Meeting in Prayer

Homily for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Amos 8.4-7 Psalm 113 1 Timothy 2.1-8 Luke 16.1-13

Click here to listen to or download an audio (mp3) file of this homily.

There is so much in my mind this weekend, as we gather here to pray. Maybe it’s a symptom of the digital age, a result of the speed of information and news crossing the globe and projected into our lives in so many ways. There is much to reflect on – there always is – but this week seems especially full. On a global level, the real-life drama of the 33 miners trapped in Chile continues to unfold, and we continue to see the effects of hurricanes, floods, and oil spills all over the world. Here is the US, a final round of primary contests means that the news and campaigning for this fall’s election has begun in earnest. In the religious world, of course, the highlight of the week has been Pope Benedict’s monumental trip to England and Scotland, meeting with both Queen Elizabeth, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, and victims of clergy sexual abuse, to name a few. And here on the local level, we have been shocked by the news that a much-loved local priest has been diagnosed with cancer. Here, today, around this table of the Eucharist, we’re not going to solve the problems of the world – we can’t free the trapped minors, or determine the results of elections, or bring about the unity of Christians. Here, today, gathered as a Christian community, we’re not going to find a cure for cancer. But what we can do is pray.

St. Paul gives us an outline for prayer in his First Letter to Timothy. We are to pray first for everyone – for all people throughout the world, especially those who are in need. Then, we are to pray for government leaders – for kings, as St. Paul says, but also for presidents and governors and members of congress and any other person with authority. And, finally, we are to pray for ourselves, that we may lead a “quiet and tranquil life.” It’s one of the most important things we do here, as a Church, or wherever we gather. It’s even our duty, to remember one another in prayer, to commend one another to the grace of God. Because it is prayer that we meet. It is in prayer that we meet God, that we try to make our will and God’s will come together. And it is in prayer that we meet one another, both here on earth and in the life to come, as prayer spans the miles and even the barrier of death to unite us in the same purpose and the same posture before our Lord. In prayer, we meet God, we meet one another, and united together, we can face anything that comes our way.

And so this week, there is much to pray for – maybe more than other weeks, from one perspective, but not necessarily. All the prayers that have occupied our hearts are brought here to this table, where we lay them before our Lord and Savior. We pray for a greater understanding and unity among Christians, that we may work together for the good of all people and the peace of our world. We pray for Fr. Mike Hilderbrand and the countless people in our families and community who suffer from cancer and other diseases. We pray that the men and women elected to public office consider first and foremost in their decisions the dignity of the human person, from the child in the womb to the family living in poverty to the elderly and retired. We pray for each of us, that we may become more and more like Christ each day. Through these prayers, we grow as individual Christians and as a Church. Because it is in prayer that we meet Christ and one another.