Homily for May 4, 2008

7th Sunday, 2008
Acts 1:12-14
Psalm 27:1, 4, 7-8
1 Peter 4:13-16
John 17:1-11a

All of us at one time or other have been OVERHEARD. It could be when we are thinking out loud, or louder than we think we are. It could be when we are at a restaurant and realize that those at the next table heard our most personal conversations; it could be at school when we start complaining to ourselves about so and so and such and such, and then find another student has come into the room without our knowing. Sometimes we purposely want to be overheard! As a priest I am always conscious of being overheard especially when much of the time people come to speak to me about very personal or confidential situations.

Our Bible reading for today describes a situation when Jesus was being overheard. He was over heard praying. Whether Jesus intended it or not, he was being overheard by his chosen friends. It describes what has become known as Jesus’ Priestly Prayer. This prayer took place at the very end of his life at a very important time in his life; at the Last Supper. Jesus was about to leave this earth and return to God the Father. He was with his friends. But he was speaking directly to God who had sent him on earth to take care of us. Before he leaves this world, like many of us, he reviews his earthly life. How well did he do? Did he do all that God wanted him to do? Will his disciples follow him, and how well will they follow him? In this prayer Jesus also prays for his friends.

All of us, regardless of our background or our religious life pray from time to time. Prayer is like talking. When we were young we learned to talk by imitating someone else. Sounds and words gradually became ours. And then we strung together phrases and then sentences to express our thoughts. This process carries into prayer. Most of us probably learned to talk to God using someone else’s words. We learned those words by memory such as the Our Father or the Hail Mary. Perhaps many of us have never gone beyond the prayers we memorized. But, hopefully, as you matured many, many of you used your own words in prayer to express who you are, what you think, how you feel, and what you need.

Talking to God is prayer, but do you spend time listening to God too? Few of us can tolerate friends who do nothing but talk at us. Relationships are more than words. In addition to words, prayer involves our mind and our heart. It includes affection just like a good friendship. When you truly allow yourself to open your heart in friendship to God, you can hear God’s voice within you saying: I love you. This is the great power of prayer to heal us. And persons who never, never pray are never healed and feel loved.

Prayer is of the heart. Not the muscular organ that pumps blood through our body, but the hidden center, the place of decisions and truth made by God, and where we hear God speak to us. All of us have met persons who are hard to get to know. In some cases these persons are constantly trying to tell us what to do. They are always giving us their opinion on every thing. For a relationship to grow we need to relate with one another in openness. Humility meals we are honest about who we are.

Prayer, like any conversation we have with a friend, is both talking and listening. To pray means to sit open handed before God and give ourselves to God,and let God give himself to us. Prayer also means that we abandon ourselves to Jesus, giving Him all that we are and have, and then totally depending on his goodness. In such a way there is an exchange between ourselves God: we are given and we give back, the gift transformed by us and within us.

Prayer, like love, is a continuous process of giving, of letting go trusting that by so doing we might be more totally one with God. If we are to love another, it is absolutely necessary that we communicate with that person. So too with Jesus and God. Where there is no prayer, there can be little love.

How do we learn how to pray? We learn how to pray from those who do pray. As with all important things in our life, we do not learn prayer in school or from our neighbors, we learn how to prayer from our Mothers and Fathers whom we see and hear praying, and from whom we learn our prayers. Besides giving a child the gift of life, the greatest gift that a Mother or Father can give their child is the gift of prayer.

Jesus’ most famous prayer is the Lord’s Prayer or what is known as the OUR FATHER. The prayer was the answer to a request from one of his apostles who said to Jesus: Lord teach us how to pray. We have so very often used this prayer to the Lord when we were here in this church, or taking a walk in the woods, or driving the car by ourselves, or thinking and wondering what God wanted us to do, or feeling guilty about what we had done or had not done. It is no surprise, then, that the Disciples too asked their friend Jesus to teach them how to pray. Here we have men who were in daily contact with Jesus who still needed his help in how to pray.
Prayer was central to the life of Jesus. We are told that he prayed on the mountain, he prayed when he was alone; he prayed with others; he used the Psalms of the Old Testament as prayer. As faithful Jews the Psalms were the family prayer of Mary and Joseph from whom Jesus learned how to pray the Psalms. As a young child Jesus memorized these Psalms very much like young children today memorize the Our Father and the Hail Mary.

If Jesus prayed in order to know what God wanted him to do, then we cannot expect to be spiritual without prayer. A few days ago the TV news showed us two young boys, one 17 years old and the other 15, who had gotten lost at sea in their boat off the coast of North Carolina.

They were 100 miles off shore when they were found 7 days later. When they were interviewed at the hospital, they mentioned that they survived on jelly fish and salty sea water which made their tongues white and made them ever more thirsty. They were very much sunburned. They saw sharks in the water. But what impressed me most was their mention they prayed to God that they would be found. They said that it was their prayers that saved them. They prayed together that they would be found. They would pray out loud together and at times by themselves. After 6 days the 15 year old boy said he had given up, but MY FRIEND SAID WE MUST PRAY EVEN MORE. I have found the same faith in prayer with many of the young people I have known.

I believe that everyone prays at one time or other. But we want to pray better. Prayer is as important to our spiritual life and health as is breathing to our physical life. Tell me how you pray and I will tell you how you live.

Make prayer a regular part of your day. Besides the Rosary, a simple help is to find a quiet time and open your Bible. Find a passage. Calm yourself and ask God to help you. Read the passage and then sit quietly. Try not to think about anything. Just let the passage settle into you. Read it again. A word or phrase will jump at you. Take some quiet time to just think or feel that word. Don’t try to analyze it. Then ask God what he wants you to understand about the word or phrase. Then carry it around with you for the day or even a week. You can also do this with others.