Homily
for Thursday
11th Week
of Ordinary Time
June 20, 2024
Matt 6: 7-15
Christian Brothers, St.
Joseph’s Residence, N.R.
“This is how you are
to pray” (Matt 6: 9).
Jesus teaches the apostles (Duccio)
We’re still listening
to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Our
passage today is mostly about prayer. As
you know, many books have been written interpreting the Our Father. I was quite impressed years ago by Louis
Evely’s We
Dare to Say Our Father, which you can still find online.
This week we’ve been
reading in the Divine Office St. Cyprian’s “Treatise on the Lord’s
Prayer.” Regarding the petition “Your
will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” Cyprian observes that no one can
prevent God from doing as he wills. Our
prayer really is “that God’s will be done in us, because the devil throws up
obstacles to prevent our mind and our conduct from obeying God in all
things. So if his will is to be done in
us we have need of his will, that is, his help and protection.” He cites Jesus’ example in Gethsemane,
praying that he be able to face his passion, that he carry out his Father’s
will rather than run away from the cup set before him.[1]
So do we need the
Father’s help daily to take up and consume the cup presented to us. Often it’s a cup of joy—in our brotherhood,
in affection from our relatives and friends, in some success achieved, in a
good visit to a doctor. But often—too
often, no?—it’s a cup of suffering; not as severe as the Lord’s passion, not as
severe as the violence in Sudan, Congo, Ukraine, or Gaza, not as severe as the
wildfires in the West or homelessness in our cities, but severe enuf for our
frail bodies and hearts.
May our Lord Jesus
help us accept his Father’s will daily.
May our Mother Mary, the Lord’s obedient maidservant, also assist us.
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