Homily: First Tuesday of Lent
First Tuesday of Lent (Mt 6:7-15) “Our Father in Heaven”
The Our Father is included in the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus offers his disciple advice on prayer. I would have to say I like the way the Our Father is presented in the Gospel of Luke (11:2ff) better.
In Luke’s Gospel Jesus is off by himself praying. The disciples see Jesus who has a great peace about him, a serenity in the face of life’s challenges. They rightly deduce that his demeanor is the result of the fact that he is a person of prayer. Because of their perception of Jesus, they ask him to teach them to pray.
What does the Our Father teach us about God and prayer. We can tear it apart line by line and we will get great insight. The first phrase, for example answers many important questions about God.
First, it teaches us that there is only one God. This was a great relief for the Greek people who were reading the Gospels. Greek mythology held that there were many Gods who were in competition with each other. Human beings were pawns in their interactions.
Gods didn’t usually want to help human beings. They toyed with humans. In fact, if a god was kind to humans it was frowned upon. They might even be shunned by the other gods. This reflects the belief system of the ancient Greeks concerning the gods.
Jesus dispels the idea that there are multiple gods. He addresses one God, the Father. We don’t have to please multiple gods. We need only enter a relationship with one.
The God we believe in is our Father. We are his sons and daughters, his family. Because God is our Father, he wants what is best for us and we are all brothers and sisters. Our God draws us into a family where we are to love and care for each other. God is not our personal possession, but God is “Our Father.”
- Does it calm my spirit to know that I only must relate to one God? What are some of the false God’s I worship?
- Do I ever consider the implication of using pronouns like our, we and us in the Our Father? What does that say to me?
Dear Parishioners,
Remember that we have Stations of the Cross-tomorrow night. This year we will be using a different version. This will be a more scriptural rendition. Many times, the stations are a personal reflection that someone has written. This offers us many insights, but it is nice to go back to the original source, the scriptures and see what is there. A lot of the things that we think are scriptural are not. That does not mean that the traditions around the stations are not worthy of our consideration, but it is good to know what parts of the Stations of the Cross are biblical. Then we are aware if people’s reflections might stray a little too far.
On certain occasions I have participated in traveling Stations of the Cross. Those praying move from place to place around the community to see where God is suffering today. One of the places where the Lord is being crucified today is in Ukraine. This should give us pause as we pray the stations this year.
May the Queen of Peace be with the people of Ukraine today and bring and end to wars throughout the world.
Fr. Mark