THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost 6 October 2013

The Sunday Sermon

Dear Friends,

The prayer of this father in today’s Gospel fills us with a superfluity of things to contemplate. Let us look upon this man’s prayer as well as upon our own in the light of today’s Gospel.

This man was driven to Jesus by a paternal love for his child. It was not so much belief in Jesus as it was a desperate parent willing to try any means available for the cure of his child. Parents in such circumstances often will try even the most outrageous claims and cures, so as to leave nothing untried for the cure of their children. Jesus was approached in this manner, and so the man received the just rebuke that “unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”

The affections that parents have for the bodies of their children are a cause of great concern, because this extreme affection is most often in opposition to true love for their children. In supplying our children with all the comforts and pleasures of the body that parents can obtain, we forget about their immortal souls. The pleasures of the body prove to be hazardous and most often a detriment to the soul. If parents truly loved their children, we would see greater concern for their souls rather than their bodies. In his “Confessions,” St. Augustine informs us that his parents were more concerned with his worldly education and success rather than his spiritual life. On the other hand, we have the admonition of the mother of St Louis (king) who told her son that she would rather see his body dead and in the ground than to ever see him in mortal sin.

The prayers of parents for their children need to take on a vastly different tone than the one that is most prevalent. Too often, we likewise deserve the same rebuke that Our Lord gave to the man in today’s Gospel. If we truly love ourselves and our children, our first and greatest concern and therefore our first and greatest prayer is that we are pleasing to God and may enter into the eternal happiness of Heaven with Him. All the other concerns and prayers must become secondary to this first and greatest one.

It is not wrong for us to desire and to pray for the material blessings and benefits of the body and material things, but they must always be pursued with the provision that they not become a hindrance our spiritual life. Our Lord when He was upon earth taught us to despise the riches and the pleasures of this world. He invites us to take up our cross daily and follow Him so that we may be His worthy disciples. Above all, He taught us how to pray. We have the greatest and most perfect prayer in the “Our Father” or “Lord’s Prayer.” In addition to this prayer, we are given the example of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Not My will, but Thine be done.”

In our prayers for material, bodily, and worldly things we are strongly encouraged to condition them with these same words: “Not my will, but Thine be done” or some similar conclusion. The idea is that if what we are praying for is offensive to God; or a detriment to our Souls; or is not in the Divine Will, then we ask that God not give us what we ask of Him.

In doing this, we present a perfect prayer that is most pleasing to God. Such a prayer acknowledges our own weaknesses in not knowing what is for our own good. It manifests our humility and willing obedience to God. It shows our complete trust and faith in Him. But, most of all we proclaim our unyielding love of God.

God often is willing to answer our bodily, material and worldly prayers because of the lack of our faith. He does this so that He may manifest His goodness and love for us with His signs and wonders. In seeing these signs and wonders we are to be led as the man in the Gospel and his family to have faith and believe.

God is not ignorant of our bodily wants and needs, and He desires that we beg Him for these as He taught us to pray: “Give us this day our daily bread.” He desires more that we seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and Its justice, knowing that all our other needs will be taken care of. If our faith is so weak that we pray to God saying: “if You are real then hear my prayer,” we are like this man, driven to prayer by necessity rather than love. God may grant this prayer, but when we see that it is granted, let us like the man in the Gospel then believe and not continue in doubt, desiring further proof and confirmation as so many in the world today.