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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
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As a child growing up, were you ever at a special family dinner where an important guest was invited and other high-level guests were to be in attendance? Do you remember the level of preparation that went into the dinner? Do you recall the type of cleaning that was done prior to the visit, the careful choice of food and drink, and the thoughtful setting up of the space? Do you remember the kind of talk at the dinner and the decorum in behavior that was expected of all the family members given the kind of guest who was being hosted? Now imagine in the middle of such an important dinner an uncle with a drinking problem and who didn’t keep himself so neat burst into the room, at the top of his voice greeted everyone, and straight away went and gave a big hug to the guest of honor! Imagine the discomfort or restlessness that took over the room.
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If you were to ask a bunch of Christians what the oldest heresy faced by the Church is, I’d bet that most would guess Arianism, an early 4th-century heresy that said Jesus wasn’t really divine. In fact, the threat of Arianism led to the great councils and the Nicene Creed. But the first major heresy goes back centuries earlier, almost to the beginning of Christianity itself. That heresy was Gnosticism, which said -- among many things -- that Jesus wasn’t really human, but only appeared so. And, interestingly, if we meditate on today’s Gospel passage, we can see how Gnosticism itself is a kind of wrongheaded, misguided defense of Jesus from criticisms that Our Lord faced in His own lifetime. Is Jesus Too Human Today, we hear Jesus lamenting how His critics simply can’t accept that a true prophet, especially the Messiah, could eat and drink freely and socialize with sinners. This is all too ordinary and human! A figure from God should be more other-worldly, separated, and inaccessible. And the Gnostics, accepting these kinds of premises, said, “You’re right; the Son of God could not actually be so lowly. That’s why all this human stuff was just an act.”
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For many of us, the date 9/11 will always evoke a wide range of emotions and memories. Everything from shock and sadness to anger and fear and many more. Even though it has been twenty-four years since that tragic day, watching the news this morning can bring us back to where we were, what we were doing and who we first called.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Why pray?
St. Paul and St. Mother Teresa direct us to seeing God in this world, amidst the ordinary and challenging times that we face. St. Paul reminds us that “Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. Over two thousand years later, it’s easy to fly by those words, especially: “…the image of the invisible God.” If we stop to think about it, we like the first Christians are seeking to see God too…we sensate beings crave for visual, auditory, and tactile proof like the first disciples after Jesus’ resurrection.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Why pray?
A friend once told me about his cousin’s wedding. Everything was perfect, flowers, music, the bride glowing with joy, until the best man fainted halfway down the aisle. He had been out partying late the previous night and hadn’t eaten breakfast, figured he’d be fine, but toppled in front of the altar like a tree in slow motion. The photographer caught the bride’s gasp, the priest’s outstretched arms, and the groom trying to decide whether to help or keep smiling for the pictures. Everyone laughed later, but the lesson was simple: you don’t show up to a big event unprepared.
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Holy lives of inspiration | Why pray?
“Are you envious because I am generous? (Matthew 21:16) Today’s gospel parable from Jesus definitely elicits a strong reaction not just from those who had worked hard all day in the vineyard but also from most of us. Anyone who has either worked or even volunteered in service of others can relate to a sense of “fairness” in how we look at being rewarded for our labors in relation to others. And it happens at home too…just think back to when you had to clean the house or weed the garden or paint the porch and one of your family members showed up conveniently late!
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