Before Mass:
I think today’s Gospel might be one
of the main reasons why a lot of people turn away from God – or at least turn
away from prayer. “Seek and you will find – ask and it shall be given to
you.” It SOUNDS like Jesus is saying that whatever we ask for, he’ll give
it to us!
But we know that’s not
reality. I prayed for rain a couple of weeks ago and watched as storm
after storm went around us. We all pray for folks to be healed but they don’t
get better. We pray to do good on a test – to get a good job – to fix a
broken relationship – but IT DIDN’T HAPPEN. It would be easy to think
this prayer stuff is hogwash… and you might even conclude that God doesn’t
exist – I mean obviously He ain’t answering my prayers, so God must not be
there.
And you’d be right – I don’t believe
in that kind of God either. He’s not the great vending machine in the sky
ready to grant wishes like a genie. You know, if we push the right
button, say the right prayer, use the right words, get down on my knees and REEEAALLLY
mean it this time – that God will grant our every wish.
That’s not what Jesus means.
Hint: look at the last line of the Gospel - it's all about the Holy Spirit. Also, check out the second line of the Our Father prayer: Thy Kingdom Come.
HOMILY
Jesus taught us how to pray: Thy Kingdom Come. We pray it all the time, but What are we
really saying?
In short, it means we want God’s will to be done on
earth as it is in heaven. We’re asking
God to establish His kingdom right now – in our world – and in our hearts. What’s that look like?
The story of Sodom and Gomorrah gives us a perfect
example.
Those cities had become corrupt… so corrupt that God
was no longer on their radar. The Holy
Spirit was not only UNWELCOME there but had been run out of town and replaced
with UNHOLY Spirits.
That’s a dangerous place to be – any society that
loses sight of God becomes corrupt.
THEology, which is the belief in God, is replaced by IDEology. God’s ways are replaced by human ways. In a society without God, IDEOLOGY becomes
the new religion. Any place without God
is, by definition, Hell.
This story repeated itself in the 20th
century as several communist revolutions ushered in the bloodiest century known
to man. They forcefully replaced
THEOLOGY with their IDEOLOGIES. The Holy
Spirit was no longer welcome, as religion was considered to be the "opiate of
the masses". Few of us here were alive
at the time, so we may not know or remember that Tens of Millions of people
were killed in these communist revolutions.
One of the people who spoke out was a writer named
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, (yeah, it’s
spelled just like it sounds). In his
book, The Gulag Archipelago, he revealed the truth about the evils of the
Marxist regime in the Soviet Union. Arguably,
this book was the first domino to fall in the slow but inevitable demise of the
USSR.
At first, he had been a supporter of the socialist
movement in his country – but eventually he found himself sentenced to the
Gulag – a work camp in Siberia – a place indistinguishable from Hell. He thought long and hard about ‘How did I end
up here – personally?’ and ‘How did the whole country end up here’. The communist party was supposed to create in
a utopia by redistributing wealth away from the ‘rich’ so that the average
worker would have a better life… that’s the propaganda that ushered them into
power…and it may sound good on the surface, but implementation of that ideology
was never imagined.
The wealth was redistributed alright– but it just
meant a different class of people were now wealthy, and those who HAD the
wealth before were now dead. If you had
more than one cow so that you could sell milk – YOU were considered part of the
evil elite class….and you disappeared. People
quit trying to make life better for themselves… In this new Utopia, as the
‘rich’ peoples’ wealth was confiscated, the government should take care of everyone. Second – if you did work and get ahead – you
would be targeted as the evil elite class and your goods would be confiscated
and you might disappear. Hard work to
make life better was discouraged.
Anyone who spoke out was sent to the Gulags – or work
camps – to work until they died. You and
I might ask, how did this happen? Why
didn’t people speak out? How is it that
so many millions died? Because anyone
who told the truth about how life was WORSE not BETTER was silenced… every
person deceived themselves daily into explaining away their misfortune. In short – they were lying to themselves –
and that trained them to lie even more… so when they reached the line of
morality where no one should cross, they continued to lie…and the regime
continued…and their neighbors and family members disappeared in the middle of
the night.
Why am I wasting your time repainting the dark history
of the last century? First – because we
should all know history – and people under 30 or 40 might not even know about the
Marxist revolutions. But mainly because
it serves as example for today’s message.
A society that is corrupt is destined to fall. We see it in Sodom in the first reading –
corruption had become the norm – and likely anyone of integrity had either been
silenced or had already left. That’s why
when Abraham bargained with God, God didn’t hesitate to say he wouldn’t destroy
it if they found 10 good people… because he knew that IF there were 10 good
people left, 10 people who haven’t yet trained themselves to lie – that there
was still hope.
But a society built on lies - false-ideologies –
instead of Theology – is corrupt and is destined to fall – it NEEDS to
fall. We pray ‘Thy Kingdom Come’! Well - It’s impossible for the kingdom of God
to be established if the Father of Lies is the King. THAT king must be overthrown… THAT society MUST
fall - will INEVITABLY fall – not necessarily through the ACTIVE will of God
sending fireballs from heaven, but through the passive will of God. God allows us the freedom to become corrupt,…
and then allows us to reap the harvest of our corruption - to feel the consequences
of our actions. It’s not moral
chastisement – it’s not punishment - but rather simple cause and effect logic…
so let’s follow the logic – see if you agree with these statements:
First: Anyone who does not pray loses sight of God and
God’s will for him/her…personally.
Agree? Notice it starts with
prayer; If I don’t pray, I lose sight of
God.
Second: Anyone who loses sight of God is bound to
sin…destined to sin… and their heart becomes corrupt. Agree?
If God is not on our radar, we WILL sin and we WILL become corrupt.
Third: Anyone who falls into corruption will surround
himself with corrupt individuals so that their own misdeeds don’t stand
out. They spread false ideologies which
push God out – and that leads to a corrupt society. Get that?
When the individual is corrupted, the society is corrupted.
Finally, when a society reaches a certain level of
corruption, it becomes indistinguishable from Hell. Think Gulag Archipelago. Think Maoist China. Think Auschwitz.
The Kingdom of Hell MUST fall in order that God’s
kingdom can replace it. In the World and
in our own hearts.
It all starts with prayer…and Jesus himself teaches us
how.
Learn to pray.
Learn to pray that God will give you the Holy Spirit –
to give you eyes to see God’s will for you.
To Seek first the kingdom.
Pray that God will eliminate the corruption in our hearts…my heart / your
heart.
Pray that God will use US as the remnant to save our society – to rid our
culture of false ideologies and replace it with True Theology - so that Jesus can establish His
Kingdom here and now.
It’s not MY kingdom come. It’s THY Kingdom Come.
