October 7th - 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (English) Fr. Chris
October 21st - 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (English) Fr. Chris
October 28th - 30th Sunday in
Ordinary Time (English) Fr. Chris
A juggler with a circus was pulled over for speeding.
The officer was suspicious when he looked in the back seat and saw several
large knives. “What are you doing with those?” he asked.
“I’m a juggler with the circus,” said the man. “To make
it more exciting I juggle those large knives.” So, the officer demanded
to be shown. The juggler started juggling six of these large knives
all at once. Knives were flying everywhere, yet all were under his
expert control.
While he was performing, another car passed by. The
driver of this card did a double take when he saw the juggler throwing
six knives up in the air at one time and catching them. He turned
to his wife and said, “That’s it. I’m through drinking. Why,
if I ever got stopped, I could never pass one of those new sobriety tests!”
The disciples saw faith as something like a test that had
to be passed. They were sent forth to preach the Good News and heal
the sick. They had some great success. They saw many people
become followers of Jesus. But they also found that there were things
they couldn’t do. They didn’t have much luck in exorcising a demon.
They didn’t know why. Jesus told them that they needed faith for
that. So, naturally the disciples saw faith as a commodity.
“Give us more faith,” they ask. They expect that Jesus would be able
to give them something to bolster their faith.
Faith is not a test and it’s not a commodity. It’s about
trust. Too often we tend to think of faith as belief. I think
the disciples did too. They probably thought they didn’t know enough.
They figured that as soon as Jesus gave them the right tools or the right
knowledge everything would be okay. But faith is not just beliefs.
It’s about trusting in God and in His providence. So often in Luke’s
Gospel Jesus points out people who have faith. These are people who
aren’t extraordinarily holy or special. They didn’t possess superior
knowledge. They are people like the centurion who says he is unworthy
to have Jesus under his roof, the prostitute who anoints his feet, the
elderly woman with the hemorrhage. In all of these cases faith was
a profound trust that Jesus could do something, even if it wasn’t obvious
what could be accomplished.
Jesus wants his apostles to realize that faith is about believing
in God even if the answers aren’t obvious. It’s discovered in vulnerable
humanity. The woman with the hemorrhage is changed by her encounter
with Christ. Somehow she trusted that even after all of the doctors
and specialists of her day said nothing more could be done, Christ could
still heal her.
This Sunday is called Respect Life Sunday in the Church.
It is a reminder that to say yes to life from conception to natural death
is often an act of faith. When a young woman hears that she is pregnant
even though she is not married she is called to trust that God will see
her through the pregnancy and adoption of that child. When another
family is told that their unborn child may have birth defects they are
asked to trust in God to help them cope with how their life will change.
Sometimes faith is required to believe that God loves even
terrible sinners. Their life is precious even if they didn’t treat
other human lives in that way. Using capital punishment to end the
life of murderer simply continues the cycle of death. Faith says
that even that person has a chance for reconciliation and a claim on us
to live.
Many times life gets very dark and sad. Depression,
loneliness, and fear can overtake us. It seems like a better choice
to end life. Suicide seems like the solution to the problems.
It isn’t. Making a profound act of faith, a person says that even
though everything looks terrible right now, the future is still possible.
God has better things in store for me.
God took on human flesh in Jesus Christ. He declared
that all life is precious. By reflecting on the cross we see that
even though we may not understand everything at the moment it all has a
purpose. When Jesus told his disciples to have trust like a slave.
He meant that they shouldn’t worry about how or when everything will be
answered. A slave has no right to ask the master why things are the
way they are. He must simply do his duty. You and I are called
to have that same kind of faith. God loves us profoundly. He
wants only the best for us. That should be enough. We trust
in him at all times in life. To do that is to have faith the size
of a mustard seed. It is faith sufficient to do great things.
In 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama a young black woman was riding
the bus home from work. She was tired from her labors and sat down.
As the bus filled there were more white people who came on. By law,
at that time, it was required that if a white person came on the bus and
there weren’t enough seats the black riders were supposed to stand and
let the white person sit down. This occurred on the evening of December
1st to Rosa Parks. She was asked by a white patron to stand even
though he didn’t appear to have any ailments and she was very tired.
She refused!
When the bus came to the next stop Rosa Parks was arrested
for not giving up her seat. Normally this kind of treatment would
have been enough for her never to make that mistake again. But that
didn’t happen. Instead she told all of her friends and neighbors,
including her pastor, Martin Luther King, Jr. and a boycott of the buses
was ordered. It took over a year of having the black citizens not
ride the buses before the city agreed to overturn that law. But even
more importantly that event began the civil rights movement for African
Americans. It happened not by any plan or design; almost by accident.
It happened when people decided that they would not give in, but persist
until the laws changed no matter how long it took.
That persistence is what Jesus calls his disciples to when
they pray. The parable that Jesus uses, like many of his parables,
uses characters who are so opposite. The judge, whose job it was
to mete out justice and care for the citizens did neither. He didn’t
hold God or people with much regard. He didn’t even care that much
whether justice was done. The person seeking justice is a woman,
who is a widow, and she is poor. Oops, three strikes against her.
She had no standing before the court or this judge in the first place.
Yet, she persists and finally the judge gives in, not out of love or respect,
but simply to get rid of the woman. Then Jesus asks the question
of his disciples, “Do you think that God who loves you with an abiding
love will not care for you? Do you think that He will not answer
your prayers?”
Of course, when you and I are asked that question our first
response is, “Of course God answers prayers.” But then we remember
how we prayed as a child for Grandpa to get better and he died. That
didn’t seem like God answered prayers. Later on when I prayed to
pass that important test, it didn’t work. I failed it and had to
make it up in the summer. Or, there was that time when I was praying
for a new job and nothing came. I got so worried that I couldn’t
pay the bills and take care of my family. Does God really answer
my prayers?
That is our dilemma. We know that God loves us.
We know that He answers prayers. We also know of many times when
it seems that God was absent or said no. So, what do we make of that?
Persistence means that we continually place ourselves in God’s
hands. We trust that God does answer prayers. But then we agree
that we allow God who knows us better than we know ourselves to answer
them in the way that will be best. We trust that sometimes the answer
to a prayer is no or not now. Or perhaps God is asking us to keep
our eyes and ears open to His work in a new and different way.
I think of a child who wants a toy for Christmas. The
parents know that this toy wouldn’t be appropriate. Yet, they worry
that if the child doesn’t get the toy she will be very disappointed.
What to do? They look to other interests the child has and try to
encourage her to take up those interests, so that on Christmas day when
she opens her gifts it will be something that she will really want and
enjoy. A parent knows these things about their children. God
knows that about us even more.
Most of us have searched our hearts to try to figure out why
the violence and horror happened to our country on September 11th.
No one knows exactly. Certainly it was an evil act done by people
with no regard for life or property. But maybe God will use this
tragedy to bring us together as a nation, to be attentive to the needs
of the starving children of Afghanistan and unite the world against terrorism.
Maybe this is a sign from God that all of His children need to work together
whether they are Jew, Muslim or Christian. I do not know if we will
continue to search for these answers. Jesus feared that when he returned
he wouldn’t find faith on the earth to trust Him.
God does answer prayers. He loves us with an abiding
love. He knows our needs better than we know them ourselves.
Will we trust Him to help us and guide us? Will we continue to pray
even when the answers don’t come the way we expect? I pray that we
will. Amen.
“Good morning, God! I hope all is well in heaven.
It certainly is not here. Oh no, there are far too many people on
earth who don’t follow your commandments. Luckily I am better than
those people. I am not like all the rest of those hypocrites.
I am not greedy.”
(God interrupts) “Excuse me, but didn’t I see you getting
jealous over that new lawn tractor that your neighbor bought? What
about the times that you decided to go into K-mart through another door
because you didn’t want to give a dollar to the kids collecting money outside
the main door? Hmm, what about those?”
(Man responds) “Well, that was justified. Those people
are all cheats and frauds anyway. How do I know that money will actually
help any poor person? I was just being prudent. Also, you know
how good I am, I have always been faithful to my spouse, not like that
neighbor that I have who lives with a woman that he isn’t married to.
You must really despise that too?”
(God) “I thought I saw you stopping at some of those
porn sites on the Internet that you don’t want your teenagers to see.
What about that time that you had an argument with your wife and you decided
to work instead of going home to make up? That wasn’t being very
loyal to your spouse and to your marriage.”
(Man) “Okay, you have me on that one, but you know I fast
twice a week and I pay tithes on everything I own, not just the 2% like
all those other people give.”
(God) “I know the real reason you fast so often. You
told your wife that you needed to lose a few pounds, so you thought it
would be a good way to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.”
(Man) “Look around, God, don’t you see how bad so many people
are. Look at how many of those teenagers in the neighborhood never
come to church. Then there are those people that I work with.
I know that they are lazy. They show up late and always look for
a way to get out of staying late. And, you know every time I go home
those jerks on the freeway cut me off and that makes it really hard not
to use your name in vain.”
(God) “I’ve noticed that and how you have been preoccupied
on your cell phone and didn’t notice that you almost hit that little old
lady driving slowly in the fast lane. You also were going pretty
fast in that neighborhood last week when you were running late. You
could have hit that child that darted into the street to retrieve a ball.
Oh, by the way, those teenagers that you complain about, how
you think they dress poorly and are rude and play loud music, you probably
didn’t notice that they were cleaning up the neighbor’s yard because he
was tending to his wife in the hospital. They thought it would be
a good gesture. Also, that time that you thought it wrong when your
co-worker was late to work. He had to take his sick child to the
doctor. He ended up having to wait longer than he thought in the
emergency room. I was with him on that day when he worried that his
child might not recover. That is often on his mind when he is working
and why it sometimes is hard to concentrate or why he has to leave early.
I guess you didn’t know that.”
(Man) “No I didn’t know those things.”
(God) “There are many things that you cannot see. I
love you very much. I see all the good that you do. But I also
see the good that others do, that you cannot know about. Trust me,
I am in control of everything. I lead all people to me by different
means. I hear the cries of those who call out to me when they are
sick or suffering, when they have fallen into sin and want to repent.
I hear their cries when they worry about their future, their jobs, and
their children. Look around you and see that my people need you.
They need your example and your goodness. They need your helping
hands and the zeal and energy you put into your faith. You can make
a difference. Instead of judging your neighbors and co-workers listen
more often. You have so much to offer. Know that I listen to
you too. Turn to me not only when your life is perfect, but even
when it isn’t. I don’t expect perfection. I desire a heart
that seeks my help for perfection. Can you do that?”
(Man) “Yes I can, thanks God for listening to me, even in
my pride. I won’t forget.” Amen.