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Homily:
2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle A
As many of you know, I used to be an engineer before
studying to become a priest. (No, I
wasn’t one of those cool engineers who drives trains, but rather was one who
designs and builds things.) Because of this,
I know that engineers can be very good at many things. I also know, however, that having an
“engineering mind” comes with limitations.
One of the things that engineering minds do is that they see things in
systems. In other words, they see a
problem that needs to be overcome (or, perhaps, just a way to make things more
convenient) and they immediately start to see the system that could be put in
place to overcome it (or make it more convenient). Think of those automatic one-cup coffee
makers, like a Keureg. Pop in a pod,
push a button and voila, the system takes care of the rest. This is how my brain works and so I like
systems.
This has presented me a challenge, however, now that I am a
priest. You see, I expect that, by
systematizing my spiritual life, I’ll make it better and easier to manage. I create a schedule and gather the necessary
tools (bible, spiritual reading, rosary, etc.) so that when I sit down to do
it, it’ll just work. This is what my mind expects. The problem with this, however, is that our
spiritual lives don’t quite work that way.
While it is possible to make our spiritual lives system like, they can
never be totally systematic; if by that we mean mechanized and impersonal (that
is, not if we expect to achieve any sort of satisfaction with it). In other words, if the engagement that we
give to our lives as disciples is nothing more than we give when we push the
button on the coffee machine, then we don’t have much of a spiritual life at
all.
This is why I dislike Ordinary Time. In Ordinary Time we focus on our
discipleship, on our spiritual lives, and (if we’re paying attention) we’re
constantly being challenged to examine how we are doing (that is, to examine
our systems) so as to change and improve and grow. A system that is living in this way is much more difficult to cultivate and
maintain, than one in which we just push a button or punch a clock and forget
about it. Thus, you can see why I
dislike it; because it says that “my system is never good enough, that it still
needs tweaking, that this project is still ongoing.”
When I’m really honest with myself, however, I realize that
all my “systems” end up leaving me in a rut.
I find that if all that I’m doing each year is pulling out the same
practices, reading the same spiritual books, or praying the same rote prayers
that my spiritual life begins to feel lethargic. Now, there’s nothing wrong with repeating
things that have worked for you in the past, but the challenge is to engage
these things anew each time. If I’ve
made a personal commitment to pray a rosary every day, then I have to search
for something new in it every day. After
years of praying it, that’s not going to be easy. But if it is truly a prayer, then I am
engaging my relationship with God through it and because of that there will
always be a chance that I will find something new (if I’m looking for it). This is hard work: the kind of hard work that
Ordinary Time challenges us to, which is why it is not my favorite time of the
year.
This year, however, I’ve decided to try something new. I’ve decided to change my attitude about
Ordinary Time so as to engage this time more intentionally. I want to
take a deep look at these familiar readings that we will hear each week in the
context of this familiar liturgy that we celebrate to find how they are
challenging me to grow, both as a person and
as a disciple of Jesus Christ. This
year, I want to be content with fact that my “spiritual life” project isn’t
finished. But I don’t want to leave the
project undone and so I’m going to continue to work at it; and I invite all of
you to come with me.
In these weeks of Ordinary Time leading up to Lent and
Easter, I’m going to look for some particular thing that will challenge me to
go deeper in my spiritual life so as to make it stronger and more fruitful; and
I hope to share that with all of you.
Perhaps these will help you to go deeper, too. So, where do we begin?
This week, I think that we begin with John the Baptist’s
prophetic proclamation: “Behold…” I
think that if we are going to go deeper in our spiritual lives that we must
begin by beholding who it is that we
are following. Of course, we have the
opportunity to do this here in the Eucharist.
Right before Communion, I will raise the Blessed Sacrament and say to
you “Behold the Lamb of God…” This kind
of beholding we also do in
Eucharistic Adoration, which we have every Tuesday night. Perhaps in these next weeks, each of us can
make it a point to try and spend some time beholding
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament during adoration.
We also behold
Jesus whenever we read and meditate on the Scriptures. A seminary professor I had used to tell us
that “Every encounter with the Scriptures is an encounter with Christ.” Therefore, we can behold him in the Scriptures.
Finally, we can behold him
when we acknowledge Jesus in our brothers and sisters in need. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta used to say that
she saw the face of Jesus (in other words, she beheld him) in the men and women she served. And so, we too can behold the face of Jesus
when we love those in need around us.
“Is that it, Father?
This sounds like it’s going to be a slow process.” Yes it is; and this will be enough for this
week. Remember what it was like to be
stuck at home for two days because of the snow?
Didn’t that week seem to be longer than the rest? It wasn’t, but it felt longer because we
slowed down. If we want to go deeper in
our spiritual lives then we must learn to go slow and let the process work on
us. If in this week we can learn to
behold Jesus in our daily lives, starting right here in the Eucharist, then we
will be ready for what comes next.
Given at All Saints Parish:
Logansport, IN – January, 19th, 2014
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A bonus for those of you who read to the end! Audrey Assad singing her beautiful song "Slow".
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