Monday, February 15, 2016

Homily for 16 Feb 2016

16 Feb 2016

I wonder how many times we’ve prayed the Our Father . . . thousands, tens of thousands?  And we’ll be praying for quite a bit longer, I imagine.  And that’s good.  We need that prayer to stick around in our lives.  Maybe someday the beauty of those words will soak into us and bring us face to face with Our Father.  We can only hope.

It’s kind of like when “the rain and snow come down, and they don’t return [to heaven] until they’ve watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful.”  The Spirit of the “Our Father” comes from heaven and sticks around.  That prayer isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.  And it’s not going to return to heaven until the Spirit’s watered us and made us faithful and loving and merciful. 

The “Our Father” waters us and softens our hearts.  And it keeps on doing that.  Every day: “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”  Every day, wearing away at our stony hearts.  Every day, “Our Father . . .”  And then, someday, after the Spirit comes to take us home, our only prayer will be: “Our Father!” as we gaze upon the face of Our Father.

But for now, the prayer sticks around, like the rain, and we let it soak in.  Day after day, we just let it soak in. 

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