Feb. 13, 2011: 6th Sunday Ordinary (A)
I don't know if you know this, but our pastor, Fr. Frank, has a very admirable daily routine. He gets up at 3:30 in the morning, goes straight to the Perpetual Adoration chapel and spends an hour in prayer. Then, he grabs his jacket and tennis shoes and goes out for a brisk walk for 45 minutes. Lately, it has been quite cold, and his face has been getting unbearably cold. Then he showed me the other day a providential discovery on one of the streets he walked along--a black ski mask. I asked him, "Do you think that one was used for a burglary and thrown away on the street?" Fr. Frank said, he didn't know but he said it was a providential find. So the other morning, he was walking in the 30-degree weather with his black ski mask on. He said his face felt so warm. Then he noticed a police car following behind him. Our man in black was being mistaken for another kind of man in black who breaks laws. Yet it was so cold that even the policeman didn't want to get out of his car to check this masked man walking in the neighborhood. The police car followed him for a block then disappeared.
We often think that those who break laws are easy to spot, like a man wearing a black ski mask. Is he a burglar looking to break into a house or is he a priest who wants to protect his face from the cold? It's hard to tell. We don't wear our intentions outwardly. Our intentions are hidden in our hearts. Therefore, God has to speak to us, directly to our hearts, in order to instruct us whether we are going in His direction or whether we have chosen our own selfish direction. But how do we know what God desires for us, unless we pray and listen to God speaking to our hearts. If we do not pray, we could easily say to ourselves, "What I desire must be what God desires for me." I thought Blessed Mother's February message in Medjugorje was very instructive regarding this. She said:
“Dear children; you are seeking the truth but are forgetting what is the most important, you are forgetting to pray properly. Your lips pronounce countless words, but your spirit does not feel anything. Wandering in darkness, you even imagine God Himself according to yourselves, and not such as He really is in His love. Dear children, proper prayer comes from the depth of your heart, from your suffering, from your joy, from your seeking the forgiveness of sins. This is the way to come to know the right God and by that also yourselves, because you are created according to Him. Prayer will bring you to the fulfillment of my desire, of my mission here with you, to the unity in God's family. Thank you." (February 2, 2011)
"I commend you, my dear brother, to almighty God, and entrust you to your Creator.
May you return to him who formed you from the dust of the earth.
May holy Mary, the angels, and all the saints come to meet you as you go forth from this life.
May Christ who was crucified for you bring you freedom and peace.
May Christ who died for you admit you into his garden of paradise.
May Christ, the true Shepherd, acknowledge you as one of his flock.
May he forgive all your sins, and set you among those he has chosen.
May you see your Redeemer face to face, and enjoy the vision of God for ever."
The great mystery is that just the day before, he was sitting upright in his bed listening to my "Tour of the End of Life" for him. I said to him, when you die and meet Jesus, He will show you the 'Movie' of your life. You'll realize that every moment of your life was a gift from God. At every moment, Jesus wanted you to be His Love in action--to be His kindness, gentleness, patience, compassion, and understanding. Yet, you had a choice--to choose God's Will or your own selfish will. As our First Reading said, "If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live; he has set before you fire and water to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand. Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him. No one does God command to act unjustly, to none does he give license to sin."
I told this man the day he was sitting up and listening to me intently, "Jesus could have called you to Heaven a few years ago, last month, or even this morning. Yet, Jesus has given you another day for you to meet this priest and receive the anointing and confession." This man and I did not know that he would be given only one more day on earth. The very next morning, he was in a serious car accident that placed him in an emergency room with little chance of surviving.
It's a sober reminder for us that Jesus asks us to stay awake and be diligent. The Responsorial Psalm reads, "O God. You have commanded that your precepts be diligently kept. Oh, that I might be firm in the ways of keeping your statutes!" Each one of us was given the gift to choose God's way or our own way. No one can choose for us. Therefore, we cannot blame another person for decisions that we make. Others may not be able to see the intentions of our heart, but God sees. How many times in the Confessional do I hear a person say to me, "Father, I haven't killed anyone, stole anything, or cheated on my wife." Our Lord in the Gospel reminds us that He sees our intentions. He said, "You have heard that, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with brother will be liable to judgment...and whoever says to brother, ‘You fool,’will be liable to fiery Gehenna...You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
It may be easy for a policeman to see a man in a ski mask on a dark street and not see a priest underneath it. Yet God sees the very depth of our hearts, to see whether our intention is to choose our selfish will or to choose His kindness, gentleness, patience, compassion, and understanding. And only in silent and intense prayer will we hear the Lord say to us, "Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!"
