CLOUD-PIERCING PRAYER-POWER

“The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds.” —Sirach 35:17

Are you in a fog? Is your mind cloudy and confused? Do you feel as if there’s heavy cloud-cover when you pray? Even if you are praying in the clouds, you can pierce the clouds, come out of the fog, and come into the light when you:

• serve God (Sir 35:16). Rejoice to be a slave of Jesus (Col 3:24) — to do His will, not yours.
• serve God willingly (Sir 35:16). Go beyond Sunday obligation and a minimalist, mediocre Christianity. “Everyone must give according to what he has inwardly decided; not sadly, not grudgingly, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7).
• become lowly (Sir 35:17). Repent of pharisaic arrogance (Lk 18:11), beat your breast, and pray: “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Lk 18:13).

The lowly, willing servant of God has a love for God and a faith in Him that can shake and transform the world. The prayer of a servant of God “is powerful indeed” (Jas 5:16). Decide to become a lowly, willing servant of God. Pray with Mary: “I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me as you say” (Lk 1:38).

WORLD WORD-WAR

“As long as Moses kept his hands raised up,

Israel had the better of the fight.” —Exodus 17:11

We are in a war against demons (Eph 6:12). As the Church, we are attacking the gates of hell which cannot prevail against us (Mt 16:18). By the power of the Holy Spirit, we are claiming Jesus’ victory over Satan and applying it to our lives and our world.

Our sword is the Spirit using God’s Word (Eph 6:17) and helping us to pray in our weakness (Rm 8:26). Therefore, “preach the word, [staying] with this task whether convenient or inconvenient” (2 Tm 4:2). Also, accompany the proclamation of God’s Word by praying as Moses did (Ex 17:11-13). “At every opportunity pray in the Spirit, using prayers and petitions of every sort. Pray constantly and attentively for all in the holy company” (Eph 6:18). Pray with and for the ministry of God’s Word. “Pray for us that the word of the Lord may make progress and be hailed by many others, even as it has been by you” (2 Thes 3:1). Pray “that God may put His word” on our lips that we “may have courage to proclaim it as” we ought (Eph 6:19, 20).

On this World Mission Sunday, fight in the power of the Spirit the world war of words — words of witnessing, preaching, teaching, and praying.

“Woe to the complacent!”

A lifestyle focused on comfort, entertainment, and enjoyment leads to complacency, that is, a selfishness because of which we don’t care that much about other people’s lives and salvation (see Am 6:4-6).

Complacency is only one of the side effects of a pleasure-seeking lifestyle. A self-centered lifestyle gradually causes a spiritual blindness and deafness through which we become so hardened that even someone risen from the dead would not be able to touch our hearts (Lk 16:31).

Because we naturally want a lifestyle that is as comfortable as possible, we are doomed to be complacent and hardhearted unless we receive a new nature (see Jn 3:3) and live in that new nature.

The Holy Spirit is our Hope, for He will strongly oppose the desires of our flesh, that is, our fallen, selfish nature (Gal 5:17). Through His Word, the Holy Spirit will crucify our “flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24) and give us a new nature and a new birth (Jn 3:5; see also 1 Pt 1:23). The Holy Spirit gives the possibility and the power of living the Christian life and being freed from the death and damnation of our self-centered lifestyle. Come, Holy Spirit!

 

The parable of the dishonest steward, with which the reading begins, is perhaps the most difficult of all the parables of Jesus. How could Jesus suggest to us as an example a man who is clearly dishonest? The answer to this question comes in verse 8, at the conclusion of the parable, when the steward’s master praises him ‘for his astuteness’. We are not called to imitate the man’s dishonesty, demonstrated both before and after his dismissal, but his shrewdness. The steward quickly grasps how desperate his situation is and immediately seeks a solution. Jesus challenges us to do the same.

 

Chapter 15 of the Gospel of Luke contains three parables: the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son. The first two parables are given above and we will focus on these. The parable of the prodigal son was read this year on the Fourth Sunday of Lent.

The evangelist gathers these three parables together because they all teach us about the joy of God at the repentance of the sinner. The opening verses tell us about those among Jesus’ hearers who were severely critical of his welcome to sinners. They ‘complained’. The Greek word in the original text of the gospel also means ‘grumble’. Those who complain here are like the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son who refuses to join the celebration of his younger brother’s return.

The first two parables are rather startling. Would a shepherd really leave the care of ninety-nine sheep to search for one? Would a woman who found a lost coin really put on a feast to celebrate? The lack of realism in these parables teaches us that God’s behaviour goes far beyond human normality. God forgives in an outstanding way. In giving us a Saviour God shows a love far beyond any human love. The scribes and Pharisees found the forgiving love of God hard to accept. But what about us?

 

TEAM JESUS

“None of you can be My disciple if he does not renounce

all his possessions.” —Luke 14:33

Thousands of football players across the country are doing whatever the coach wants in order to make the team. They’ll drop everything and move across country, change their diet, learn challenging positions, run sprints in full uniform in burning heat, and get clobbered by powerful men. They abandon their bodies to pain and injury for the chance to make the team. “Athletes deny themselves all sorts of things” (1 Cor 9:25).

Similarly, soldiers renounce civilian life “in order to please [their] commanding officer” (2 Tm 2:4). They sleep in foxholes, exposed to bombs and bullets. They go without food and water, get cold and wet, endure loneliness, misunderstanding, and even rejection. At times, they are portrayed as brutal villains. Yet their focus is to please their captain and serve their country.

What about those who bear the name of Christian? I’ve heard Christians get upset with God because their washing machine broke down and their clothes were dirty! Dirty uniforms and renouncing possessions are part of daily life for football players and soldiers. If we Christians understood renouncing as well as athletes and soldiers, we would be pleading with God for every opportunity to get off the spiritual bench and onto the field of battle, as did young David (see 1 Sm 17:32ff).

Do you want to be a disciple of Jesus? Do you want to make His team? Are you focused on pleasing Jesus, your Captain? Then get serious and renounce your possessions (Lk 14:33).

 

“He who humbles himself shall be exalted.” —Luke 14:11

“Conduct your affairs with humility” (Sir 3:17). “Humble yourself the more, the greater you are” (Sir 3:18). We who are disciples of Jesus and have been baptized into Jesus are called to be the most humble of all people, for Jesus “emptied Himself” and became a human being (Phil 2:7). Then He “humbled Himself, obediently accepting even death, death on a cross!” (Phil 2:8) Therefore, “in your relations with one another, clothe yourselves with humility, because God ‘is stern with the arrogant but to the humble He shows kindness’ ” (1 Pt 5:5).

Jesus invites us: “Learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29). Jesus has taught us that we humble ourselves when we take the lowest place (Lk 14:10). Jesus did this by being born in Bethlehem; growing up in Nazareth; becoming a carpenter; choosing to be poor (see 2 Cor 8:9), persecuted, even a slave (Phil 2:7); choosing apostles and disciples who were “lowborn and despised” by the world (1 Cor 1:28); washing the feet of His apostles (Jn 13:5); freely letting Himself suffer crucifixion, the most disgraceful way to die; and remaining with us under the appearance of bread and wine.

Jesus humbled Himself to the extreme. He was then highly exalted and given “the name above every other name” (Phil 2:9). In the name of Jesus, humble yourself to the extreme. 

Lord, are they few in number who are to be saved?”

—Luke 13:23

Jesus did not answer this question directly. He answered it with a picture. Picture a door locked with people standing “outside knocking and saying, ‘Sir, open for us’ ” (Lk 13:25). Then a voice from the other side of the door replies: “I do not know where you come from” (Lk 13:25). Next, those locked out try to explain that there must be some misunderstanding, for they have gone to church and received some religious instruction (cf Lk 13:26). Once again the voice from the other side of the locked door answers: “I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Away from Me, you evildoers!” (Lk 13:27) Now those locked out of eternal life begin to panic; they beat on the door with “wailing and grinding of teeth” (Lk 13:28).

“Are they few in number who are to be saved?” (Lk 13:23) We don’t know because Jesus did not answer this question directly. We do know that many “will try to enter and be unable” (Lk 13:24). Therefore, “try to come in through the narrow door” (Lk 13:24). “The gate that leads to damnation is wide, the road is clear, and many choose to travel it. But how narrow is the gate that leads to life, how rough the road, and how few there are who find it!” (Mt 7:13-14)

Jesus said: “I am the Gate” (Jn 10:9). He is the Door and the only Way (Jn 14:6). “There is no salvation in anyone else, for there is no other name in the whole world given to men by which we are to be saved” (Acts 4:12). “Believe in the Lord Jesus

“There was no water in the cistern, only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.” —Jeremiah 38:6

“No water, only mud” — is that a description of your life? Are you in a hole, sinking in the mud, starving to death spiritually? (see Jer 38:9) You need to add water to turn your mud into a mud puddle, and your mud puddle into a fountain of living waters (see Jn 4:14).

Most of us have already received the life-giving waters of Baptism, but we should renew our baptismal promises. We have already done that on Easter Sunday, but maybe we didn’t realize what we were doing or have stifled the Spirit since then (see 1 Thes 5:19). So let’s renew our baptismal promises and let the living waters flow and lift us out of the mud of sin.

Jesus proclaimed that He had a Baptism to receive (Lk 12:50). By this, He was referring to the Baptism in the bath of pain on Calvary (see Mk 10:38). When we renew our baptismal promises, we are also committing ourselves to suffer with Jesus and for love of Him. Aware of the suffering involved, renew your baptismal promises now. Reject Satan, his works, and his empty promises. Profess your faith in your loving Father; in Jesus as your Savior, Lord, and God; and in the Holy Spirit. Sprinkle yourself with holy water. Get out of the mud, out of sin, and out of prison. By faith, add water.

By preparing our hearts to serve God each day, we will not be caught off-guard when the time of testing comes (Lk 12:36-40). It will be second-nature, in fact, our new nature, to “seek to serve Him constantly” (Ps 105:4). Daily we ask for the grace to “serve the Lord with gladness” (Ps 100:2).

Each day, give to God your life, will, health, desires, hopes, and dreams. Then, when the test comes, your daily practice has trained your nature to offer everything up to God. Our Master’s will is “known beforehand” so we “might have courage” (Wis 18:6) and be “ready” when the test comes (see Gn 22:1).

God is “the Tester of our hearts” (1 Thes 2:4), and we are the students. He uses our trials “to test [us] by affliction and find out whether or not it was [our] intention to keep His commandments” (Dt 8:2).

Life in Christ is an open-book test. We find the answers in the inspired Sacred Scriptures and in the Sacred Tradition of the Church. We should set aside time each week to study our faith, even daily if possible.