27th Week, Thursday, Oct 12, St. Wilfrid
God speaks; "A Day of reckoning is coming."
Malachi 3:13-20 / Luke 11:5-13
A Peanuts cartoon shows Lucy holding a music box to her ear and listening. After a few minutes Lucy turns to Charlie Brown and says, "I always like to start my day by listening to some good music." Charlie says, "I'm not too concerned about how my day starts. It's how it ends that bothers me."
The prophet Malachi would agree with Charlie. He warns evildoers that even though they may be prospering now, they will be held accountable one day for their evil ways.
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How foresighted are we when it comes to our own conduct in life? Jesus said to the people, "Then [the king] will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.' Matthew 25:41
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To the prophet Malachi and the pious Jews, the apparently happy life of sinners was a scandal. To those, who practiced their faith, God seemed absent and not listening to their prayers. But God will hear them and do justice to each on the day of judgment. Christ tells us to persevere in our prayers. God hears and will give us what we need.
Luke tells us that Jesus prayed often. And insistently, as at his agony. Now, he tells us that Jesus wants us to be persevering too, insistent and even bold in our prayer. For God is good. How can he resist us when we pray? He will give us not only good things but also the Holy Spirit, the gift that contains all gifts.
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Knocking on God’s Door…
There are so many “ifs” in today’s Gospel… and there are so many “ifs” in our daily lives. Some of them are the “ifs” of lost opportunities, of things that had we done them, we believe our lives would be much better…or worse. There are the “ifs” of our wishes, of what I will be able to do under the circumstances that I imagine in my mind… Some are a bit mundane “If I earn a lotto prize…if I get a pay rise…” Some even unprincipled “If I pass this exam that I haven’t prepared…if my fraud is not discovered…” Others are born out of love and concern for friends and family “If my son, my wife, a friend recover their health…”
Today’s Gospel is an invitation to trust in God, and do it enthusiastically, to remind God again and again that we want bread and eggs and gifts… we know he is a merciful father who is willing to give us the best of all gifts, the Holy Spirit. Often, when we pray, we may insist once or twice, some even thrice… Jesus says today: do not get tired of insisting until the job is done. The power of perseverance starts, for a Christian, in prayer; Pray until God gets annoyed by you, says Jesus; don’t feel ashamed of disturbing God! Be like Abraham in front of Sodoma, like blood-sweating Jesus in Gethsemane, like Monica praying for Augustine’s conversion.
Still, as Malachi says, we must be aware that some words truly importune God. When in our life and words we show disdain for the law, forget the needs of our neighbors, when are proud and comfortable in our wickedness and let it become ordinary… Those are the words that God can’t stand.
As Christians, the power of prayer gives us the opportunity to stand in front of God’s door anytime we wish to. So, today, what are you knocking on God’s door?
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Opening Prayer
Lord our God, when we cry out to you, we wonder at times whether you hear us for your silence is sometimes oppressive. Keep us trusting in your goodness and your constant presence. Give us what is good when we ask you, and also when we forget to ask, let us find you when we seek you, open to us when we knock, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
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Saint Wilfrid
Feast Day October 12
Today we might call St. Wilfrid a “brick and mortar” bishop, comparing him to the Spellmans and Stritchs who built the American church. He believed a bishop needed a large territory, wealth, and political power to allow him to plant new churches and found monasteries and schools. But Wilfrid was also a courageous evangelist and pastor who personally converted thousands of pagans and reared them in the faith.
A Celtic monk of Lindisfarne and abbot of the new Celtic monastery at Ripon, nonetheless Wilfrid championed Roman influence in Anglo-Saxon England. In 663 he persuaded the famous Synod of Whitby to settle the controversy over the date of Easter by choosing the Roman method of calculation. A few years later he became bishop of Northumbria, a vast arena for his mission of expanding and consolidating the church. He planted many new Catholic communities.
Among them was the new monastery at Hexam, where Wilfrid had constructed the largest church north of the Alps. Three times in Wilfrid’s long episcopacy kings exiled him, and each time he appealed to the pope, who upheld his claims. Thus he strengthened the Anglo-Saxon pattern of maintaining close ties with the church at Rome. During his first exile in 678, Wilfrid was sidetracked on his way to Rome and spent some months preaching to pagans in Frisia, establishing the Anglo- Saxon mission to Germany. During his second forced exile, Wilfrid took the Christian faith to the people of Wessex and Sussex.
For many months the evangelical preacher spoke eloquently, the long sweep of his words covering everything Almighty God did to put idolatry to shame. Then Wilfrid found grace in the sight of the king and a great gateway of faith opened for him. On one day he baptized many thousands of pagans (as the Apostle Peter did) of both sexes who forsook idolatry and professed faith in Almighty God. After his third exile from 692 to 703, Wilfrid returned to end his controversial life as bishop of Hexam. He died in 709 at Oundle, a monastery he had founded in Mercia.
