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The opening prayer of today’s mass closed with a statement that not many of us may have caught. The prayer said: Keep us watchful in prayer and true to [the teaching of Jesus] until your glory is revealed
in us. No doubt about it, “keeping us watchful in prayer” and “true to Jesus’ teaching” are important items on our spiritual “To Do” list. But, it’s that rather provocative prepositional phrase, the “in us,” we need to consider at this mid-point in the summer. Each of us needs to ask ourselves: “How watchful in prayer am I?” During the past week, for example, how often did you pray? If you did pray, what did you pray for? Was it self-centered, something like “Lord, give me patience,” or was it other-centered, something like “Lord, help my son (or daughter, spouse, mother-in-law) to see the need for conversion (that is, to stop doing this or that)”? Did you pray away from the hustle and bustle of your life or did you pray “on the run”? Answers to these and other similar questions depict just how important being watchful in prayer is in our daily lives. There are so many people who have so many things they need, should we not be entrusting these people and their needs to the Lord? Like most major league hitters, it’s likely our batting average in this regard may be much less than 30 percent! Being “true to the teaching of Jesus,” is important, too. It can be asked, “What are you currently reading or what have you recently read to nourish your spiritual life?” For the technologically literate, do you subscribe to a daily Internet emailing that offers you a moment to focus each day on religious and spiritual matters? There’s a ton of email lists—like Zenit—which provide lots of daily spiritual nourishment, for free. Have you ever read a chapter, a section, or even a page of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to discover the beauty and wonder of our faith? It’s available online also, for free. Answers to these and other similar questions depict how important being true to the teaching of Jesus in the “busy-ness” of daily life is in our lives. Like most major league hitters, it’s once again likely our batting average in this regard may be much less than 30 percent! Then, too, as important as it is for each of us to remain watchful in prayer and true to Jesus’ teaching, as the opening prayer also states, we do so “until your glory is revealed.” How often have we had to learn that there’s a long way between being “here” and getting “there”? Is patience with others and ourselves one of our characteristic virtues? Are we willing to “live and let live” as we persist in growing spiritually―by remaining watchful in prayer and true to Jesus’ teaching―as God’s plan unfolds, but isn’t quite there yet? Answers to these and other similar questions depict how important waiting until God’s glory is revealed in the “busy-ness” of daily life is in our lives. Like most major league hitters, it’s likely our batting average in this regard may be much less than 30 percent! So here we are smack dab in the middle of summer! School doesn’t start for another six weeks or so and, in many homes, I am fairly certain judging from the sounds of my neighborhood, parents and kids are beginning to get on one another’s nerves, if even just a little bit or fairly regularly. Without any school and after-school activities to distract attention away from one another and provide some much-needed breathing room, too much familiarity and bumping up against each other can breed a whole lot of contempt. I’m willing to bet that patience is at a premium. As we bump up against one another, we tend to look at everything that isn’t the way we believe it should be. All of the chores should have been completed without any questions asked. Beds should be made and laundry taken to the laundry room to be washed. The table should be set without having to ask or beg. Siblings should be cooperating with one another. Everyone should respect each other. The kids should be allowed to sleep in every day and stay up every night. There should be no hollering, bickering, screaming, yelling, or crying (except, of course, for tears of joy because everything is perfect). In light of all of the imperfections surrounding us because the glory of the Lord isn’t being revealed in everybody else, looking back at the past week, it’s very likely we’ve fallen short of allowing the glory of the Lord to be revealed in us. Don’t be startled or upset by acknowledging this truth, however. As in baseball, failure to be watchful in prayer and true to Jesus’ teaching until God’s glory is revealed in us is likely to happen less often rather than more often. Think about this fact: the best major league hitters fail about 70 percent of the time. It’s also like this in golf. Think about this other fact: watch the pros play on ESPN on Tuesday and Wednesday and you will see something you aren’t likely to see often on the weekend. Believe it or not, the pros chili dip shots, hit golf balls into the water, and double bogie on par three holes. Did you know that Tiger Woods failed to make the cut at this year’s PGA Open Championship and did so again at this week’s British Open? Like major leaguers and professional golfers, failure is no reason for any of us to give up trying to be watchful in prayer and true to Jesus’ teaching until God’s glory is revealed in us. What we have to do is to step up to the plate and take another pitch or walk up to the first tee and to start another round. Where we get ourselves into problems, spiritually speaking, is when we expect God’s glory to be revealed in everybody else so that everything will be the way we want it. That small prepositional phrase in today’s opening prayer turns the tables on us, challenging both you and me—no matter how many times we may have failed in the past—to get our individual and collective acts together by being watchful in prayer and true to Jesus’ teaching until God’s glory is revealed…in us. We have to step up to the plate or walk up to the first tee and, assisted by God’s grace, to start all over again by giving holiness another shot. Today’s reading from the Jewish scriptures and the selection from the gospel of Mark highlight these notions. The prophet Jeremiah says to the kinds of Israel (not one of whom was good): “Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flocks of my pasture, says the Lord.” What we have here is the glory of the Lord being revealed in the prophet as he proclaims God’s word to the powerful of this world. Unless we cast aside our desire to be left alone and have the courage to act on our faith in God’s living and true word, God’s glory won’t be revealed in us. Think about it: Parents: In a world that seems at times to have lost its moral compass, how will God’s glory be revealed in you unless you courageously confront what threatens to destroy the spiritual and moral fiber of the lives of your children? Young people: You see malicious and evil behavior around yourselves practically day in and day out. Perhaps it’s your friends who are being seduced by the power of evil. How will God’s glory be revealed in you unless you courageously confront the evil threatening to destroy your friends’ lives? Priests, too: I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve used Church teaching as the basis of my homily and presented it—hopefully—in a way that stimulates people to see its wisdom, its beauty, and its truth. Then, at the end of mass, someone will come up and say, “It really took courage for you to say that, Father. Why are so many priests afraid to say that?” Well, it didn’t take any courage because it’s what the Church teaches and I was ordained to preach that message not what I think. The point those people are making is spot on: Are priests proclaiming God’s word so that God’s glory will be revealed in them? “Woe to you shepherds—you parents, you young people, and you priests—who mislead and scatter the flocks of my pasture, says the Lord.” Each and every one of us bears the personal responsibility to allow God’s glory to be revealed in us. “You deserve a break today,” Jesus seems to say to his disciples in today’s selection form the gospel of Mark. Yes, summer is a time to get away and to rest. As Jesus’ disciples, this means being watchful in prayer and being true to Jesus’ teaching as well as allowing God’s glory to be revealed in us. No doubt about it: this is arduous work and requires re-energizing ourselves. “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place, Jesus says to his disciples, “and rest a while.” Yet, the people will continue to come, just as they continued to come to Jesus and his disciples. Some cry out because they aren’t feeling well. A friend calls and needs to chat about the same thing all over again and, perhaps time after time. Children need to be chauffeured right now not when it’s convenient. A sibling is bored and wants to play with you. Grandchildren need an emergency babysitter. Everybody seems to need something and they keep bumping up against us when all we want is to be left alone in our deserted place where we are resting. Needy people can be so demanding, can’t they? Some see only one solution for their problems and will accept nothing else. And, to top it off: they want it now, if not yesterday! Like Jesus—“whose heart was moved with pity….they were like sheep without a shepherd”—are our hearts moved with pity for them? Do we respond to their needs by complaining about everything we need or have to do? Think how different we would be if just 30 percent of the time—like the best professional baseball hitters or on those dreaded Tuesdays and Wednesdays for those playing on the PGA tour—we would allow God’s glory to be revealed in us. And that, my friends is how, for Catholics, compassion becomes a way of life, not a matter of convenience. Have values. Shoot for 100 percent. But, three out of ten isn’t at all bad if we get up when we fall short, dust ourselves off and, assisted by God’s grace, start all over again by giving holiness another shot.
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HOMILY
