Sunday Homily, October 21, 2007, 29th in Ordinary Time
Readings: Exodus 17, 8-13; Psalm 121; 2 Timothy 3, 14-4, 2; Luke 18, 1-8
Exodus: to understand this book it helps to review what came before in Genesis. Namely, creation, Cain & Abel, the flood, the tower of Babylon, and then the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob. Remember that Jacob had 12 sons, the last of which, Joseph, was sold by his brothers to a camel caravan which got him to Egypt.
Joseph thrived in Egypt, becoming the favorite of Pharaoh, while drought & famine afflicted the land of Joseph’s brothers & his father, Jacob. At one point Jacob sends his sons to Pharaoh to get food & help. That is how eventually the Israelites ended up in Egypt, to live.
Exodus is the story of their escape from Egypt, Moses, his birth and call, and how he gets the people away from Pharaoh.
In our selection the people are in the desert fighting for their lives. Three characters make up the story, Moses, Joshua, the leader of the Israelite army, and Amalek, the leader of the army attacking the people. Moses is blessing his people by holding his staff over the army as a blessing, like praying for success. See what happens. This sets up the Luke story about the widow petitioning the judge for a victory.
What We Ask For
A few years ago I had three elderly people from the subdivision of Northwood Hills contact me about planting trees in their neighborhood. Two were a couple and there was a third guy, all probably about my age right now. I really did not want to do this project because they were north of LBJ and I thought it was too far to drag the water trailer full of water from Jesuit, where I was living then.
So I put them off. Maybe even for a year. Eventually, however, because of their persistence I went to see their project, which consisted of Fretz Park, Hillcrest from LBJ to Beltline, Beltline from Preston to Coit, and a neighborhood elementary school, about 350 plus trees.
Despite not being eager to tackle the distance, two things pulled down my resistance. First, they were willing to kick in a good portion of the cost of the trees. Secondly, they were so gracious and eager to improve their own neighborhood. I could not tell them no after all they were willing to put out, and all their pleading.
You know the rest. We planted one of our bigger projects and the trees are thriving. In fact, I did not even water that project once this summer. You may not know it, but they gave me a recognition of gratitude at one of their large community meetings.
When I hear Luke’s story about the widow & the judge I always think about Northwood Hills. With gratitude.
With confusion also, because I have difficulty with the main point of the story. Namely, that God will answer persistent prayer, without even being slow about it, as Luke says. Do you believe that God answers our prayers, and even more swiftly if we are persistent as the widow? My mom thought that a nine day novena with special prayers got her every request, though my memory tells me otherwise.
I need to make a distinction and an observation to make sense of this for me. I have talked about it before, so I remind you. The distinction is between a macro-managing God and a micro-managing God.
The macro-managing God I can handle. This god is behind the big stuff, the sky, creation, the stars, life, the balance of the universe. I see this god as like a person bowling. He gets the ball going and it travels on its own.
The micro-managing god, however, is in the small stuff, responsible for my sickness, for instance. He makes good things happen & bad things. He can change each. If I pester this god enough he will find my lost wedding ring or car keys. He will cure the sick, make me rich, fix the lottery so I win it, and so forth. This god I don’t see in my experience.
Then why do I pray for people? Like at our prayers of the faithful. This is the observation. I pray first because I think, I hope, our God hears and is personal. Secondly, I pray because I imagine that my spirit sends forth some kind of emotional energy to that God that says, "Please take special care of this person I love." When we do this as a group, the emotional energy has a little more punch.
A by product of praying for others is it sensitizes me to the suffering & difficulty other people are experiencing.
So where does this leave us? Don’t pray for people? Don’t pray persistently like the little widow or the people from Northwood Hills? No. It may mean I lower my expectations. Maybe it helps to make the distinction about the macro vs micro-managing god. I still remember people in prayer.
Ultimately, what is your belief about praying for special intentions?
AUDIO: http://mysite.verizon.net/reso7rjy/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/2007-10-21.mp3