2019
November 10 / 32nd Sunday
●●
2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14 ●●● Psalm 17 ●●●
2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5 ●●● +
Luke 20:27-38 ●●
Title: Gravity: Prayer, Partnership, Persistence
[__01__] “What God has joined, let no one separate.”
These are words from the Ritual of
Marriage … “What God has… separate.”
Jesus and the Saducees are at odds but
would be in agreement about this… “What God has… separate.”
The Saduccees are on to something with
their seemingly far-fetched question – that nothing should separate husband and
wife as they make a lifelong commitment each other.
[__02__] I’d like to reflect on this our hope of
heaven and heavenly reward, referring the fictional account of a movie of 2013.
The 2013 movie called Gravity, with Sandra Bullock … like the
“force of gravity” pulling us down.
Sandra Bullock - plays a NASA astronaut in deep trouble, in a crisis on
a space station, in danger of losing her life. Her co-star is George Clooney.
A central moment of the film in which
she speaks out loud in her little space capsule and into the radio-microphone
to anyone who can hear. And, it’s not clear she is audible, because she has
lost radio communications contact with other astronauts and NASA mission
control. Houston we have a problem.
At this point, she can only
communicate – randomly to an amateur radio operator – ham radio person – near
the Arctic Circle in Greenland.
Sandra Bullock’s character says: “I'm going to die … I mean, we're
all going to die. Everyone knows that. But I'm going to die today... But the
thing is... I'm still scared … No one will mourn me. No one will pray for my
soul. Will you mourn me [she says to the man in Greenland/Arctic Circle] Is it too late to say a prayer? I'd say one
for myself, but I have never prayed in my life... no one ever taught me how...”
[__03__] She is
reaching out beyond herself, beyond her current condition.
I’d like to touch on – in this
reflection on the gospel on “gravity” and the …
Gravity-pull of prayer
Gravity-pull of a partnership
Gravity-pull of persistence
[__04__] Is it
too late to say a prayer?
“I do
not know how to pray” …we ask others to pray for us.
Our church – our parish was founded in
1914 – not only for those who do know how to pray and those who do not know how
to pray …but also for those who do not come here – or may not yet come here –
so that we can pray for them …and, if possible, also reach out and teach them
how to pray.
St. Paul reminds us that we are
Temples of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not dwell simply in a house of
brick and mortar and redwood beams and marble, but also in you and me as a
Temple.
The month of November is a time to pray for
those who do not know how to pray or those did not know how to pray.
We might say, however, that the statement “I
do not know how to pray” is itself a prayer – these were words of the disciples
to Jesus saying, “Lord teach us to pray.”
Our prayers have gravity and our prayers have
gravity when they focus on the immediate needs of the day.
Sometimes we have a tendency – I have a
tendency to do this – to pray about all the things that have not happened yet.
You know the words of Franklin Delano
Roosevelt about the coming war/World War II – the only thing we have to fear is
fear itself. And, sometimes the only thing we pray about is not what we fear –
concretely – but the emotion of fear itself.
We have things to fear that we know about,
but sometimes we pray about the things we do not even know about.
(Reference – early part of C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters)
Our prayers have gravity and effectiveness
when they “ground us” and allows us to focus on the gravity pull into today’s
needs, our daily bread, today’s bread and how God’s will might be done today in
our lives.
The GRAVITY OF prayer.
[__05__] Now,
I would like to touch on the GRAVITY OF PARTNERSHIP …
Because it is here that Jesus and Sadducees
seem to go their separate ways about the meaning marriage and of partnership of
the whole of life. What God has joined, let no one separate.
Jesus certainly does not minimize the importance of the partnership of
marriage – a partnership of the whole of life – between a wife and husband. The
wife and husband are called to reach heaven together. The spouses are called to
pray for the other when the other does not know how to pray.
In the movie, “GRAVITY” … Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are not
married to each other…they are astronauts working together, but I suggest there
is something analogous about how we depend on each other, for survival.
In the search to survive, we can all be drawn
by our own past and history.
In the movie, “GRAVITY” is a theme that
indicates that we are all being drawn toward ..sometimes, being drawn by our
own experiences.
For Sandra Bullock’s character, she has experienced
the death of her own child, a young daughter and girl. And, in a review of the
movie, Bishop Robert Barron observes that we see is that Sandra Bullock is
constantly trying to escape the reality and gravity of this tragic death.
Who would not?
She is now thousands of miles above from
earth, but she cannot escape – who could escape – the gravity of her daughter’s
death. I know we have not been thousands of miles above earth, but we have all
tried to escape tragedy in our lives.
And, in space capsule, Sandra Bullock is now
facing her own mortality.
The Good News of the Resurrection is not
simply that our lives become pain-free or worry-free but that we also are
physically resurrected in our own bodies. And, so are others. So, for the
parent who has lost a child, a child who is part of her own body, the
Resurrection of the body is important. It is best of all Good News.
Resurrection is also about the gravity
of our partnership – not only the partnership of marriage, the partnership of
being mother/father…but also about our partnership with Christ who gave himself
up for us so that we might live.
[__06__] In
the move Gravity, Sandra Bullock’s character is challenged not only by the
gravity pull of prayer, and the gravity pull of partnership, but also by the
gravity pull of persistence
She does not go their alone.
The reason she is floating in the
space capsule alone and in trouble is because there was a violent explosion of
shiny and sharp metal of a satellite.
She and her partner – George Clooney are
the only ones to survive.
But, their ability to survive – and
reach their destiny – is also defined by their ability to carry out individual
responsibility.
In this case, George Clooney gives us
his connection, his tie, lets go of her hand, so that she might live. George
Clooney drifts off into space… (John 15:13 à
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for a friend).
But, then – it seems it’s all going to
be OK because a few scenes later - George Clooney is knocking at the window and
explaining how to get this “car” started. It’s conversation of hope and
renewal. But it was all a dream. But, what is a dream?
I have spoken to so many of you who
have felt the presence of a deceased loved one and their guidance is with you.
These are examples of hope that our loved ones do live on…and that we can live
on.
It requires us also to live in the
immediate concerns of the day, of starting the car, of making lunch, of
cleaning the house, mowing the lawn, doing laundry, then doing more laundry, of
going to work, doing homework …or of escaping back to earth … which Sandra
Bullock is ultimately able to do.
She does this because of the gravity
of prayer, of partnership, and of perseverance…and the hope of a life beyond
this world.
It is Good News that there is a resurrection of the Body, not only of mine,
but of yours, and all those we have lost.
What God has joined, let no one separate.
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us. [__fin__]
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