How Do You Pray? (Gn 18:20-32; Lk 11:1-13)

I remember as a child, my mom or my dad taking me to bed and telling me to say my prayers.  As a child, prayers were simple.  My dad, a Baptist preacher, taught me to talk to God like I was talking to him.  Thank God for what I was given.  Ask God to watch over me.  Ask God to bless me and those I loved.  Then tell God what bothered me.  These prayers grew as I grew.  

My parents were never wealthy or even financially secure.  I know they lived paycheck to paycheck most of my dad's life.  He never lost faith no matter how hard the times.  My mom, although a little more dramatic, never lost faith.  The one thing that they always told their children no matter what the problems,  pray.  Thank God for what you have.  Ask God to watch over your family and to bless those that you love.

My father has been dead for over 25 years.  I am now becoming an old man.  I know that my father still prays for me.  My mother tells me she prays for me.  The advice she still gives to her children me is never lose faith.  No matter what your problems you can bring them to God and offer them in prayer.   

This is what Abraham did.  He saw the problems and drew closer to God.  He petitioned God for the people of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Abraham bargained with God to save the cities and to protect the good people despite the bad.  God heard Abraham.  The people of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, however, did not hear God.  

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus gives his disciples a very basic version of the Lord's prayer.  Praise God.  Ask God for your basic needs.  Ask God to bless you and those around you with forgiveness.  Ask God to protect you from the bad that is in the world.

I have known both of these types of prayer.  There have been times in my life that I have bargained with God.  Like Abraham, I tried to make God come to my terms and maybe God did, but I may have been like the peoples of those condemned cities and did not hear God.  

As my faith grew, most of my prayers became like the one that Jesus gave his disciples.  It is a prayer that I try to live in every moment of my life.  I remember that it is the same simple prayer my parents taught and believed.  I looked back and realized that I have always lived by this example. I thank God for my blessings.  I ask God to protect me and the ones I love.  In my prayers, I am seeking. I am knocking.  I am persistent.

As I have grown older, my prayers become more like the prayers of my childhood.  The prayers that my parents taught me.  In the same simple way to pray that Jesus showed his disciples. 

How do I pray?  I pray always seeking.  I pray always knocking.  I pray persistently.  I pray with a simple childlike heart.  The is a difference between now and that child almost 50 years ago.  Now, I know that in Jesus Christ everyone is loved.  I know that Jesus love me so much, that his prayers and his life were given for me.  So, how do I pray?  Hopefully, like Jesus, simple, with my whole heart in forgiveness and love for everyone. 

If you have a child or a grandchild or bother or a sister pray with them so they learn to pray.  If you think you do not know how to pray, pray in the simplest way.   God knows your heart.  How do you pray?  Just begin.

I Saw Jesus Yesterday (Mt 12:1-8)

I saw Jesus yesterday.  Here in Northeast Louisiana in a small town, that sits under a rusting mountain of a papermill that was once the life blood of the town. Mostly, what is left is smaller businesses and outside of town rows of cotton, soybeans, and corn.  The stop lights on the main roads, Walmart, and some chain restaurants are why people stop if your not from the community or not coming to one of the festivals that every now and then brings the outside to this town.  It is a place where those not from this part of the world usually think hatred, bigotry, and intolerance only exists.  I saw Jesus yesterday.

Jesus told the Pharisees that something greater than the temple is here, "I desire mercy not sacrifice"  This is where I saw Jesus.  I drove up to a local restaurant to eat lunch with my wife, as I got out of my car and walk to my wife's car to meet her, I notice two young men walk out of the restaurant and get into their car.  They were well dressed in shorts, t-shirts, and baseball caps.  After they left, an elderly woman, old enough that her walk was a shuffle, her hair piled on top of her head in a style from 40 years ago, walked out the  door.  She stopped at the edge of the entry walk, looking down at the 8-9 inch step down to the parking lot.  

I was a parking lot away; but, I saw Jesus.  

The two young men who had left earlier, stopped their car next to the entrance of the restaurant and the passenger got out and asked "Ma'am, would you like some help."  He held out his arm, muscled and tattooed for her to take.

The elderly lady, reached out with her pale white hand that was the map of her life in blue veins and liver spots and placed it on the inked and muscular forearm of a young black man who smiled down at her.  I saw Jesus in his smile.  I saw Jesus, as she smiled back.  I saw Jesus in the young man who waited patently in the car as his friend showed mercy to a stranger.

I heard the president say to the world that he was Trayvon Martin.  That all young African American men are victims of prejudice.  Yet, I also remember when what I saw in that parking lot would not have happened.

If George Zimmerman had seen Jesus in Trayvon Martin or Trayvon had seen Jesus in George would we be talking about these two men.  I do not know if either knew God or had a relationship with Jesus.  Many people who speak hate and violence often do it doe God or in Jesus's name. 

Jesus says there is more to the temple, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." This is what should be talked about around the table and among us.  We should talk about the people who express the mercy that Jesus desires, when people see Jesus in each other.  

A Pillow of Rest (Mt 11:28-30)

In Mathew, Jesus tells us, "Come to me all you who labor and are heavy burdened and I will give you rest, for I am gentle and humble of heart."  This is a message of love.  It is a message of love we should apply to ourselves and those around us.  The labored and burdened suffer from injustice.  Injustice suffers both victims and proliferators.  Yet, Jesus's words offer a promise of perserverance in our darkest times. 

 

As I read and study, God opens my eyes to the reality of the world.  The world has prejudiced me in my thoughts and views in ways which may have championed injustice.  These are just some of the burdens that I bring to Jesus.  I want to leave that yoke that ties me to those burdens behind and put on Christ's yoke.  

The more I learn, the more I love.  Knowing God's love humbles me.  It lets me know that God is sharing in the labor and burden of those seeking rest.  It is through our Lord Jesus Christ, whose humiliation, suffering, and death that God knows our burdens.  

 

In striving to learn how God works in the world and the truth of God’s promise to humanity, the more I learn the more I love.  I have learned and realized Christ’s promise, “Whoever believes has eternal life.”   This is the yoke that becomes my pillow of that promised rest.

 

 

The Good Samaritan - A Sign of Peace

Moses tells us that God's commandment is written on our hearts. This is the ultimate truth in the parable of the Good Samaritan. It is found in the kindness and goodness that the grace of God has placed in us and is Christ's love and peace. 

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the man was robbed and beaten, stripped of his clothing, and left to the side of the road for dead. But I think the parable holds the truth that the one attacked was not the only victim. Jesus tells us of all the victims.

God's commandment is written on our hearts and this is the greatest commandment that Jesus talks about. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind."   Jesus adds "Love your neighbor as you love yourself," which is a continuation of the first part of the commandment. God is in your neighbor as part of God's creation. 

By identifying this greatest commandment, Jesus reminds the lawyer of more.  There are too many distractions in the World from this commandment.   The lawyer would of known all that Moses said. The commandment is not a mystery you don't look to the sky, you don't look across the sea.  It is in you and all you have to do is carry it out.

When the lawyers asks "Who is my neighbor?"  He shows that even though he knows the commandment, he does not understand it.  He has the expectations of the world distractions.  This distractions make us all victims.  Victims of sin.

Like the priest who was too worried about the Law.  Every thing else that was written down, not God's greatest commandment written on his heart. 

Like the Levite, a temple official who was too worried about the distraction to status. A distraction from what should have been written on his heart.

Both were victims of the robbery.  It robbed them of the greatest commandment.  The victim was stripped of everything that protected him from the outside world; but, the priest and levite were stripped of the love for God and their neighbor.  Their souls left for dead.

How many of us can say we are truly the Good Samaritan? We all posse the love of Christ that makes us so full of kindness and goodness that we want to go out of our way to help our neighbors and bring comfort. Go our of our way to rid ourselves of intolerance and prejudice and bring justice to the poor.  But, many of us have distractions that make us fail as a Good Samaritan.

We all fail.   I work so hard to make myself God's servant, a follower, and minister of God's word.  We all fail.  It's hard to be a Good Samaritan. Sometimes the world puts so much in our way.

But there are so many ways to be a Good Samaritan, which is truly the Sign of Peace that we are all to share with those around us.

Pay attention to the needs of your family and community.  The priest and Levite ignored a member of their family and community.  But we can recognized the needs of our family and community through programs such as St. Vincent de Paul, Catholic Charities, Diocesan Stewardship Appeal, Our House, Angel Ministries, and more.  All they ask is that you do not cross to the other side of the road.  The simplest of things like visiting someone in the hospital or nursing home, calling someone who is grieving, or even a smile to someone who is lonely is the mission of peace.. 

The greatest commandment lives in us. It is the kindness and goodness that God has placed in in our hearts. This is the peace we are asked to share. It is the peace that the Samaritan shared. "Christ tells is to go and do likewise." Don't let the world steal this from you. Don't let the robbers and thieves strip you of Christ's love and leave you naked to the world.

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Sheep in the Midst of Wolves (Mt 10:16-23)

Being a Christian is like being sheep.  What does it really mean to be a sheep?  Most people in our culture would say it has a bad connatation.  It does not, especially if you know the psalm that begins "The Lord is My Shepherd."  Many who say they are Christians forget this and even that they are followers of Christ.  Jesus calls those who follow him to be "sheep in the midst of wolves."  This is truly to become a follower of Christ.  The Lord becomes your shepherd and you become that true Christian follower.  

A sheep depends on the shepherd and the flock.  The sheep is unselfish. It cannot be centered on itself and survive.  This total abandonment of self is what is so hard for modern people.  This is why so many identify themselves as a spiritual Christian but do not believe in religion.  They do not want to follow any defined rite. They want to do their own thing.  Can you call yourself a Christian if you have not been disturbed from the centeredness of your self? Can you be a Christian if you cannot be moved from the intimacy of your self importance?

As a spiritual person, it is easier to seek justice for the poor in the external community and the world than those immediately around us.  By doing this, we can care without disturbing the centeredness we have on our self.  But it is within that intimacy to our self that we can loose the focus of love towards the circle of those we touch, our friends, family, and community. 

If you are really a Christian and accept Christ fully in your heart, then you will have a conversion that is a disturbance of "the me" at the center of your life.  

It is at that point that we think we have given our all and then God asks us for more.  The demands are not unreasonable, never more than things perfectly deserving of our Lord and Savior, and our creator.  These demands again are there to disturb the centeredness of self.

This circle of those we touch is where we are called to be "sheep in the midst of wolves."  This is a call for love in action towards those we immediately touch..  It is much more than just being nice to each other. Being nice is good but it is a worldly behavior. Nice is how we act to get people to like us.  Nice can be used as a tool to build up our for self centered intimacy. Being nice can take a back seat to being like Jesus.

Christ's message is not to be nice. Jesus asks us to love which is more than just nicety.  Jesus' love is kindness and goodness.  Kindness and goodness leads to true actions and true attitudes of love towards others  In these actions and attitudes we find healthy relationships.  In this we find happiness.  Truly, happiness springs forth for us and for those around us in these healthy relationships.  The kindness and goodness that draws others to us also pulls us away from the intimacy centered on ourselves to others.  It makes us sheep and we follow the Good Shepherd.

A sheep is a sheep.  It cannot be a wolf.  A sheep follows its master's voice and depends upon those around it as well.  If the sheep is lost from the flock, it cries out until it is found.  The sheep draws others to it and sacrifices the selfishness of a self centered life to followed the voice of the shepherd.  This is the call for Christians.

Being a Christian requires sacrifice of self and sometimes it asks for more and more.  But when we put our Christianity in the right priority, it turns from something that we struggle to  maintain by making sacrifices into a true gift of God's grace.  Our Christianity is the kindness and goodness of genuine love expressed in every layer of our lives.  It is the unselfishness that has become the core of ourselves.

It is important to work for justice for all people in the world.  The ones that we truly touch with our love is our family and the circle of people we touch daily..  What we have for them has  a far greater impact than just the immediacy of our kindness and goodness.  Our unselfishness now found in our kindness and goodness also touches all those still lost in their self centeredness.  This love becomes intimate to everything - our church, our community, and the world.  And Christ sends us out as sheep amidst wolves.

Some Do and Some Do Not (Mt 10:5-15)

My secular job is a Safety Professional.  I currently work for an insurance company and am responsible for evaluating companies business practices, identifying hazards, and working with the company to make it better.  I make a lot of people mad.   This week, only one company has told me that I do not know what I am talking about and to keep my nose out of their business.

I can understand this resentment.  I am a stranger,  who comes in and looks at their company and then after just a few hours or maybe a few visits, I tell them what is wrong.  The reply I get is usually not a good one.  Usually a force smile and something along these lines, "This is my company" or "I built this company" or "Who are you to tell me that what I am doing is wrong."

My answer is that these issues are important to my company; but, it is a decision that they have to make.  Some do and some do not.

Although I would rather work with the man working on the machine, I am well educated.  I have a BS plus additional hours. I have a double major emphasis business and sociology and a minor emphasis in construction.   I have graduate level courses in Business Management and Safety Management from LSU, Kentucky, Minnesota, Indiana University Pennsylvania, Oklahoma State, and several smaller colleges.  I also hold professional certifications in many different areas.   Still people don't want to listen to me.

The apostles had it a lot tougher than I do.  They were fishermen, tax collectors, zealots, and revolutionaries.  Twelve men following an itinerant, wandering preacher whose message was about loving God and loving your neighbor.  A man who told the religious leaders of the community that their concept of religion and worship of God was wrong.  

Jesus sent his disciples to preach to Israel.  Twelve messengers trained by the Lord.  They were to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons.   Sent to spread the news of the Kingdom of Heaven, they began a message that has continued for almost 2000 years.   The reply the world gives is "Get out of my business," and "This is my life," or  "Who are you to tell me what I am doing is wrong!"

In my job, I have seen people ignore what I have told them or failed to follow through.  This has consequences.  I have seen companies that employed many people and provided security for their families close.   I have seen people seriously injured or die because they failed to what should be done.   Maybe, it was not because they did not listen to me but many times it is a large contributing factor.   

The disciples were sent to share the message.  Christians have repeated this message to the world.  Many fail to hear the message and Jesus said there would be consequences.   It is a simple message of love, but a hard one to live by.  It is a message important to those who believe; but, it is a decision the individual must make.  Some do and some do not. 

In my secular life my message is for success in things of this world.   Many do not listen.   In my spiritual life, I speak of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the love of God and the love of my neighbor.  People will say, "Stay out of my Business!"  I pray all will listen.

More Than Peace

At each mass or communion service,  we hear, "Let us offer each other the sign of peace,"  and share "Peace be with you."  Important words especially when said with love.  They are part of our celebration but how many really take this action to heart and know what it truly means.  

Depending on what generation you are from defines the picture of peace you hold.  It may just be a greeting, you heard it in movies or on the street, "Peace, man" or even given nonchalantly "Peace" with fingers in a "V".

Peace to many may be an absence of war for which we all pray.  But even though we have friends and family who may be in harms way and we are devastated by the loss of life.  Peace does mean the same to those in the violence as those who see it from a distance.

At the War Veteran's home there is a mass on the first Friday of the month.  My community shares our peace with these brave people.  At this sharing of peace, I heard the story of one man who was held as a POW in Korea.  It was told by his wife.  He never spoke in detail about it.  She did know that he was confined in a small metal box, cramped, not able to move his body other than just a small bit.  The North Korean guards would be beat on metal box with pipes and batons for hours a day.  

What is peace to this man?

The word that Jesus used for peace was "Shalom."  Shalom means peace, but not just the end of war or violence.  It means something deeper.  Shalom means completion and perfection.  If you wished someone peace/shalom you wished to them a life of fulfillment, abundance for all of their needs, or prosperity.  It was not just a passing saying but a term of commitment to make that person live in shalom.  

When Jesus said "I bring you peace", it was a commitment.  But it was not a commitment of this world when Jesus said "do not let your hearts be troubled, or afraid."  It was a promise of so much more than worldly peace. 

When we extend the sign of peace are we making a commitment or is it just a word, a gesture that is part of the action of mass?  Every action, movement, or purpose of the Liturgy has a sacramental meaning.  From when we kneel, to when we stand, the response, the candles, the altar, everything means something.  Everything in the liturgy is the shalom, the sign of peace, the commitment to each other and to God.  

Let us go back to the War Veterans home.  We have the mass with several residents, their friends, and family.  Our former POW friend is again a prisoner.  This time a prisoner in his own body, unable to move, confined to a gurney.  Instead of the torture of the guards, we bring him the sign of peace, the recognition of him as a person, and the acknowledgement that he is still a man.  Our small mass is peace/shalom to him and every other resident there if they attend or not.  

The sign of peace is not just a sign of peace to the person next to us.  It is a sign of fulfillment of God's promise.  It is the message of the good news that we are to bring to the world.  Our peace is a sign of commitment to ourselves, our neighbors, our community, and the world.  A commitment that we make with that handshake, that smile, and eye contact.  In these little things that we share with each other we then bring this peace to to the world.

Pope Francis recently stated that not everyone is called to a clerical life and not all are called to do the work of Christ  in the church building.  Laypeople are ministers to the world by our baptism.  This is how each of us is called to do the work of Christ in our families, our workplace, our community, and the world.  Sharing the peace of Christ is done by visiting the nursing home, visiting the hospital, praying for those who need our prayers, and reaching out to those in need.  We imitate Christ in our daily walk, sharing the peace/shalom with those we meet in lives.   

To wish another peace/shalom is a commitment.  A promise to do all we can to let those around us live in the fulfillment and prosperity of peace. Let the peace we share today be a commitment to those around us.   

Happy Independence Day!!

What Sort of Man is This? (Mt. 8:23-27)

Jesus asked his disciples "Why are you afraid, you of little faith?" He got up and rebuked the wind and the sea.  They were amazed saying "What sort of man is this that even the wind and the seas obey him?"

Coptic Priest, Fr. Zakaria Botros is a man not of little faith.  He knows who calms the wind and the sea.  Fr. Botros is in the middle of the storm.  He is a priest in a part of the world dominated by conflicts.  It is said that his minsitry and writing has resulted in a $60 million bounty on his head.  Yet, Fr. Zakaria Botros continues to write, continues to make television, and continues to evangelize..  He continues to convert non christians to Christianity.  One newspaper in the region called him, ". . . public enemy number 1."

Fr. Botros, who is from Egypt, weathers the storm of his ministry.  His ministry is to open the truth to all.  His evangelization opens exposes the truth with commentary on other beliefs.  It is often found offensive by his opponents.  They denounce his ministry as treason against their faith and the government.  Those opposed to Fr. Botros have asked that his citizenship be renounced and that he be exiled.  Despite the constant storm of death threats and civil actions, the 79 year old priest is not afraid.

The storms faced in life are made from our fears.  Even the disciples faced this storm, they were afraid!   Fr. Botros' storm comes from those he challenges with his ministry.  He faces a great storm, but he is not afraid and continues his journey.  Hopefully, we live in a country where we are not threaten by a storm of the magnitude of Fr. Botros.

Maybe, we are afraid for some other reason.  In the world today, we are most afraid of the loss of our comfort.  For this reason, many of the storms we face as Christians are within ourselves.  The storms are made in fear of what others will think or say, fear of ridicule, or fear of the unknown that can arise from illness or some other loss.  Like the disciples, we become afraid.  The answer, is the same one the disciples had.  The truth to calming the storm is to turn Jesus Christ.  His voice calms the wind and the waves.  When we hear Christ, it calms the storms in our lives.

The people Fr. Zakaria Botros challenges ask,"What sort of man is this" This is asked about both Jesus Christ and Fr. Botros.

"What sort of man is this?"  Fr. Botros answers this question about himself and Christ with his beliefs.  In evangelization, he answers with, "But Jesus Christ, son of Mary is the messenger of God, and His Word, and the Sprit of Him, that He gave to Mary."  He shows in this statement the Trinity - God the Father, God the Son (Word), and God the Holy Spirit.

This is where the storm arises.  A storm of fear from this simple message of his ministry.  It is not Fr. Botros words and is not from the Bible.  This is a passage from Islam's holy book, the Koran.  ("God is One in the Holy Trinity" by Fr. Zakarias Botros; www.fatherzakaria.com)    Fr. Botros only shares the truth that is available for all.