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HOMILIES

30. Homily - Sunday, June 28, 2020

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A (Mt 10:37-42)

Is God first in your life? How?

What was your prayer life like during these last three-and-a-half months? Because the
question, “How is God first in your life?” can really be answered by, “Is God first in your
prayer life?”

There are different ways of praying and each of them has merit. There may have been times
when you spent time in silence before God, listening in all simplicity. At other times, maybe
more often, you might have asked God for something. This can take up a large part of our
prayer time, asking for something. The Lord approves of it. He said: “Ask, and you shall
receive!” Therefore, ask God for gifts. Ask for something in prayer.

However, there is also another form of prayer. This is the form of prayer in which we make
ourselves completely available to God. In this case, we are not asking God to help us,
important as this is. Instead, we approach prayer by wanting to be totally available to God.

There seem to be three ways in which our lives can unfold. There are not many options, but
I can certainly think of three. One way is to say: “My will be done.” And my will may well be
good. But the central idea is that “my will be done.” There is another way; we say: “My will
be done with the help of God.” Now we’re adding a faith dimension, and we seek God’s help.
Still, there is an additional way, and I would say a more profound way: “Your will be done.”

With this, there comes a moment when to pray is to give it all up. It is to give up all our
preoccupations, all our anxieties, all our questions by simply placing ourselves in the
presence of God and saying: “Lord, your will be done.” And this is not that easy to do! It
really requires a conscious effort. Sometimes, we might do it spontaneously out of heart-
felt emotion. But more often, overwhelmed by our neediness, we find ourselves petitioning
God. But even then, it is good to say: “Lord, your will be done.” When we do, we move
beyond all our concerns, all our questions and even our conscious hopes! We leave behind
all our thirst, all our apprehensions, all our desires to place ourselves in the presence of
God. “Your will be done!”

One of the ways this experience is expressed in the Bible is by all the references to the
greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord, your God. Hear, O Israel: The Lord is
our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your might, and your neighbour as yourself.” First is “You shall love
the Lord your God.” Second is “You shall love your neighbour.” “You will love yourself” is
third.

(cont’d)

Collection of texts by the Most Rev. Christian Lépine 210