Ad Jesum per Mariam

The Essence of Christian Life is the Continual Receiving of the Gift From God

The Essence of Christian Life is the Continual Receiving of the Gift From God In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us a parable about a friend knocking on the door in the middle of the night asking for bread. The owner of the house was already in bed. He tells the visitor to go away. Jesus tells us that if the man does not get up and give the visitor what he asks for because of their friendship, he’ll do so because the visitor is persistent in asking and in banging on the door. The Homily continues with this story. St. Paul is Harsh With His Words to the Church in Galatia St. Paul writes in the first reading: O you stupid Galatians! Wow! Harsh words! Why? What was St. Paul getting at? You fools. There is a real crisis in the Church at Galatia. It is a crisis of laying aside the uniqueness of what God has done. Hmm! St. Paul takes great pains to point out to the Church in Galatia to make them understand! What was happening was there was a group that came to Galatia and imposed all the rules and rituals of the Jewish people on the people of the early Church. They said, unless you do all these Jewish customs, you cannot be a good Christian or an authentic Christian! St. Paul writes in disagreement. He writes that the Church received the gifts of the Holy Spirit! How did you get that! You did not have the Law, yet you received the Spirit! You received salvation through Jesus. Moses did not offer that! Yet, the Church received it! St. Paul writes to the Church that you received a great gift from Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And, you want to set it aside for a lesser thing that never saved you in the first place! This is why St. Paul uses the strong language. The Human Heart Often Settles For Something Less St. Paul addresses a point that impacts us today! As much as we say we want salvation, the human heart often times settles for something less. That was what St. Paul was pointing out. Hear how the Gospel and St. Paul’s Letter informs us about Christian Life and what we must do! Listen to this Meditation Media. Listen to: The Essence of Christian Life is the Continual Receiving of the Gift From God ---------------------------------- Image: Saint Paul the Apostle: Dutch Artist: Rembrandt: 1657 ---------------------------------- Gospel Reading: Luke: 11: 5-13 First Reading: GAL 3: 1-5

Duration:: 29m
Broadcast on:: 18 Oct 2024
Audio Format:: other

"The Lord be with you," reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. Jesus said to his disciples, "Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread.' For a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey, and I have nothing to offer him." And he says in reply from within, "Do not bother me, the dough has already been locked, and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything. I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence. And I tell you, ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives and the one who seeks finds. And to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father man you would hunt his son a snake when he asks for a fish, or hunt him a scorpion when he asks for an egg. If you then who are wicked know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? The gospel of the Lord. Let's rephrase that parable that Jesus gives us a minute about this knocking on the door in the middle of the night. Imagine it unfolds this way. You have your friend. He's come back from the journey. You need to care for him and you have nothing to give. So you go, you go to your friend's house. It's midnight and you bang on the door and you say, as Jesus tells us in the parable, friend, please lend me three loaves. I have somebody who's come from a journey. I've got nothing to give. And the answer is, I'm not getting out of bed for that. And so you keep knocking and you keep knocking and you keep knocking. And what does Jesus say? If it's not friendship that motivates the guy in the house, it's going to be the fact that you're not letting him sleep. And he finally comes down after all of that noise. He's got the bread in his hand. He offers it to you and you say, you know, on second thought, I'm going to go back home where I have nothing. This is what St. Paul is getting at when he says, oh, you stupid Galatians. Oh, you stupid Galatians. Note how strong his language is. Not oh, you poor misguided ones. Oh, you fools. You idiots. You who are choosing a self destructive empty way. Now we have to back off. And again, as we've noted over the last couple days, there is a real crisis in the church at Galatia. And it's a crisis of laying aside the uniqueness of what God has done in Jesus Christ for the sake of something old and familiar. And Paul is a great pains to underline this because what has happened is there are Judaizing believers who have come in insisting that unless you practice the fullness of the Mosaic Law, you're not going to be a good Christian. Unless you do all of these things that never saved us in the first place, you will not be an authentic believer, to be a Christian meant being a Jew. And Paul, the great Pharisee who defended the traditions of Israel against the church until his conversion ironically now is the one who says, we have to understand that God has done something new. And so he tested the Galatians, consider this, you've received the Spirit. How did you get it? The works of the law never gave it to you. You received salvation. How did you get it? Moses didn't get that for you. You have been gifted with what you and your traditions could never give you in the past. And now you want to take that which you have in fact experienced, which you have in fact tasted, which you do in fact know. And you want to set it aside for a lesser thing that never saved you in the first place. St. Paul isn't interested in being polite. He's interested in being clear. That's stupid. And note, as he speaks this way, he is also undercutting a certain misguided notion that is alive and well amongst on Christians. And it's the notion that I'm saved by faith, which means once I confess Jesus as my Lord, I am good. And note what St. Paul said, you start it with faith and now you don't have any. Faith is impermanent. Faith is a gift that has to be preserved, has to be worked on, has to be maintained. Salvation is a gift that is given and we can step out of it. So note what Paul is saying. How well do you value what you say you have wanted all along? And he's speaking to people. And note the irony. Here we are the people of God knocking on the door, knocking on the door, knocking on the door. We can't save ourselves, send the Savior. We can't heal ourselves, send the just one. We can't overcome all of that that afflicts us, send the mighty one. Across the long centuries, all those works of the law were so many knocks on the door. That's what they were. They weren't what was behind the door. They were the knock on the door. So note what St. Paul is saying, you spend all this time knocking. All of this time knocking and the Lord of the house has finally come down. Open the door, place the loaves in your hands and you're gonna look him in the eye and say, on second thought I'm not that hungry. On second thought I really like the knocking. You know? And note how crazy that is and And that's what Paul is pointing out. And as he's doing this to the believers in Galatia, who are in danger of slipping away, he underscores for us this perverse tendency that lives in the human heart. That as much as we say we want salvation, as much as we say we want goodness, as much as we say we want these things, we are always so willing to settle for something else, something less. From the very beginning, the people of God have this temptation to go back to what they know. To go back to the convenient lies they tell themselves. And all of that is a way in a sense of protecting themselves from the challenging newness that comes in and through Jesus Christ. And St. Paul will have none of that. He insists we always come back to what God has given us in him and we start from there. And in no small measure, the essence of Christian life is the continual receiving of that gift. Not the setting of it aside for something else. Not the laying of it aside for some lesser thing. Not the substitution of whatever it is, a merely human work, a false idea of generosity, a false and self-serving charity. All of these things that masquerade is what is really good don't help us. Salvation comes from one source and his name is Jesus Christ. The works of the law bring no salvation. Secular charity brings no salvation. Salvation is found in Christ. And so as the Lord is speaking in this parable, he's not simply giving us a lesson for how we ask for the things we need on a daily basis. That is very much there. But Jesus next to never speaks only in those narrow, personalistic terms. He is speaking as well to his disciples all together. And so he's saying, what have you been doing all this time? All of this longing across the century you have been knocking on the door of the heavenly mansion. You have been begging for the just one to come. And note that in time the Lord has heard that knocking and he has answered. And he has answered not merely with worldly loaves, he's answered with the bread of life himself. Because Jesus is that loaf that the Lord of the manor comes and offers to those who knock. This is not simply about I need help today. This is also the answer to the knocking of a world desperate for salvation on the door crying out. Send oh Lord the just one, let the heavens rain him down. Finally he is there. But what does the one who has been knocking at the door need to do? He needs to receive the loaves, he needs to take them home. He needs to accept them. And the one who knocks at the door desperate for bread doesn't get the chance to say, could you give me a menu and let me pick the right. No, no, the whole wheat doesn't work for me, I want rye. That doesn't happen here. Because it is always true what has been said across the centuries about beggars and choice. We don't get to choose. No, the one who knocks has to receive the loaves that are given because those are the only loaves that are there. Those are the only loaves that are available, there isn't an alternative. And this is the point that St. Paul is stressing. There's no other option outside of Jesus Christ. There is no other name under heaven and earth by which we are saved. There is only one, the Lord of the manor has opened the door and said, here, this is the bread you've been asking for. Take it, take it and go. This is what will sustain you. This is what will fill the emptiness in your house. This is what will allow you to care for those who come to you. This bread, which is the only bread that's available to do these things. What a powerful, powerful image that is. And so when we understand that, then we turn and we look at the more narrow context of ourselves. Because the Lord then is also talking about our individual hearts that seek for so many things. But note again, at base the heart seeks for one thing. It longs for God. It longs for life. It longs for salvation. Before this is a parable about asking for all those other things we believe we need, it is at its heart that parable of that great desire of the human life for God. The St. Augustine says, you have made us for your self, O Lord. And our hearts, they shall always wander restless until they rest in you. That's the great longing of the heart. And the twerk of prayer, the knocking of prayer, the knocking of the spiritual life, has to rest on that longing. That longing for the Lord, that longing for His goodness. Again, a longing that is only brought to its fulfillment in and through Jesus Christ, the living bread, come down from heaven. And the heart that keeps knocking on the door because it knows the answer is there, is likewise then the heart that knows where to knock and knows to keep knocking for all of those lesser things. But note the order, because when the heart starts with the lesser things, it's gonna knock on the wrong door. Or it's going to give up, it's going to stop the knocking before the door is answered. Or when the door is answered, it's going to say that's not what I was looking for. I was looking for peace of mind today and you're giving me eternal salvation. That's not what I was looking for. And as stupid as it is to put that way, that is how our hearts work. I'm not ready for that, I'm not looking for that. I want this. We are so terribly specific in what we think we need, in what we desire. And all of a sudden what happens is we flip everything on its head, just as the church in Galatia did. And so the Lord continues now. Why would you knock on that door? And again, note the context of the parable. Why that door in the middle of the night and not some other door? Because I have a friend in that house. It's not a stranger whose door I am knocking on. And note what that description implies. There's a certain trust, a certain confidence, a certain recognition that friends make claims on one another and that I have a right to make a claim and that knocking is by making a claim. I'm claiming my friendship with you. And I'm knocking in that spirit is not mere desperation. It's not that I run down the street and I bang on the first door that I get to, I know that this is the door of my friend's house. And the knocking that goes on through the night is the knocking on a friend's door. Not a stranger's door, a friend's door. We all too easily forget that too when we pray. That disposition of a certain kind of friendship, a certain confident trust, a certain willingness to have an expectation that my friend will hear, my friend will listen in time, my friend will move. Is the other disposition the Lord is trying to root in the hearts, in the minds of his disciples? And as he does this, now he extends the parable because now we come to the issue of the other thing that short circuits our spiritual lives all the time. And so nobody says, if someone came up to you and said, could you do something good for me? Which one of you is gonna pull out a gun and shoot the person? If a child, your own child came up to you and said, give me a piece of bread, which one of you is gonna drop a rattlesnake in the little guy's hands? Note how perverse that sounds, how ridiculous that sounds, how crazy that sounds. And we all stop and we recognize no right thinking, right feeling person, however broken he or she is, is gonna do that. That's horrifying, it's wrong. So Jesus looks at his disciples, he looks at all of those listening to him and says, so why do you think God works that way? You know, the human heart pauses, I never said God works that way. But the Lord who knows the human heart looks at me and says, oh, you do all the time. You do that all the time. You get on your knees, you pray, you say, Lord, please help me, I need this in the back of your mind, you're saying, oh, he's so not gonna answer me. You're gonna get on your knees, you're gonna pray, you're gonna get up and say, oh, I said the prayer wrong, ah, nah, I got it wrong, nothing's gonna happen. You know, we have these subtle temptations in the heart that want to reduce prayer to a magic formula. We won't say that out loud, but how many times have we rephrased our prayers over and over again, hoping to get the right expression? Hoping to just get that, dare I say it, magic formula that will get me my answer. This is where we have those crazy things of people passing out prayers with this note, it's never been known to fail. You ever wonder how they test that? You know, it's like there's a laboratory someplace and 10,000 prayers are said and they're all answered. You know, that is such an attitude, counter to real faith, that it's horrible. This notion that these words have never been known to fail. Wrong, wrong, words fail all the time. Rather, rather, there's a disposition that doesn't fail. This is what the Lord is trying to root in our hearts. So nobody says, let's be honest, none of you guys are good. He's looking at his apostles. He's saying, none of you guys is good. There's evil that lives in every single one of you in every single one of us. Let's not pretend that that's not the case. And so the Lord says, if you guys who hurt each other all the time, if you guys who hurt yourselves all the time, if you guys who are so wounded, so broken, so selfish, so dishonest, so self-interested and so lazy are still capable of basic goodness. Why do you think that God isn't? God who is better than you? God who is not lazy. God who is not selfish. God who is not indifferent. Why do you pray? And in the back of your minds, you have this image of a Lord who's looking to refuse you. It's because you don't trust him. You're not knocking on a friend's door. You're knocking on a stranger's house and you don't know what's there. You don't know who's going to answer. You don't know what's going to happen. You pray with the wrong expectation. You pray with the expectation of being denied. You pray with the expectation of not being answered. You pray with the expectation of being ignored. You pray with the expectation of getting what you don't want. And it's easy to fall into that trap. It's a very common spiritual trap. Time and time again, if we listen carefully as we talk about our faith and our experience of prayer, this comes up. Not in those direct words, but it comes up all the time. So don't how important this teaching of the Lord is. It's not merely a matter of knocking on any door. It's not merely a matter of knocking with desperation. It's not merely a matter of ruthlessly and recklessly seeking overturning the furniture, hoping to find something whoever who knows what it might be. It's a knocking on somebody's door. It's a seeking after someone and something. It's not an asking anyone for anything. It's asking someone for something. Note the difference. Note the difference. What a powerful and important teaching. In the end, we're the ones who make the spiritual life incredibly complicated, when in fact it's fairly simple. Knock on your friend's door. Know that it's your friend's door. And let that determine your asking. How you ask. What you ask for. What even more important let it determine your receiving. Because even if it's not your favorite flavor of bread. Whatever loaf is placed in your hand is the one you most need. It's not a scorpion. It's not a rock. It's not a snake. It's the food you need. How powerful that is. But note that it sits on a certain amount of trust. And so now we come back to our friends, the stupid ones in Galatia, who are no stupider than we are. It's that same ancestral stupidity that the human heart just loves and can't seem to get rid of. And why are they seeking to go back to the law of Moses? Why are they seeking to impose all of these practices? Because they don't trust the simple truth of grace. But if I had something to do, then I'll be okay. Because I can control the doing. I don't have to knock. I've got the system. And no trust disappears then. Or better, trust is misplaced. And I'm trusting myself. I'm trusting what I do. I am not trusting the giver of all good gifts. And the minute that happens, of course I'm going to drift. And I might go through the motions of faithful Christian living. But underneath it all, I'm living something else. Because I'm knocking on some other door. Behind that door there is no salvation. Behind that door there are no loaves that can truly feed me. Behind that door. There's only futility. That's the warning. That's why Paul's language is so strong. And that's why Jesus' example is so sharp today because it's very important. And it's wonderful that we can reflect on that here. At this holy place dedicated to the honor of our blessed lady. Because who is she? She's that one who did two incomparably great things. She is that one who added her confident knocking. To the extended long centuries of knocking of the people of God. The prophets knocked. Moses knocked. The ordinary faithful ones knocked. The priests in the temple knocked. But until little Mary extended her hand. And with the knuckles of her heart knocked on that door. That door was closed. And then it opened. Because here was that one who truly knocked understanding. I have a friend on the other side. And she's asking and she's knocking not just for herself. See that's the other beautiful thing. That knocking in this parable is not just for me. It's I have someone who is in need. And I can't feed him. Help me. Note our lady. Knocking on the door because the world needs salvation. Not just her. Knocking on that door. And the door is opened. And this one receives the living bread come down from heaven completely. She doesn't say I'm looking for someone else. She doesn't say I'm not ready for this. I'm tired after all that knocking. Note she receives him fully, perfectly and completely. The living bread. The loaf of the Lord of the manor. And carnit in her womb. And what does she do with that living bread? She doesn't keep him for herself. Just like the nameless character in the parable who receives that bread. So he can give it to someone else. Note how marvelous it is our lady receives that living bread. Brings him to birth and gives him to us. How absolutely wonderful. And she is that great one of us who sought and found. Who asked and who received, who knocked. And indeed the door was opened. But the other side of the wonder of our lady is this. When the angel Gabriel came down, like the knuckles on the hand of God. And knocked on the door of the heart of the world. She was the friend who opened it. She was the one who opened. The knocking sometimes goes both ways. And across the long centuries of God wrapping his knuckles on the human heart. Finally little Mary opens the door. And how wonderful indeed that is. And she opens the door so that God who seeks fallen man can find him and save him. So that God who says come and follow me can get an answer. So that God who knocks has a door that opens. And the result of all of this is what's about to happen in a couple minutes. Is that same Jesus Christ is going to be right here? And how beautiful it is. We gather in this space around this altar and on our knees. What are we going to do? We're going to knock. We're going to knock. Not on a stranger's house. But on a friend's door. And as we knock through this liturgy what happens. The Lord of the man opens that door. And the bread of life is going to be on this altar. And then that bread of life is going to come down off that altar. It's going to be here in the front of the church. And we get to come up. And come forward. Stretch out our hands to receive. How beautiful that is. How wonderful that is. The Lord of the manor answers the knock and provides the bread. And that is exactly what happens here. And it's not just a blessing. It's not just a favor. It's Jesus Christ, great and mighty. That one, that only one in whom and through whom salvation comes to us. And we get to do this every day. How cool is that? Amen. [ Silence ]