HOMILY WEEK 11 04 – Year I
Doing the Will of God
(2 Cor 11:1-11; Ps 111; Mt 6:7-15)
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“To do the right thing for the wrong reason is the greatest kind of treason.”
Those words by Alfred Lord Tennyson can actually apply to our life of faith. We are called by today’s readings to a pure and sincere faith in Jesus, expressed by doing the Father’s will alone.
There is a danger that in our zeal and misguided individualism, even our ministry can become “doing our own will in God’s name”, rather than doing God’s will. That, I realized years later, was my situation in my first mission of Beauval – trying to fix a whole community as “Mr. Fix-It” with my own agenda, instead of God’s agenda, leading to a lot of stress and frustration.
The Our Father Jesus teaches us in today’s gospel is a wonderful guide to that pure and sincere devotion to Jesus, and an antidote to doing our own will.
First of all, we say “Our Father” and not “My Father”. We are in this together. Christianity is a family affair, not an individual effort. As Carey Landry put it, we come to God best “through one another.”
One participant in an addictions awareness workshop claimed that he “didn’t need a sponsor or the meetings because he had God.” When the presenter gently tried to point out the danger of that stance, including the risk of religious addiction, he walked out of the room.
Pope Francis recently made the same point, which unfortunately was misunderstood and caused some upset to those who read this headline only: “Pope Francis claims that a personal relationship with Jesus is dangerous.” What he actually said in the article is that a relationship with Jesus separated from community is not a healthy Christianity. Again, there is no such thing as a solitary Christian – God is our Father.
The second element of that prayer that truly stands out is “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” What a challenge that is – to try to act and behave here as we would in heaven; to make heaven happen here on earth! That can be so simple, yet profound. I sometimes ask children if they would do to Jesus what they just did to their siblings, and of course they reply with a strong “No”. Then I point out that they did do it to Jesus, who said, “Whatever you do to the least of these, you actually do unto me.” They are usually a little taken aback at that revelation, although they shouldn’t be.
Step Eleven of the 12 Step program is very relevant here: “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve my conscious contact with God, seeking only knowledge of God’s will for me and the power to carry it out.”
After the Our Father reminds us to live “One day at a time” (a slogan of the 12 Step program) with its request of only our daily bread, it takes us to the heart of the prayer and the heart of our faith – forgiveness.
It could not be more clear – God’s will for us is that we forgive all those who have hurt us in any way, or we will not be able to receive the forgiveness that God always has waiting for us. As one person pointed out to me, the love (forgiveness) that flows to us, must also flow through us, or it doesn’t really flow to us!
In Matthew 15:15 and following, Jesus teaches us how to forgive – if anyone hurts us in any way, we are to go to that person and share with them how we feel, without any thought of revenge, and then let it go. In doing so, it is helpful to add, “I am trying to forgive you” because forgiveness is usually a process, and like love, also a decision to act in that way.
When Peter asked how many times we should forgive (seven?) Jesus replied not seven but seventy-seven times. That involves multiples of 3, 4 and 10 – all perfect numbers, adding up to 77 – the most perfect number of all in the Hebrew mentality. What Jesus was saying to Peter is essentially this – Peter, if you want to be my disciple and follow me, you can’t just forgive when you want to. You must be like me and become forgiveness – it has to be part of your nature, your DNA, and must ooze out of you, over and over if need be.
Jesus did not only teach the need to forgive, he modelled it, especially on the cross. “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” Mary, at the foot of the cross, was doing the same thing as Jesus on the cross – forgiving those who were crucifying her son. She was not screaming and trying to stop the violence – she was the strong biblical woman at the foot of the cross, pondering what was happening, holding all that dark energy and believing that somehow God would turn it into something positive, which God did in the resurrection.
Finally, the last line of the Our Father takes us to the ultimate test of faith – the experience of the apparent absence of God, with the words, “Lead us not into temptation” that really should say “lead us not into the test.” That experience is what St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta experienced during her ministry – no consolation, no sense of God’s presence – yet she carried on as if all was normal. Because our faith is not that strong, we pray that we will not get that test, or at least, only in small doses as spiritual desolation.
As activist Daniel Berrigan SJ put it, before we think about following Jesus, we should consider how good we look on wood!
The Eucharist has at its centre the “Our Father”, and that is no accident, as that one prayer more than any other calls us to live our faith as Jesus lived his life.
May our celebration today grant us a pure and sincere faith in and devotion to Jesus, and empower us to do the Father’s will as he did.
