I think many of us may be able to
identify with the real-life humanity of the Israelites in today’s first reading.
The Israelites are in the desert
and things are not so good there.
The journey to the Promised Land
is long and hot and the food is minimal.
So, they started to complain.
And suddenly, they looked back to
Egypt and wondered why they had ever left.
They also forget where they are going
and their goal of a new land.
Isn’t this so very human?
When life gets tough don’t we
look back and wish the good old days were here again?
Sometimes, that is understandable
especially if we have suffered the loss of a loved one.
But at other times also, hardship
and hard work can cause us to lose perspective when we should not lose it.
We may forget that things were
not really that good in the past or we may forget the goal that we really want
to achieve.
We also might grumble in the
desert.
What are we to do at these times?
I find some answer in what God
does for the Israelites.
He gives them daily food – daily
food, enough for each day.
So God called the Israelites and God
calls us to focus on the day – on doing what we have to do even if it is hard,
and on keeping our mind on our goal or what God seems to be calling us to do.
We need to do this prayerfully,
asking for and looking for God’s help, as in the manna and quail in this exodus
story.
And we need to do this every day,
day in and day out, if we are going to complete the journey.
Sometimes we will do this out of
a strength we did not think we had – and that is the grace of God.
But do it we must and then
someday, we too will reach the land God has promised us.
This
morning, I want to share with you a way of praying.
We
often talk about the importance of prayer.
Each of us knows by heart some prayers that we have learned, like the Our Father or the Hail Mary.
Today,
I want to share with you not another prayer, but a way or pattern for praying
personally. This way finds its origin in
Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits.
It has
five parts or steps. They are outlined
on the handout that you were given as you entered church and you might want to
follow along as I lead us through this.
Thanksgiving
First,
it is good to begin our prayer with Thanksgiving.
Each
day it is important each day to thank God not just in general, but for someone
or something specific. It might be our
health, a family member, a doctor, our job, our home, and on it goes.
When we
say thanks to God, we are being positive, recognizing the good that is in our
lives. And we are being humble,
recognizing that all that we have is ultimately a gift from God.
This positive
and humble spirit can affect all that we do throughout the day. So it is important always to begin our prayer
by giving thanks to God.
Enlightenment
Then we
move to Enlightenment.
We all
need light or enlightenment in some way.
Maybe for our faith itself when we are doubting or confused or trying to
understand more.
Maybe
we need light when life just seems like all darkness to us and we cannot see
the end of the tunnel. After we ask God for
the enlightenment or light that we need, I recommend that we read a passage
from one of the gospels.
Read
just one section, a few verses, like today’s gospel story, then re-read it, and
just ask: what is God saying to me here?
This prayer for enlightenment is important for our relationship with God
and for us personally.
Review
Then we
move to Review.
The
idea here is to look back and see how God came to me yesterday. Maybe God came in an unexpected kind word.
Maybe
God came to me in a respectful, caring confrontation about something I have
done. Maybe God came in the sunshine or
flowers.
Maybe
God came in the Eucharist where I really felt God’s closeness. So, review, look back to see how God came to
me yesterday.
Repent
Then we
move to Repent.
The
issue here is: where have I fallen short of the gospel? Have I offended others by something I said or
by how I said it?
Have I
used well the gifts and opportunities God has given me? What pops up as something I feel guilty for
doing?
Or what
pops up as something good that I could have done but failed to do? So, how do I need to repent and live the
gospel more fully?
Resolve
And
finally, we come to Resolve.
This
can flow right from Repent. So we might
resolve to count to ten and get hold of our temper or foul language.
You
might resolve to really be there for your children and take in what is going on
in their lives. We might resolve to take
the initiative to try to clear up some antagonism between myself and another
person.
We
might resolve to seek advice or counseling for a problem that just will not go
away. So, we end our prayer with a
resolve on what we need to do this day.
Conclusion
In today’s gospel, a woman named Mary is sitting at Jesus’
feet listening, and her sister Martha is anxious and preoccupied about all the
details of the meal.
Jesus says that Mary “has
chosen the better part.” Here Jesus
is not saying that it is better just to focus on him or better to pray than to tend
to the necessities of life.
He is saying that it is better to make sure that we do
pray so that our prayer will influence how we do all the stuff we have to
do. We need this grounding in our
relationship with God, and the way of praying I recommend today is one way of
doing that.
About
five years ago, Princeton University did a study on what they called “Good
Samaritan” responses.
The
University divided some students into three groups. Each group was told to report to another
building across the campus to take a test.
The
first group was told to get there immediately and they were called the “high
hurry” group. The second group was told
to get there in fifteen minutes and they were called the “middle hurry” group.
And the
third group was told to get there sometime that morning and they were called
the “no hurry” group. Without knowing
it, the students had been set up.
Along
the way, various individuals posed as persons in need. One was crying, another pretended to be sick,
and another had a flat tire.
Interestingly,
none of the students from the “high hurry” or “middle hurry” groups stopped to
help anyone. But every student from the
“no hurry” group did stop.
This was
one indicator that led the Princeton study to conclude that as the hurry in our
lives increases, our caring decreases. This
finding strikes me as pretty accurate.
The Good Samaritan
That
study gives us a helpful angle for looking at today’s gospel.
The
gospel says that someone asks Jesus, “What
do I have to do to inherit eternal life?”
Maybe this person is really asking: “What
do I have to do and what don’t I have to do?”
Jesus
ends up telling the parable of the Good Samaritan. As I look at the parable, I have to imagine
that there are three levels of response to the man lying by the side of the
road: 1) seeing, 2) feeling, and 3) acting.
Seeing, Feeling, and Acting
All
three people who are walking on this road see the injured man lying there. The first two, the priest and the Levite,
just keep walking.
They
know that if they get near this man or touch him, the religious law makes them
ritually unclean. And if that happens, they
will have to jump through some time-consuming hoops to become ritually clean
again.
So the
first two people see the man but don’t slow down to really see what has
happened or to help. Then the third man
comes along, a Samaritan, and he sees the injured man and then he slows down
and stops.
The
Samaritan sees to the point that he feels compassion for the beaten man. And with his compassion, he then acts and
does what he can to help.
So, to
go back to the Princeton study, it seems that we have to slow down enough to
see, to really see the person who is in front of us. For us, it could be a homeless person at a
traffic light, carrying a cardboard sign asking for help.
Or it
could be a son or daughter who is upset about a relationship that has fallen
apart but is trying to hide it. We have
to be slow enough to really see who is before us.
And
then, if we allow ourselves to do that, we will probably feel compassion for
the person or persons who are hurting.
And once again, if we are slow enough, the feeling of compassion will
move us to act – to do what I humanly can to help.
So,
seeing leads to feeling and feeling leads to acting. But the linchpin in all of this is that we
are willing to slow it down, to live slowly enough at least within ourselves 1)
to really see and then 2) to really feel the other person’s plight and then 3) to
take time to help.
Conclusion
Jesus tells this story and teaches this lesson in answer
to the question: “What do I have to do to
inherit eternal life?”
His lesson is that we are to be neighbor to one another
and apparently it is in our being neighbor that little by little we become
God-like. And it is in becoming
God-like, Jesus-like that we can move peacefully into eternal life.
