Homily for the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
20 October 2013
20 October 2013
Some
of you may remember the Heinz Ketchup commercial with former Friends’ star, Matt LeBlanc, from the
late 1980s. In it, he places a newly-opened bottle of ketchup at the top of the
building, runs down the stairs, and buys a hot dog just in time for the dollop of
ketchup to fall, covering the hot dog. As he enjoys his snack, the tag line
pops up with the voice-over, “The best things come to those who wait.”
This commercial, of course, is trying to
prove the point of the tag line: that, in fact, Heinz Ketchup is so good, you’ll
want to wait for it. But we, as a society, are impatient; we CAN’T wait for it.
So, what do we do? How do we get the ketchup out? Do we turn the bottle upside
down and shake it? Do we stick our knives into the bottle? Or do we, as all
native Pittsburghers know how to do, repeatedly hit the “57” on the bottle? I
mean, as people who grew up around “the ‘Burgh”, we know that there’s no other
ketchup than Heinz’s, and so we want that tomato-y goodness on our food as soon
as possible.
This, my brothers and sisters, is where
the Heinz Company gets it right.
In all three of our readings this
weekend, the idea of faithful perseverance: Moses in the battle with Amalek, the
continuation of Paul’s teaching to Timothy, and Jesus’ parable about the
persistent widow. In our First Reading and Gospel, we see the necessity of our persistence
in prayer. In our Second Reading, we are reminded that our persistence is
needed as we continue to teach the Faith to others.
As we have been reflecting on the last
number of weeks, faith is a gift, given to us by God, so that we may come to
know the depths of His fidelity to us as we strengthen our fidelity in Him. The
persistence, the perseverance of our faith comes into play as we continue in
the struggles of our lives to remain faithful to our relationship with the
Lord. And that truly is a struggle at times. Yet that is where our persistence
pays off.
If we see our faith like the ketchup in
the commercial, then we will have no trouble in waiting to see this gift come
to fruition, to be able to taste the sweetness of the prize of our patience.
However, we know that this is very little the case. Our society wants
everything “now”, which is why we even have the squeeze bottle for our ketchup
these days. We, as a society, fail to see faith as something that is slow and
quiet process to develop all of our lives; it is not something that simply “comes
to us” in an instant that we then retain for the rest of our lives. Faith is
that gift that we must be persistent in asking for and working to develop.
But that’s why Jesus tells us, through
the parable, about why it’s necessary to pray always without becoming weary. We
continue in our persistence in asking God for the gift of faith because that is
the way in which we keep that line of communication open with the Lord, for
that, in essence, is what prayer is.
Yet we also need to continue to work on
developing our faith, for that demonstrates to God and to the world the commitment
we have towards our fidelity to God, as we recognize His fidelity to us. And
sometimes we have the necessity to ask others for their help in being faithful
to God. Why else would we gather week after week as a community for Mass?
Simply put, God knew that we couldn’t do “life” or “faith” on our own, so He
gave us a community to assist us. This is wonderfully exampled to us in our
First Reading as Moses is assisted by Aaron and Hur. This image reminds us that
through our strengths and weaknesses, we are to support one another in becoming
more faithful to God through our persistence in prayer for one another, as well
as the way we act towards one another in our thoughts, words and actions.
However, in our societal short-sightedness
and communal impatience, we grapple in allowing our faith to develop, to
strengthen or to be assisted because we want what faith “is” and / or “has to
give us” right now. We don’t allow the dollop of ketchup to slowly flow out of
the bottle. Instead, we take the bottle and squeeze it out, or we hit the “57”
harder and harder, getting more ketchup, more faith than what we need. And so
what do we do with the excess? We waste it; we throw it away, because we “simply
don’t need it”.
Our gift of faith, my brothers and
sisters, is something that we should never waste. But we should also never
believe that we have enough faith to live this life apart from God or one
another. Rather, our life needs to become a living prayer, a life that is
always allowing itself to be united to God (and each other) through our
thoughts, words, and actions. It is the realization that those dollops of faith
that the Lord gives to us are given to us because of our persistence in prayer,
and that we should never want for more, for we will waste it, nor should we
believe that we have enough faith to live this life on our own. No, we need to “lift
up [our] eyes to the mountains”, asking our God to help us persevere in our
lives and in our faith. We must remember that God never works according to our
time; He only works according to His will.
So, are we going to be like Matt LeBlanc
in the commercial and allow the dollop of faith to be given to us as God knows
we need it, or are we to force our faith by squeezing the bottle too hard, or
repeatedly hitting the “57” until something comes out? My friends, while we
must learn to pray always and to be persistent in our prayer, we must also
recognize that the gift of faith is something to be developed over time, with
patience, and with the help of God and the community of the Church, the Body of
Christ. While we may desire the ketchup, we must savor the anticipation of
allowing the dollop to fall. But if we persevere in patience and persist in prayer,
God will give us what we need, when we need it. Truly, "the best things come to those who wait."
Once again, we learn well from our
Doctor of the Church, Saint Teresa of Avila, as she teaches: “The most potent and acceptable prayer
is the prayer that leaves the best effects. I don't mean it must immediately
fill the soul with desire . . . The best effects [are] those that are followed
up by actions – when the soul not only desires the honor of God, but really
strives for it.”
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Enjoy the journey . . ..
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