{"id":1637,"date":"2007-07-28T09:53:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-28T09:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2007\/07\/homily-for-july-29-2007-17th-sunday-in-ordinary-time.html"},"modified":"2007-07-28T09:53:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-28T09:53:00","slug":"homily-for-july-29-2007-17th-sunday-in-ordinary-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/07\/homily-for-july-29-2007-17th-sunday-in-ordinary-time.html","title":{"rendered":"Homily for July 29, 2007: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> When I was four or five years old, my mother took me Wheaton Plaza Shopping Center, in Wheaton, Maryland, to see Santa Claus. Any four-year old will tell you: this is a very big deal. And it was even more so for me, because I wanted a new two-wheel bike, with monkey bars and a banana seat. I was hoping to have a good talk with Santa about it. <\/p>\n

But this particular year, I was coming to Santa Claus harboring a dark secret: I was a chronic thumb-sucker. Nothing my parents could do would make me stop. They put hot mustard on my thumb. They put nail polish on it. They yelled at me. Nothing worked. <\/p>\n

Anyway, I went to Santa to tell him what I wanted. He listened very politely to what I had to say and then replied, \u201cWell, I\u2019m going to try, but first you have to stop sucking your thumb.\u201d <\/p>\n

I was stunned. How did he know?! He really DOES know when you\u2019ve been bad or good. <\/p>\n

To make a long story short, when I left Santa\u2019s lap, I went cold turkey. I never sucked my thumb again. And Santa kept his part of the deal. I got the bicycle I wanted. <\/p>\n

I think that, in a nutshell, is how so many of us look at prayer. <\/p>\n

We see God as a heavenly Santa Claus. We go to him when we want something, and expect that if we\u2019re good, we\u2019ll get it. And when we don\u2019t, we\u2019re angry, or disappointed, or hurt. <\/p>\n

But when we do that, spiritually, we may as well be five-years-old, sucking our thumbs, and asking for a new bike. <\/p>\n

The gospel today reminds us: prayer doesn\u2019t work that way. <\/p>\n

One of Jesus\u2019 disciples asks him, \u201cLord, teach us to pray.\u201d And what follows is not only a lesson in prayer, but a lesson in how to have a relationship with God. <\/p>\n

It begins with approaching him not as a king, or a deity. No. It begins with approaching him as a friend \u2013 as Jesus puts it, as if asking a friend for bread. <\/p>\n

St. Teresa of Avila said that prayer should be like a conversation with a friend who knows you even better than you know yourself. <\/p>\n

How many of us do that? How many of us see God as a companion on the journey through life? <\/p>\n

We don\u2019t just go to a friend when we want something \u2013 to get something, or to borrow money, or maybe to borrow the weed whacker. <\/p>\n

We go to a friend for joy, for comfort, for affirmation, and for love. <\/p>\n

We go to our friends because they enrich us and challenge us. And we want to give to them some of what they give to us. They share our hardships with us, and our joys, and they make us laugh. <\/p>\n

They enable us to be our best selves. And so it should be with God. Our relationship with Him needs to be constant. We can\u2019t take Him for granted.<\/p>\n

Jesus then tells us to be persistent: to ask\u2026to seek\u2026and to knock. <\/p>\n

Asking and knocking isn\u2019t much of a problem. In the first reading from Genesis, we heard how Abraham asked God to spare Sodom \u2013 and he was persistent about it. <\/p>\n

The writer Anne Lamotte says that one of the most famous prayers in the world is just three little words: \u201cHelp help help.\u201d We are forever asking things of God. <\/p>\n

God, help me pass this test. <\/p>\n

God, help me get a new job. <\/p>\n

Please, God, help the doctor find what’s wrong. <\/p>\n

Help. Help. Help. <\/p>\n

But in the middle of asking, and knocking, Jesus tells us to seek. \u201cSeek and you shall find.\u201d <\/p>\n

But seek\u2026what? <\/p>\n

What is it we are looking for when we pray? What are we hoping to find? <\/p>\n

I think that the seeking — the search — goes deeper, and further, than we may
realize. <\/p>\n

When a father prays for his sick child to get well, when a wife prays for her husband to find a job, when we as a people pray for peace\u2026what are we truly seeking? <\/p>\n

It may be something we can barely name. Life. Or hope. Or freedom from fear. <\/p>\n

But we are assured that if we seek, we will find. What we need will be given to us.
And you\u2019ll notice that Jesus doesn\u2019t promise something that can\u2019t be delivered. He doesn\u2019t tell us \u201cyour wish is granted.\u201d He tells us, instead, to realize \u201chow much \u2026the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.\u201d <\/p>\n

And here we find what we are truly seeking \u2013 what lies at the heart of every prayer. <\/p>\n

This is what we are asking for. <\/p>\n

This is why we stand at the door and knock, why we go to our knees and ask. <\/p>\n

It is the Holy Spirit. <\/p>\n

What Christ promises isn\u2019t a new bicycle on Christmas morning. It is grace. It is the Holy Spirit \u2013 to sustain us, and uplift us, and help us to endure. The Holy Spirit empowers us to accept God\u2019s will \u2013 even if it isn\u2019t our will \u2013 and to get up from our knees, and go on, and face another day. <\/p>\n

But how to begin? <\/p>\n

We begin with what we heard in the gospel, the Lord\u2019s Prayer — probably one of the first prayers we learned as children, and the first the disciples learned as followers of Christ. <\/p>\n

Or consider the responsorial psalm this Sunday, psalm 138: <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lord will complete what he has done for me\u2026forsake not the work of your hands.\u201d <\/p>\n

I think that may be as profound a prayer as you can find. It says: \u201cGod you have created me. Do not forget me.\u201d <\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t get any simpler than that. <\/p>\n

It is a beautiful way to place ourselves before Him. To ask\u2026to seek\u2026to knock. <\/p>\n

As we receive communion this morning, let\u2019s ask God to remember us. And let\u2019s ask ourselves: what is it we\u2019re seeking? <\/p>\n

Then we can go to our knees and begin to have a conversation with God \u2013 God our Creator, our Father, and our friend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was four or five years old, my mother took me Wheaton Plaza Shopping Center, in Wheaton, Maryland, to see Santa Claus. Any four-year old will tell you: this is a very big deal. 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