Prayer and Persistence
Prayer….and persistence at prayer….are two threads woven throughout today’s readings.
At first glance….. these threads seem innocuous enough.
But a thought kept reoccurring to me as I prepared this homily:
Prayer….and persistence at prayer nowadays …..may result in you being persecuted…… or worse!
And that may be the best you can hope for at this point in 21st century America.
A Catholic faith strong enough to resist a pro-death culture….. a secular academia.….. an antagonistic media….. and the pressure of a government hell-bent on separating faith from action….will require prayer….and persistence at prayer.
Because secularism in America isn’t just on the march….. it is positively on the run!
So revolutionary have been the recent changes in America…. that defending life, liberty, and the pursuit of holiness will most likely lead to persecution in the very near future….if you haven’t already experienced it.
But don’t take my word for it……..a United States Cardinal of the Catholic Church (Francis George of Chicago) recently said “I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison, and his successor will die a martyr in the public square.”
Consider what has happened in recent years:
- In 1962 and 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two bans on prayer in the public schools;
- an administrator at Gallaudet University was recently placed on leave and faced the possibility of losing her job…. for putting her name on a pro-traditional marriage petition;
- player-led prayer (“Tebowing”) is no longer allowed at football games at high schools in Michigan
- in a 6 to 3 decision, the Supreme Court (in Lawrence v. Texas) legalized the sin that was so grave that Almighty God Himself destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of it.
And there’s more.
- the HHS mandate is still the law of the land…. and in essence that means you can’t be a good Catholic and a business owner at the same time….because to refuse to offer contraception to your employees is against the law;
- laws against praying in front of an abortion clinics continue to limit free speech…. and they read like complicated word problems for graduate students;
- just saying that homosexual acts are sinful could very easily become a “hate crime” as it has in other countries;
- a high-school teacher in Portland, Oregon was fired for opposing Planned Parenthood;
- kids have been forced to remove pro-life shirts in school;
- the Supreme Court has recently characterized those of us who hold God’s definition of marriage as between one man and one woman as “bigoted” and “discriminatory”;
- the classification of “humanity” is something the government bestows on you….. or not--------depending on whether you are born or preborn;
- we have a media that celebrates pre-marital sex as though it was just a recreation………like bowling;
- the Boy Scouts of America recently put sexual morality up for a vote;
- and the government is twisting “religious freedom” into “freedom from religion.”
Analogies can easily be multiplied…. if one wants to push a thesis.
But the point I want to make is that the greatest threat to peace and justice is a nation gone bad….. deciding questions and making “laws” contrary to Nature and our God.
God sustains the world….. in good times and in bad.
Catholics, along with many others like St. Paul in today’s 2nd reading, believe that only one person has overcome and rescued history:
Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of the Virgin Mary, savior of the world and head of His body, the Church.
Those who gather at his cross and by his empty tomb and in His Church are on the right side of history.
Those who lie about him and persecute or harass his followers in any age might imagine they are bringing something new to history.
But they inevitably end up bringing on the old human story of sin and oppression.
There is nothing “progressive” about sin….. even when it is promoted as “enlightened.”
A city… or a state…. or a nation…. divorced from the God who created and redeemed it…. inevitably comes to a bad end.
Our country has placed itself on the wrong side of history.
It’s going to take prayer….and persistence at prayer….to turn our transgressions around.
But it can be done!
In the words of the 138th Psalm: “Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.”
Pope Leo XIII once said, “Catholics are born for combat!”
We must once again become the Church Militant – soldiers and warriors of Jesus Christ.
The Liturgy of the Hours for the Martyrs says this: “We are warriors now, fighting in the battlefield of faith, and God sees all we do; the Angles watch and so does Christ. What honor and glory and joy, to do battle in the presence of God, and have Christ approve our victory.”
Let us arm ourselves in full strength – with Rosary in hand and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy coming from our lips…… and prepare ourselves – through Eucharistic Adoration -- for this struggle with blameless hearts, true faith, and unyielding courage.
Prayer….and persistence at prayer…….whether it’s for bread or the fate of a city….. faith in God and persistence in prayer will sustain us through it all.