July 25, 2010
Last week we heard about Abraham’s three visitors, one who happened to be the Lord. This week, Abraham and the Lord travel to the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah and the Lord rhetorically asks if their sin, that is their failure to offer hospitality, is as grave as people say it is. Abraham pleads for justice for the righteous few who live in the city. Surely the Lord would not take vengeance on innocent people. We don’t know whether the Lord ever passes judgment or whether he teases answers out of Abraham to see how steadfast he will remain. Anyways, the Lord is teaching Abraham to ask for what he wants. We see the same dynamic in the Gospel: the midnight visitor asks for bread for his guest; Jesus teaches us how to call upon God as Father with petitions and demands, and then Jesus encourages us to boldly ask.
The moral of the story is that we are to be more assertive in our prayers for ourselves and one another, and yet too often we are afraid to approach God with our needs – and then we feel guilty when we do ask. We rationalize by saying things like “I know others are more in need than I am” or “I’m already blessed. I can’t ask for too much” or “I feel selfish in asking for my own needs, but I have no problem praying for others.” Jesus wants us to pray always because prayer is fundamentally a relationship and we need to spend time developing our friendship with God. We are to persevere in prayer – even if only for our needs. The fact is we are not a selfish people in general. Few of us would ever shamefully deny a friend in need. Jesus is trying to tell us that God is like a generously giving friend, especially when we are in need, and God wants to abundantly give us plenty of graces that we do not deserve and have not earned. That is just the hospitable character and nature of God.
Isn’t it reassuring to know that the friends of Jesus needed instructions on prayer? Jesus, the Messiah, lives with the people day by day and still his closest friends are bewildered and dissatisfied with their own prayer style. Amazing. We are not to get down on ourselves when we find our prayer desolating or ineffective. We judge ourselves much too harshly. We need to find a style of praying that energizes us and is right for us. We each have styles and modes of being in relationship with other people – they differ from person to person; we have to find ways that are comfortable in order to relate to the God who is in our midst. All too often, we think that is praying is saying devotional prayers that we learned up until the eighth grade in secondary school. While we have evolved over the years, we also need our prayer styles to reflect our maturity. The prayer that Jesus teaches his Jewish disciples models a lifestyle of generosity, forgiveness, and compassion. Everyone is welcome in this kingdom of heaven that is marked by peace, safety and abundance. It is a perfect prayer and it is good for us to chew on it bits at a time every so often so that we can see how the prayer penetrates deeply into our lives. When we truly pray it, we cannot help but feel a great deal of thankfulness for the many ways that God is always there – just ready to answer our prayers. This is an amazing God.
Quote for the Week
From The Contemplation to Attain Divine Love by Ignatius of Loyola:
I will call back to memory the gifts I have received – my creation, redemption, and other gifts particular to myself. I ponder with deep affection how much God our Lord has done for me, and how much he has given me of what he possesses, and consequently how he, the same Lord, desires to give me even his very self, in accordance with his divine design.
I will consider how God dwells in creatures; in the elements, giving them existence; in the plants, giving them life; in the animals, giving them sensation; in human beings, giving them intelligence; and finally, how in this way he dwells also in myself, giving me existence, life, sensation, and intelligence; and even further, making me his temple, since I am created as a likeness and image of the Divine Majesty. Then once again I will reflect on myself, in the manner described in the first point, or in any other way I feel to be better.
I will consider how God labors and works for me in all the creatures on the face of the earth; that is, he acts in the manner of one who is laboring. For example, he is working in the heavens, elements, plants, fruits, cattle, and all the rest – giving them existence, conserving them, concurring with their vegetative and sensitive activities, and so forth.
I will consider how all good things and gifts descend from above; for example, my limited power from the Supreme and Infinite Power above; and so of justice, goodness, piety, mercy, and so forth – just as the rays come down from the sun or the rains from their source.
Themes for this Week’s Masses
First Reading: The Lord illustrates to the prophet Jeremiah the blessings of staying close to the Lord God and keeping his commandments. He shows that infidelity to his commandments will cause the person to rot and be useless. The people, realizing their sins and those of their fathers, petition God for mercy. Even the innocent suffer and those in pain await the Lord God’s protection. God sends Jeremiah to the potter’s house so that he may reshape the people into an image pleasing to God. The Lord speaks to Jeremiah in the audience of King Jehoiakim of the house of Judah urging repentance from their sins or they shall become like the inhabitants of Shiloh. The priests, prophets, and people ridicule Jeremiah and telling them that he is to be put to death. Jeremiah reveals that the Lord God is the source of his prophecy. The princes protect Jeremiah because an innocent man does not deserve to be put to death.
Gospel: Jesus speaks of the kingdom of heaven likening it to a mustard seed and yeast. He then explains the parable of the weeds in the field to his disciples telling them that the Son of Man is Lord of the Harvest and will come in judgment to collect the pure and holy from among the vile. He continues speaking of images of the kingdom calling it a treasure and a pearl. Though he is powerful in words and deeds, the people of his own town find it hard to see him as the Messiah. Because of their lack of faith, Jesus did not work many mighty deeds in their presence. At this time, Herod the tetrarch murders John the Baptist because he made an oath to his daughter to grant her whatever she wished.
Saints of the Week
Monday: We know little about Joachim and Anne, parents of Mary, because there is no scriptural reference to them, just some non-scriptural references to some writings of James the apostle. The lineage of women was not important in the Mediterranean world. Devotions to Anne began to crop up in the 6th century in the West and Joachim was honored in the East from earlier times.
Thursday: Martha, apostle, is the sister of Mary and Lazarus from Bethany near Jerusalem. We know Martha as the sister who devoted her time attending to the social needs of hospitality while he sister, Mary, sat attentively at the feet of Jesus. When Lazarus died, Martha went out to meet Jesus as he approached the family home. There she confessed her belief in Jesus as the Messiah.
Friday: Peter Chrysologus, bishop and doctor, a contemporary of Augustine, was archbishop of Ravenna in Italy during a time of strong pagan influence. Many Catholics had lapsed in their faith so Peter set about invigorating the faith through inspirational homilies that earned him the title Chrysologus “of golden words.”
Saturday: Ignatius of Loyola, priest and founder of the Jesuits, and author of “The Spiritual Exercises” that help a person develop a deeper relationship with God through Christ. Ignatius was born of nobility and was wounded as a soldier in 1521. During his convalescence he was inspired by the life of Christ and desired to live like the saints. He wrote “The Spiritual Exercises” during a period of mysticism in a cave north of Barcelona. He later studied at the University of Paris and attracted friends who would later profess vows in order to help souls at the disposal of the church. Ignatius became the founder of the Society of Jesus in 1540 and wrote its constitutions before dying in 1556.
This Week in Jesuit History
• Jul 25, 1581. In the house of the Earl of Leicester in London, an interview occurred between Queen Elizabeth and Edmund Campion. The Queen could scarcely have recognized the worn and broken person before her as the same brilliant scholar who had addressed here at Oxford 15 years before.
• Jul 26, 1872. At Rome, the greater part of the Professed House of the Gesu was seized and appropriated by the Piedmontese government.
• Jul 27, 1609. Pope Paul V beatifies Ignatius.
• Jul 28, 1564. In a consistory held before twenty-four Cardinals, Pope Paul IV announced his intention of entrusting the Roman Seminary to the Society.
• Jul 29, 1865. The death in Cincinnati, Ohio of Fr. Peter Arnoudt, a Belgian. He was the author of The Imitation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
• Jul 30, 1556. As he lay near death, Ignatius asked Juan de Polanco to go and obtain for him the blessing of the pope.
• Jul 31, 1556. The death in Rome of Ignatius Loyola.
Change in Status
Each year on July 31st (The Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola), provincials in many parts of the world release the new status of assignments for the coming year. Jesuits leave their former apostolates to accept a new mission. I am happy to report that I am assigned to Eastern Point Retreat House in Gloucester, Massachusetts to be a director of retreats. Pray for me as I work with the people of God to help them become even closer to the Lord.
Retreat
Please pray for the Jesuits of the New England Province who are on retreat in the week leading up to St. Ignatius day. We will be praying for an increase of mobility and availability for mission as we step closer to merging provinces.
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