Speaker 2: One of my favorite channels to watch is Turner Classic Movies. Like a lot of the old movies, movies from the thirties, forties, fifties, right in there, and and there's a lot happening in the way they make the movies and the way life is portrayed in those decades. And one thing that's very common about old movies, news came across through newspapers. Headlines. Here's an article here.
I just read the paper, or conversation happens at the table with the newspaper and a cup of coffee. And one of the things about newspapers is you don't get the news instantly. That you wait for a delivery person, either paper boy or paper girl. I used to do that for a little while as well. And it depends when they arrive.
And the news, you peruse over it. When we were in the seminary, we only got one newspaper, and we had to wait. All the sports people were waiting, and I hated when they were there. And then the front page, nobody read, or the finances. But we all got the comics or the living set.
What's the movies going on as well? And so you would peruse the different articles, and then you went on your way. There were no instant updates. There was no news flashes or breaking news, and if anything happened overnight, you had to wait till the next day. Patiently waiting was the way people lived, and you didn't think any differently.
And now I would like to say society and in our lives, we relate more to a newspaper than our phones because understanding doesn't happen overnight. Growth doesn't happen quickly or instantly, and good things that last aren't produced in a moment's notice. All those things take time, and I think we've lost that in the midst of wanting everything now. Our meals, our instant phone messages, the news, everything has to be done quickly, and yet our lives more react to a life of newspapers. In today's second reading from the book of James, he reminds people who are anxious about the Lord's coming, anxious about life, and tired of waiting, saying, be patient.
And he uses life as an example that nature doesn't change because we want things quickly, instantly, right now, that the farmer plants the seeds, and nature takes its course, and that god is also a god who is patient, and patience is a hard thing to do. What I'd like to do today is break open our theme, lord, teach us to pray, about some of the insights we might have in learning to pray with patience. I think we can all use that. Because many times we feel impatient, and it's hard to be patient. So the first week, I talked to you about invitation.
You had just come off your Thanksgiving time. The invitation that you received to go to a meal, or you were inviting people and being surprised. But invitation to God is, I invite you to think about ten minutes. We live busy lives. Some of you have a prayer life.
Others really struggle with that and really try to be more disciplined. And I wanted to invite you to consider ten minutes. None of us are too busy to do ten minutes. Some of you are so busy with family and responsibility that the chapel in your home is your bathroom. It's the only place that you can find that, and you have little paws and little hands underneath the door looking for you at every moment.
And yet those ten minutes are just simply being silent and still and inviting. Even when your minds wander, it's not a sin because god takes our bodies that stop and does something good with that. Last week, I talked about expectations, that realistic expectations are good. I expect to be a good father, a good mother, a good family member, a good worker, a good person. Those are good expectations.
But expectations can also lead us down the wrong path when we place people saying, I would have acted that way. I don't understand why they can't act that way. Or that we make God into transactional. That I expect God because I've made it to five masses in a row without missing, and I was on time on all of them. So God should owe me to grant me my request, my prayer, because I've been holy, and that's not a good way to have expectation.
Now those homilies are always already online on our website. You can go back and listen to them so I don't have to break them open today. But I'd like to talk to you about just some points. Choose which one that will make sense for you and chew on that. You don't have to know all of them.
And you can go back and then listen to this homily again in podcasts. So the first thing I wanna talk about patience and prayer is that patience, prayer, slows us down from demand to relationship. Patient prayer slows us down from demand to relationship. No one prays better than me when I have a need, when life is stressful, when I'm not liking what's happening, when a health crisis comes to me or a loved one of mine, I pray better than anyone else. I am ready to go to God, and God will always hear from me.
And so many times, prayer is about asking god to do these things for us, and we can always ask because there is petition. And that's not wrong. But if we just stay stuck there, that isn't being patient, because, God, I've prayed these prayers, but I haven't seen result. Relationship happens when we move from urgency to communion. We move from urgency to communion.
I gotta get this answer. I gotta come to a decision. I need to know right away. I don't like being in the dark. I need certainty.
All things are very human, but communion is one that God desires. That to know that I already know God has my best interest. I can be in communion and know God always is there for me. So prayer is not always a quick response. It's more about remaining faithfully, living our lives in communion with God and others.
Secondly, patience makes room for God's timing. God patient prayer makes room for God's timing. God is very slow, and look at the scriptures. I can name you many things in scriptures. Abraham and Sarah prayed for twenty five years for a child, for a son, and God answered that.
Hannah, in the old testament, prayed over and over and over again for a long period of time for a child, and God responded. Also, look about Joseph in the old testament, not the new one that's coming up in a couple of weeks. But in the old testament, Joseph, hey, go goes into prison and into slavery. His brothers kinda sell him away and and take him away, and for thirteen years, Joseph is either a slave or in prison. Why doesn't God just snap his finger and do that?
Job with constant suffering, and yet he remains faithful. And the prophets that James talks about today to say in patience, the jaw the the prophets waited in patient with patience rather, with patience that the prophets did as well. And the disciples after the crucifixion in the upper room waiting for the Holy Spirit. And I think scripture teaches us that God's timetable is different, and God will respond, but making room in our lives to be patient. Remember when we had newspapers, no one thought differently.
The idea of having news updated every second on the hour, in the hour, 20 four seven breaking news wasn't in our mindset. It was, we'll find out tomorrow. And I think maybe our lives were a lot more peaceful when we had the news come to us in bits and pieces. Thirdly, patience turns prayer from talking to God to listening to God. Prayer turns our prayer.
Patience turns prayer into talk from talking to God to listening to God. Now some of you, I've already told that give the ten minutes, you say, well, I have a good prayer life. Well, I think life really is demanding and stressful, and a lot of things happen, and we stop listening at times. And we think that prayer is always a bunch of words. The more we talk to God, the more we explain to him what's going on our lives.
When we use God as one that we just constantly talk, we kind of lose listening. Now petition prayer is always good. Always good to ask for thing. If you're praying for the cardinals right now, I'm right with you. Okay?
It is okay to pray for things that's not wrong. But if you stay stuck there, and really prayer goes from talking to God to listening to god. Now one of the things we know about your children is they long for quiet. The thing I worry about, and I think you do as parents or people who love your young children and all, is you hate the word boring. Whenever I ask my players, how was school today?
The answer I dislike the most was school was boring. And you know that happens a lot. And so we kind of think if the kids aren't always doing something, not always on their phone, not always, chatting, always doing stuff, then they gotta be bored and they don't like it. We've gotta keep constantly taking them to things and doing things, and yet when the kids come here and they pray before the blessed sacrament in adoration, they love it. They long for it, and they tell our catechist and the court teams in our parish here, when are we gonna do this again?
I don't know. We always think kids need to be filled with times and do a 100 things, and yet when they stop and just get away from their phones, their friends, their family members, and just be still, God can speak. God cannot be heard when you and I are constantly talking, constantly asking, always having our mind racing all the time with urgency. And it's in the stillness as scripture says, be still and know that I'm God. And you know that's a hard thing for us today because stillness means you're lazy, you're not productive, people will think I'm not doing anything and they don't think I care or work hard.
Be still going from talking to God to listening to God. Patience shapes us into the kind of people who can receive God's response. Patient shapes us into the kind of people who can receive God's response. It takes practice to be patient. Let me tell you what's happening here.
We have not had a moment's peace in years. When's the last time our country has had peace? Because we are always told to be fearful of groups. There's always a new word that's being thrown out. There's always somebody to be against, someone to debate on, someone to dislike, someone to avoid at the dinner table, someone to give the silent treatment to.
There's always something. And guess what, people? It never ends. Even on Thanksgiving and Christmas in your social media, there are people who are stirring the pot, and we fall for it. I'll tell you, if I was running a football team against this country, you guys would always fall for the reverse.
You would be so easy because you constantly constantly are revved up. And I know I hear confessions. I hear conversations. You come and talk to me, and I talk to other people as well, and you're always churning, always ready to be against someone. And I talk to people in the political field and here's what they tell me when they're honest with me.
Negative ads work. And when people want to be in power, negativity works. And you know who's done that in the past? The church. It's a mortal sin.
Yeah. That's right. If you don't pay attention to the church and you don't obey, it's a sin. And you know, here's the thing about following someone. You have to have the freedom to leave.
You have to have the freedom to question. Because I know people every week will leave the parish and never come back because they don't like what they hear. They disagree. And you know what? You have freedom to do that.
You have the freedom to question. When authority in the church says, you have to obey, and you have to obey me, and whatever I says, go. And if you think differently, you are wrong because you can't vote that way, or be that way, or think that way. Get out. That is dangerous thinking.
You have freedom. Remember, Pope Francis said, the church is not your conscience. It helps form conscience. The church is not your conscience. It forms it.
And the other thing is the Catholic church is not truth. I had some people at 08:30 look at me all weird. What do you mean the Catholic church is not truth? It's not. It serves the truth.
The Catholic church serves the truth. And so when you have leaders in church, in country, in the world that demand loyalty without questions, that is not good and that is not true. And that's why when people question me, you have every right. If people say, pew, I'm never coming back to this church again. It's your call people.
It's your call because the church helps form your conscience. It's not the conscience. And so patience shapes us into the kind of people who can receive god's response. And it's one of not being tricked every time into having our peace of mind robbed. It's time to stop doing that and find peace again through patience and prayer.
And patience with prayer is an act of trust. That's the last one. It is a act of trust. I can't see what's happening. The answers are not right before me, God.
I don't know what to do. You're not showing me a clear path. I don't know. You're not telling me what to do. I feel lost.
I don't have clarity. You're not giving me answers. And that's why patient prayer leads to trust. That's why relationship, communion, openness to God's timetable, all those things are important. And so you are along with me are going to feel like God, I don't have any answers yet.
You're not responding the way I want you to. I don't have clarity. I don't know my next steps, and that's why patient prayer is one of trust. And so our lives are a lot like the newspaper. You have to wait.
When's that paper boy showing up? I guess we'll have to wait till tomorrow to find out what the latest news is. I guess that's enough news for today. I'll look forward to a cup of coffee and the newspaper tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm going to live my life.
Your phones are ready to tell you the score of the cardinals and you have to know. Maybe not, maybe patient prayer might change us. Thank you for listening.