Ordinary 16
Jul 18, 2020
5 min read
Updated: Sep 1
The Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Wisdom 12:13, 16-19; Psalm 86; Romans 8:26-27; Matthew 13:24-43
What has it been like for you to pray during the last four months?
Obviously the public and communal worship of the Eucharist, our finest and highest form of prayer has been suspended as have our celebration of the sacraments. I only pray the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick with the dying in hospitals.
It has been argued that live streaming the Eucharist connects our people in these times of separation but does it really? Can we really do anything virtually, that is, almost? Can we almost gather, almost anoint, almost eat and drink, almost embrace? I find this use of technology very deceptive for Christians. What seems to connect us might really be separating and isolating us in ways that we have not yet comprehended.
So where does that leave us?
It leaves us with a rich and deep tradition handed down to us by generations of Christians of personal, family and devotional prayer.
During this period, do you pray home as a family? …as married couples? …as an individual? If not, why not? Do you have sacred images in your home? Does a crucifix prominently hang on a wall? Do sacred images of the Virgin Mary and family patron saints bless your home with their presence? Regrettably I’ve found over the decades that Catholic homes are often devoid of sacred images. I’ve had to wonder why?
Some Christians are upset that we can’t gather in churches while Lowe’s and Walmart are open. Conspiracy theories abound from evil and secular powers to God’s punishment being the reasons from keeping us publicly gathering and praying. All that I believe is a fallacy and exhibits a lack of trust in God. There has never been a time that the Church, the People of God, could not gather and pray. The use of our church buildings is not the criteria. This Eucharist outside in a cemetery is confirmation of that.
What I am fundamentally asking is, is your home a “domestic church”? Is your home a sacred place in which Christian prayer regularly occurs prior to our weekly gathering on the Lord’s Day as the full Body of Christ?
I sincerely believe that this worldwide health crisis is an opportunity for us Catholics to reclaim a solid, regular home prayer life. God did not cause but is using this health crisis as a time to offer us a gift. The gift is our very selves to each other. Do we recognize this time as a spiritual gift? A time when we may be isolated from each so that we might become more intimate with God?
For those who have continued in your prayer life or have taken it up again, has prayer deepened and become enriching for you? Have you explored new ways to pray? For some of you has prayer become a thirsty desert? The mystics call this the “dark night of the soul”; a difficult place to spiritually be and yet a profound experience of the unknowable God. Have you fallen away from praying? Why?
Because of my belief that this is a critical time, a spiritual opportunity, for household prayer, I’ve filled our website with a variety of forms of prayer for the home and your personal life. There you can find step-by-step ways of praying with the sacred scripture, the psalms, and the rosary. Hyperlinks to websites so as to explore contemplation, experience on line retreats, listen to sacred music, and reflect on sacred art. There are videos that explore aspects of the spiritual life and books for spiritual reading.
As a sidebar, consider watching Father Brown on PBS. He’s sort of the Catholic priest version of Agatha Christie. He helps solve murders [though I haven’t figured out when he does parish work but…]. What is so wonderful about the Fr. Brown stories is that he always speaks of God’s mercy even for the most heinous of murderers as he absolves them of their sins. You can’t get any more Catholic than that. And then there’s Grantchester, about an Anglican murder solving priest that offers a rich fair of Christian themes as well.
As I speak of prayer over the last four months, I suppose we should consider what are the most important parts of prayer.
The artist Brian Rutenberg in writing about painting* offers a wisdom that is also a propos in reflecting on prayer. You simply replace the word ‘painter’ with ‘pray-er.’ Rutenberg writes: “If you want to be a painter [a pray-er] you must do one thing: show up. When others say no, you say yes, and you keep showing up.” He writes, “I keep showing up because I think it’s worth it.”
Do you think that prayer is worth it? If you do, you will regularly ‘show up’ as Rutenberg does at his art studio every day. He continues, “Being a painter [pray-er] is the easiest job on earth, except for the painting [praying] part.” Recall last week’s passage from Paul’s Letter to the Romans, “all creation is groaning in labour pains even until now.” Prayer, like painting, is giving birth to something beyond ourselves. For the artist, it is beauty; for the Christian, a relationship with God.
Rutenberg muses, “…painting [prayer] is an act of surrender.” Thus as the Pauline passage continues today, “for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” We are not a people who surrender to anything easily. We need to consider meditating on an image of the crucified Christ. The image of absolute surrender to God. In the spiritual life surrender is when we let the Holy Spirit groan with deep intercession within us. This is when prayer expresses our neediness and humility before our God.
The Canadian pianist, Glenn Gould sums it all up when he said, “The purpose of art [prayer] is the gradual lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.” That is exactly what Jesus meant when he prayed to the Father, ‘Blessed are you, Abba/Dad/Mom, you have revealed to the little ones the mysteries of the kingdom”…the mysteries of wonder and serenity.
In the long run prayer does not change much of anything. Prayer will not hasten the end of the pandemic. It will not bring ‘normal’ back. Prayer is simply the lifestyle of a Christian during all the seasons of life. It begins in the home, the heart of our lives. Prayer connects us with the eternal. But we need to “show up.”
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