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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Has anyone here visited the Leaning Tower of Pisa? It stands in Pisa, in the Tuscany region of Italy, in the beautiful cathedral square called the “Square of Miracles.” Its Construction began in 1173. It was meant to be the bell tower of the cathedral. But very early, after only a few floors were built, the builders noticed something embarrassing: the tower was leaning. Imagine the committee meeting. “Good news, the tower is beautiful. Bad news, it is already trying to leave us.”
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I would like to invite us to reflect on today’s gospel that focuses on the fragility of earthly security. The Lord says in the gospel “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth; store up treasures in heaven.” It is a reading where the Lord gently yet piercingly warns us about the vulnerability of our earthly collections.
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We all know Venerable Patrick Peyton’s most famous sayings: “The family that prays together, stays together,” and “A world at prayer is a world at peace.” One of the blessings of working here at Holy Cross Family Ministries and getting to know Fr. Peyton better is learning some of his lesser known but no less profound quotes. For instance, on the wall of our conference room is this beautiful Patrick Peyton insight: “The Our Father raises the family circle to the highest level.”
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Today's message from Jesus comes at us right out of the gate without any metaphors. Jesus tells his disciples which also includes us "Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them." At first hearing, that seems straightforward enough. But then something happened to me this past Saturday that made me think a little more deeply about those words. While I was waiting to have my oil changed, dressed in my finest Notre Dame T-shirt and cargo pants, blissfully thinking about World Cup soccer, one of the technicians came over to check me in and do a visual inspection of the car. A few minutes later, he returned with a broad smile and said, "Hey, man, I love your license plate!"
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There is something about us as human beings, whether you are a Christian or any other religion. We can call it a universal problem: that is, the hatred we feel for other people, hatred that wells up inside us and propels us in the direction of destructive actions toward people who might have harmed us in some way. Nevertheless, these are fellow human beings who we must live with in society or community. Try to imagine for yourself, an individual you hate or just can’t stand, someone who irritates you to no end, who you resent and feel bitterness towards. I am sure most of us have someone like that, in many cases multiple people in our lives who cause us anger or hatred or at least resentment, for something they have, or they keep doing to us.
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Our own Biblical worldview is so familiar to us that I don’t think we always realize how truly extraordinary it is. Throughout most of human history and human societies, powerful men have pretty much been able to take advantage of anonymous people with little challenge or consequence. Yet in today’s reading from the Book of Kings, King Ahab – who, though not a good man, still at least initially seems guided by God’s principles for Israel – feels powerless to force Naboth to do his will. It’s only when Ahab’s foreign, pagan queen Jezebel -- who represents the ungodly views of the world -- gets involved that Ahab embraces the notion of his absolute entitlement as king. But, as we will hear tomorrow, Ahab and Jezebel suffer dire consequences for his act of violence. And Naboth himself is not relegated to being some anonymous victim, lost to history. Three thousand years later, we as God’s people still remember his name and mourn the injustice he suffered.
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