Homily for the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time – World Mission Sunday

Some, or maybe many of you, will know the hymn The Day Thou Gavest Lord

is Ended. It’s basically about the fact that there is prayer continually taking

place all around the globe; as some are going to sleep, others are waking and

taking up the baton, so to speak. The third verse says:

“As o’er each continent and island

the dawn leads on another day,

the voice of prayer is never silent,

nor dies the strain of praise away.”

Prayer is the very life-blood of a Christian. Without prayer, our spiritual life

shrivels up and dies. When I was at seminary, on one occasion the rector said

to us that, what has gone wrong in the church is that people have abandoned

prayer. The Mass is like the meat, and people’s personal prayer is like the

packaging. They’ve thrown the packaging away and the meat has gone off.

Pope St John Paul II, in an audience with young people, had this to say about

prayer:

“It must be humbly and realistically recognised that we are poor creatures,

confused in ideas, tempted by evil, frail and weak, in continual need of inner

strength and consolation. Prayer gives the strength for great ideals, to maintain

faith, charity, purity and generosity. Prayer gives the courage to emerge from

indifference and guilt ... Therefore, do not stop praying! Let not a day pass

without your having prayed a little!” (14th March 1979)

In the first reading, we have that image of Moses going up the hill to pray.

Whilst his hands are raised in prayer, the battle goes well; when his hands fall,

the opposite happens. But Moses can’t do all the praying by himself. He needs

others to sustain and support him. We all have to do battle in this world, and

we all need to pray. Sister and I can pray for you all, and we do, but it needs

everyone to join in the chorus of prayer; otherwise it sounds like karaoke.

Prayer is something that we grow in; it also has its easy and more difficult

moments. It might be that we begin with real enthusiasm, and for a long time

it’s great to pray – just think of all the good we are doing. Our prayer can reach

distant lands and all quite anonymously, without drawing attention to

ourselves. We can be secret heroes and heroines, a bit like a cartoon series

from some time ago, where at the start of the cartoon the boy pretends to go to

sleep, but after the lights are out he then turns into a superhero and gets to work

without his parents knowing.

But life is a bit more different than a cartoon. Cartoons might be only five or

ten minutes long, and the story is complete – the problem is solved, the bad guy

is captured, or whatever the mission was is done. When we pray, God can

answer with yes, with later, or with no. Is the answer no, or is it later? Or is it

that it will be answered, but in a different way to the way we had hoped? In the

parable of the unjust judge, it’s not saying that God is an unjust judge. But like

the widow, we need to persevere. It might be that the problem requires more

than just a simple solution. It might be that all sides of the dispute need to

learn, and they’re slow to learn, and are blocking out the Holy Spirit. It might

also be that God is testing us and wanting us to grow in love of Him, and to

start looking at ourselves and how we need to change. Prayer is not like the

completion of a simple task. Went to the shop. Bought a bottle of milk.

Brought it back, put it in the fridge. Job done. Prayer is about a relationship,

which grows and develops with time. It’s not like going to a machine for a

chocolate bar. I’ve paid with my card. Where’s my chocolate bar? No, I

didn’t want that one!

Prayer is something beautiful. It’s good. And like all truly good things, it

never ends. In heaven, there will be prayer too. We will be glorifying God in

happiness and praise that goes on for ever. And then maybe we’ll see how

beautiful is that prayer that is continually going on all over the globe: “the

voice of prayer is never silent, nor dies the strain of praise away”.

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk