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The
Power of Worship
September
22-23, 2007
Luke
16:19-31
Usually
when we come to this part of the liturgy, this assembly settles
back and passively wonders, “What is Father George going to
talk about this week?” Today is going to be a little different.
For the homily today I need your participation. I need you
to sing. Now why you need to sing will become obvious as we
move forward. The music is simple. It is a responsorial psalm
we use here frequently. So let's practice your part. I will
be the cantor, so just repeat after me. But when we sing it,
I would like you to sing with as much meaning and as much
prayerfulness as you can.
Fr.
George: (singing) “In every
age, O Lord, you have been our refuge, you have been our refuge.”
Congregation:
(singing) “In every age, O
Lord, you have been our refuge, you have been our refuge.”
Very
nice. So in the homily you will need to sing one more time.
When you hear the piano just come right in. But again sing
with as much faith and energy as you have.
Not
too long ago I received a phone call. A man's voice said,
“Father, I am not a parishioner, but I'd like a few minutes
of your time.” “Is there a problem?” I said. “Well, yes and
no,” the voice said, “but I'd like to talk to you face to
face.” So we set up an appointment. When he came in, I saw
he was a man in his forties. He sat down in my office, and
he said to me, “I've come here to say thank you.” “Okay,”
I said, not sure what he meant. He told this story:
“A
few weeks ago,” he said, “my seventeen year old son was injured
in a traffic accident. He slipped into a coma, and the doctors
told us he might not make it. My wife and I were in shock.
Just yesterday our boy, our beautiful boy, was so full of
strength and health and life, and today he lay motionless
in a bed. We didn't know what to do. We didn't know how to
focus. We were close to despair. We sat for days at his bedside.
When the weekend came around, my wife looked at me and said,
‘I think one of us should go to church.' It made sense. We
were a Catholic family, and we certainly had something to
pray for. So I said, ‘I'll go.' I asked the nurse for a list
of catholic churches, and I chose St. Noel, because I thought
I knew how to find it.”
“But
as I was driving here,I thought, ‘What am I doing? I can't
pray. I can't even focus. And if I were to pray, what would
I ask for? Would I say, ‘God, take care of my son?' Where
was God when the truck hit him? It became clear I was driving
to pray to a God who I believed had abandoned us, and I had
no idea if I could pray and no words that I could say. But
I had promised my wife that I would go. So I parked my car
in your parking lot. I walked in, and a man with a kind smile
handed me a bulletin. The Mass had already begun. I sat down
surrounded by people I didn't know. I was in a daze, lost
in my own numbness. My mind and my heart were a thousand miles
away. I remembered that the first reading came to an end,
that a cantor stood up and intoned the psalm: ‘In every age,
O Lord, you have been our refuge.' Then I heard,”
Congregation:
(singing) “In every age, O
Lord, you have been our refuge, you have been our refuge.”
“I
was surrounded by voices, singing words of faith. I began
to cry. At first I didn't know why, but then I heard the words:
God is my refuge. That was what I needed to believe. That
was the prayer I needed to say. I couldn't say it, but the
people around me were singing it for me. I found myself taken
up into the song. It felt like hundreds of arms embracing
me and supporting me. I began to sing along. With each verse
I sang a little stronger. Somehow, by the end of the psalm,
something in me was healed. I devoured the rest of the liturgy.
To my surprise, I discovered as I came to communion that I
was receiving communion with hope. I left your church, Father,
different, changed for the better.
“When
I walked back to the hospital room, my wife noticed it immediately.
‘What happened?' she said. And I said to her, ‘Honey, I think
we're going to make it. I think he's going to be okay.' Three
days later, my son came out of the coma. We are taking him
home tomorrow. But I wanted to come here first to ask you
to find a way to tell your parish community ‘thank you.'”
That
is what I am doing this weekend at all the Masses. It is a
good thing to do, because that story, which is a true story,
points to who we are and why we worship God. It is so easy
to come to Mass every weekend in a dull routine. We sit down
and immediately our mind is somewhere else. We are here physically,
but not actively. We say, “Let somebody else say the words.
Let somebody else sing the psalm.” But to take that attitude
would be to neglect our duty and our privilege. It is a privilege
and a duty to praise and worship God, and when we do it fully
and richly, we also help others.
Today's
second reading from First Timothy says, “I encourage that
prayers and supplications and intercessions and thanksgivings
be offered for everyone.” Timothy is not simply saying to
pray for others privately. He is asking us to pray for others
when we gather as an assembly to celebrate the liturgy. This
is who we are. This is why the parishioners who came before
us built this church building, so we would have a place to
come together, and together express what we believe; so that
we could not only believe in our hearts, but believe publicly;
so that we could not only sing in the shower, but sing before
the whole world.
Now,
of course, I think we worship very well here at St. Noel.
The story that I told you proves it. But we have to continue
to do that, not only for God, not only for ourselves, but
for others. We need every voice to be an active voice, a voice
that joins in and adds to our expression of faith together.
Every voice, children, teens, men, and women needs to speak
and sing in words of praise. Because when we sing that way,
we not only praise God, but we help one another. You will
never know who might walk into this church on a particular
weekend. You may never know the burden that the person a few
rows next to you is carrying. This is why we need to be who
we are. We need to continue to be a community which says by
our enthusiasm and our participation, “Here we are. We have
faith, hope and love. If your faith, hope and love are weak
this weekend, lean on us, take strength from our strength.”
We
are called to worship God. But in worshipping, we help one
another. Let us recommit ourselves to participating in our
liturgy fully and deeply. To make that commitment would be
a very wise choice, because it is only a matter of time before
something in our life brings us to the moment when we cannot
believe, when we cannot pray. Then in that moment you will
know what to do. You will know where to go. You will say,
“I need to go and worship with my parish community, because
today is the day that they must pray for me.”
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