to such an extent that He becomes present on the  altar through the gift of Holy Orders. Sometimes, I come upon people who say that  they don’t attend Church, but they pray on their own. I think it is great that they are  praying, but I also know that they are depriving themselves of the greatest prayer, the  prayer of Jesus Christ at the Last Supper, on the Cross and at Easter. It is great that  they are praying alone, but by refusing to join the community they are depriving  themselves of the Eucharist.
                  .  Maybe we all need to reflect a bit about 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, Jesus Christ comes inside of us. He is  closer to us than our skin. When we receive communion, we worship Him within us  with our whole being. All of us love Eucharistic Adoration. All of us love reverencing  the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, when the Lord is exposed in the monstrance or  processed around the congregation. Eucharistic adoration is wonderful. But there is  something infinitely better than Eucharistic Adoration. That is receiving communion.  No Eucharistic service is better than receiving communion. In a few moments and  every time we receive communion we take Jesus within our selves. He is there at the  Last Supper, looking at each person here and saying this is my body, this is my blood,  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 to be inside 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 to us every day. The Eucharist, Holy Communion, the  Presence of the Living Lord at the Last Supper, on the Cross and at the Resurrection is  within us whenever we receive communion.
                    “Teach us to pray, Lord,” the apostles asked. He taught them the Lord’s Prayer,  and He gave us the Eucharist.   

 

 

Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle C (1)

 

From Fr DeSiano

I was late for dinner so I was happy the #1 train could take me from 28th to 72bd; I didn’t have to wait. I crammed my suitcase into the subway car and proceeded to ignore all the other passengers in good NYC style. No sooner had we left the station when a man entered from the next car and proceeded to size us up. “Ladies and gentlemen, can I have your attention,” he yells out. New Yorkers do not even look at each other, let alone give speeches, in the subway. He proceeded to tell us that his apartment caught fire, his and three other families were homeless. Surely we could help! Then he passes his water glass around with some small changes so we could properly donate. This is a major boundary violation in NY, but a minute later his wife started the same spiel. We were trapped. The next stop a man with portable African drums entered. After banging them a bit, he shouted, “Ladies and gentlemen, show me how much you appreciated my music …”

I later thought how their day went, car by car, train by train, probably for hours, giving the same pitch to people who didn’t want to hear it. Whatever they were, they surely were persistent. And perhaps desperate too.

I’m not sure Jesus would have done the subway bit if he lived today, but he would well have understood desperation. We hear the short form of the Our Father, almost as if Jesus were out if breath. Then he gives us this parable of desperation, the man knocking on the neighbor’s door in the middle of the night so could borrow food. We usually pay attention trained on the man inside, but I think Jesus wants us to think about the one knocking… He wants us to know we are as desperate as that man…we have to keep knocking hard.

“Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find…” But perhaps we have not begun to get even that far, because we haven’t learned how to pray persistently. It’s as if we were Abraham in the first reading, but we give up after one modest request. God wants us to cry out and keep crying out, in prayer to him.

Wait, we ask. Is God hard of hearing? Is he demented? I thought he already knew my prayer. What’s up? God surely knows and hears our prayer, but we don’t pray for his sake but for ours—so we will learn the deepest contours of our own hearts. We so often ask insipidly for insipid things in our prayers; God wants us to ask boldly for the great and essential things we truly need.

Prayer opens a dimension of heaven in our lives. It allows the extraordinary and unexpected to emerge in our lives. In prayer we see and know things not otherwise visible. “Seek, ask, knock.” If we do this in trust, things come into our lives we never imagined, not in the form of magic but in the form of God’s abundant love.

At this Mass our prayer is joined to Christ’s, he who prays without stopping for us. He prays because he knows our needs. He teaches us what and how to pray so we can finally come to know our own true and deepest needs as well.

“Ladies and gentlemen, can I have your attention!” Jesus calls to us in our desperation, waiting until we respond in prayer.