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Hearts of Prayer: Sacred Liturgy - Homilies |
LORD, Teach Us to Pray
Homily for
Sunday, July 29, 2007- 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Fr. Joseph Rogers
Gn 18:20-32; Ps 138; Col 2:13-14; Lk
11:1-13
Today the Lord Jesus has two goals for us: (1) to know the true face
of the Father, and (2) to pray to him – to enter deeply into the
Father’s love. Most of us are thankful for our earthly fathers. My
dad is very generous. When I was in college I would write him a note
every now and then: “Dear Dad, no ‘mon’ – no fun, your Son.” He
would respond, “Dear Son, too bad, so sad, your Dad.” This was an
on-going joke of ours. Of course my dad would always help me. We
must be honest though: the face of fatherhood is deeply tarnished in
our personal experience and in our culture. Every earthly father is
called to be an image of the Father in heaven. Above all, those who
bear the title “father” feel the weight of our inadequacies, and we
ask for forgiveness. It is the name above every other name. The name
spoken from all eternity by the Son of God, the prayer that he
teaches us: Abba! Father! Jesus Christ, in his passion, reveals the
Father’s love. He is absolutely clear with us: God – the Father – is
Love.
In Genesis chapter 18 Abraham stands as the great negotiator. He
knows the Father’s heart. God is merciful, or he would have never
called Abram from Ur and made a covenant with him. God must come
down to Sodom and Gomorrah, for the earth is God’s dwelling place,
and sin can have no place in God’s dwelling. God must “see for
himself” the sins of the people. Genesis speaks to us typologically
– as a biblical foreshadowing – of the Incarnation. Ultimately, the
Word of God becomes flesh to “see for himself” – so that we might
see for ourselves: “And they shall look upon the one they have
pierced.” Abraham intercedes for a sinful people, “Lord, surely you
will not wipe away the innocent with the guilty? Suppose there were
fifty righteous people in the city? Forty-five? . . . Forty? . . .
Thirty? . . . Twenty? . . . Ten?” The reality is that the just man
is Abraham. There are not even two. There is one just man.
Eventually the psalmist will confess, “There is no priest, no
prophet among us, no, not a single just man.” This psalm strikes the
heart of Israel deeper and deeper as the land is lost and regained,
the Temple restored while iniquity reigns. St. Paul is the great
exegete, interpreter, of Abraham. In Romans he writes, “All have
sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. But we are justified
freely by his grace through redemption in Christ Jesus.” Christ
Jesus is the perfect mediator. He is the just man who cries out to
God, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do! I thirst!
Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. It is finished.” The
prayer of Jesus Christ is the single just voice who intercedes for
humanity, who calls upon the Merciful Heart of God the Father.
As Christians the prayer of Jesus, the only just voice, becomes our
own prayer. The Letter to the Colossians announces to us that “we
are buried with him by baptism” and “raised with him through faith
in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.” By faith and
baptism we die to the world – to the shackles of sin and death,
addiction, anxiety and fear – and we rise with Jesus Christ. We
continue to die and rise with him in the Sacrament of
Reconciliation. We receive the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, the
Spirit of the eternal prayer of the Son. “Father” – the word of the
Son – is our word, our prayer. My sisters and brothers, we must be
clear about this. We do not receive “Christian values” – although
they are important – by baptism. We receive God! We are new
creation! We become God’s presence on earth! Faith re-creates us! We
are children of God! As Christians we do not first bring values into
society; we bring us – and God-with-us. As the political debates
circulate there will be many discussions regarding personal beliefs
and society. As you enter the public square to discuss the great
issues of our day, we respect the institutional reality of the
separation of Church and State, but there can be no separation of
faith and life, faith and culture; democracy must be reconciled with
the reality of religious freedom, which does not mean that we put
our faith aside as we enter into dialogue – we bring our faith to
the table. You do not bring “values” into a culture. You bring you!
And you are a new creation! You are a child of God. That does not
mean we always speak a language of faith. We are confident that
creation itself reveals the glory of God. We appeal to language that
speaks to people where they are, the best we can, but we do not put
aside our beliefs – that would mean putting ourselves aside, putting
God aside.
We all know that merely receiving faith and baptism does not
necessarily result in a conversion of heart. I can vouch for that.
Like chocolate milk, grace has to be poured into the glass of milk
and stirred up, or it won’t be tasted. My sisters and brothers, we
have to pray. This is what the Lord Jesus is teaching us today.
Prayer stirs up grace in our hearts so that we begin to live the
life of grace, the life of children of God. Today we have seen Jesus
praying, and we ask with the disciples, “Lord, teach us to pray as
John taught his disciples.” The Lord gives us a prayer, the Our
Father, and it is the itinerary of Christian transformation – new
creation. The first word he teaches us is Father. But for us God is
not father as for the Greeks, in a universal, abstract sense; nor is
he primarily the father of a ransomed people, as he is the Father of
Israel. God is Father eternally – He is the Father of the Son who
exists eternally with Him: “At the fullness of time God sent his son
born of woman, born under the law, to liberate those under the law,
that they might become children of God. He has sent the Spirit into
our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” God is the eternal Father of
Jesus Christ. Before he ever created us – and even without us – He
is and always will be Father. Father is our basic prayer. Simply to
speak the word “Father” gives us life. God is above all our Father.
Sanctified be your name. We turn to the second commandment when we
here this petition, but the language seems to communicate something
more “may your name be sanctified” – because we have so tarnished
your name, Father. We have so sullied the face of Love that the name
God is even used for the sake of violence. Our sins and infidelities
have so tarnished your face, your name, that only you can sanctify
it. Only you can make your name holy. Forgive us, Lord. Thy Kingdom
come. Jesus is the King. When he reigns in our hearts, the Kingdom
of God is among us. He is the sure center of our lives. We ask him
to be our guide and Good Shepherd. Give us our daily bread. In Psalm
136, the Eucharistic hymn according to the Fathers of the Church,
the second to last title given to God is “He who gives bread to all
creatures.” God gives us the bread come down from heaven. He gives
us himself. The Eucharist is our nourishment for the journey. The
Eucharist is the strength and food of our prayer. To receive the
Eucharist is to receive the very life of God, who changes us and
inspires us to live Eucharistic lives. Forgive us our trespasses for
we are forgiving those who sin against us. We are called to be
merciful as our Father in heaven is merciful. How the words invite
us to repentance! In Confession we meet God who is rich in mercy. He
transforms us. We pray to be forgiven and so we seek him in the
Sacrament of Mercy. We ask him not to subject us to the test.
Strengthened by the Eucharist and Reconciliation, we are lead into
the prayer of the just man – Jesus’ prayer becomes our own. We are
one with him.
Our Father in heaven will give the
Holy Spirit to all who ask. Let us ask! This is the reality of
Christian prayer: we are totally His! The love of God has been
poured into our hearts, so we cry, Abba, Father!
Fr. Joseph Everett
Rogers resides at the Pontifical North American College
in Rome studying for the
Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. He is a Graduate of Notre Dame
University, with an MA from the John Paul Institute for Marriage and
Family. He was ordained a Priest on May 26, 2007.
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