Sunday Intercessions ~ Twenty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Over one million children have fled the deadly conflict in Syria./ We pray for them/ and for the many millions of persons displaced throughout the world./ And for the moving of hearts to shelter the homeless./ We pray to the Lord.

In Egypt, stores are closed and people are afraid to leave their homes to search for food,/ while in our own country there is tremendous waste./ We pray for those who are hungry/ and for our own conversion./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for the Church/ locally and worldwide./ We ask for the up-building of the Church where it very young,/ where it is sorely in need of renewal,/ or where the Church is in trouble for Christ./ We pray to the Lord.

In many places people have forgotten that the child is a gift./ We pray for children who are ignored,/ violated,/ afraid,/ unwelcomed/. For attentive and compassionate hearts./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for the un-employed and the under-employed,/ the sick,/ the prisoners,/ and the elderly who are untended./ We pray in solidarity with persons who live without inner peace,/ and for marriages and families which are stressed./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for the safety and well-being of  children and young persons returning to school,/ and for their parents and teachers./ We pray to the Lord.

Finally/ we pray for the faithful and the not-so-faithful departed,/ asking for the forgiveness of sins and the gifts of eternal life promised by Jesus./ We pray to the Lord.

A Late Summer Thought on Christ

copyright R.W. Scott Birds in Flight

THIS TIME OF YEAR IN MUCH OF THE UNITED STATES people take delight in the American Golfinch which is found throughout large parts of the country. In the summertime the male is bright yellow with black markings. The female remains hidden and less observable as she remains brown.

In the Middle Ages, finches of varying kinds were painted in the hands of the Infant Christ. As seen here the Goldfinch has a preference for thistle seeds which are symbolic reminders of the Passion of Jesus. Thickets and thorny brush are favorite places for Goldfinch nesting ~ imaging Jesus crowned with thorns.

The legend is quite tender: that the Goldfinch (like the robin) flew near the Crucified Jesus, and as it pulled a thorn from Jesus' crown, a drop of Blood stained the bird's head. The sign of that closeness to the suffering Jesus has been passed down through the centuries.

To be marked  with the Passion of Christ it seems then that I need to draw near to the suffering of the other:

in an eagerness to offer comfort,
in my careful listening to the anxieties of the other,
in my non-complaint,
in my alleviation of suffering as I'm able,
in my prayer,
in not averting my eyes.

Holy Prophet Jeremiah

SOME PEOPLE THINK THAT A PROPHET is someone who simply foretells the future. That's too simple and misses the prophet's larger role. The quote below (which came to me without authorship) clues us in and deserves a second and even third reading. The paragraph begins, "The prophet is a man..." Of course women can be prophets too.

"The prophet is a man who feels fiercely, God has thrust a burden upon his soul and he is bored and stunned by man's fierce greed. Prophecy is the voice that God has lent to the silent agony, a voice to the plundered poor, to the profaned riches of the world. God is raging in the prophet's words. The prophet is intent on intensifying responsibility, is impatient with excuses, contemptuous of pretense and self-pity. His tone, rarely sweet and caressing, is frequently consoling and dis-burdening; his words are often slaying even horrid - designed to shock rather than edify."

Jeremiah is called a major prophet. Maybe that means he's especially worth paying attention to. He lived a little more than 600 years before Jesus. Isaiah would be another major prophet. But while Isaiah eagerly and happily embraced God's call by answering, "Here I am, send me,' Jeremiah squirmed and claimed that he was too young and didn't have public speaking skills. But God wouldn't hear  it and replied, "Get yourself ready."

We have to let God be God. Maybe that's why so many people today distance themselves (even bitterly) from God and the hearing of anything having to do with religion: God's going to say, "Get yourself ready," and we'd rather be left alone to do our own thing.

• On  the day of baby's birth God saying, "Get yourself ready."
• On wedding day, "Get yourself ready."
• When we know it's time to do something about the addiction, "Get yourself ready."
• When there's a new person in the class, the office, the carpool, the club, "Get yourself ready."
• When a loved one decides to tell it like it is about my behavior, "Get yourself ready."
• When the priest delivers a challenge to the parish that has nothing to do raising money for the next building project, "Get yourself ready."
• When  I (we) need professional help, "Get yourself ready."

It's said that Jeremiah is the first prophet to call people to an understanding of their personal stance or relationship with God. We might wonder if this caused him trouble as religious leaders might have seen this invitation as a threat to their communal control - read - they were afraid they'd lose money.

All prophets have enemies for their disquieting messages. Prophets demand change. You can't stay stupid, ignorant,  lazy or indifferent around a prophet. Prophets are always calling people away from the lies we tell ourselves.

False worship isn't just putting incense in front of a statue of an animal-God or sacred pole. "One Nation Under Guns" it's now being said. Defending the so-called military complex "come hell or high water,"  caring about the stability of a country only because it protects our own national interests, Political Party over the gospel,  entrusting my own opinions with more listening-reverence than they deserve, quick to resort to power as the answer to every problem, a greater familiarity with my stock portfolio than my bible. This is false worship. 

It's said that perhaps more than any other prophet, Jeremiah felt the depth and magnitude of the work God set for him to accomplish. It's not easy to deliver a message that's unpopular, that's going to cause me to lose customers, votes or a thumbs up. 

God said to Jeremiah, "Aren't my words like fire and a hammer struck against rock?" In other words, "I know how deeply you feel this." But do I feel the depth of God's Word? Even the priests have to ask this of themselves. Archbishop Anthony Bloom said we "shouldn't pray until we feel something." So much for rote religion. I'm thinking of priests who at Communion time look over the heads of the people to see how long the line is, while chanting in a robo-voice, "Body-a-Christ, Body-a-Christ, Body-a-Christ. 

Aren't my words like fire and a hammer against rock?

And then, Jeremiah is sometimes called the Weeping Prophet. No doubt because he is believed to be the author of the Biblical Book of Lamentations - a great weeping over the destruction of God's holy City. Is there any weeping in me as I stand before God? My sins? The horror of the world? All the unnecessary death? The constant resorting to war? The old hatreds that won't go away?

Until about 1965 the priest wore a vestment over his left arm at Mass called a maniple. The word comes from the Latin  for hands-ful. It disappeared because it was thought to have become irrelevant. In the 60's when there were so many changes taking place in the Catholic Church, instead of teaching people the meaning of things, they were just abandoned. 

A maniple was a kind of stylized handkerchief. It meant the priest ought to take a weeping heart to the foot of the cross - the hands of the heart full of suffering-tears for the world in all of its pain and foolish error. In a way we all wear a maniple.

Young Pope John Paul II wearing a maniple

May I deserve, O Lord, to bear the maniple of weeping and sorrow in order that I may joyfully reap the reward or my labors. (Priest Vesting Prayer)