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| Gospel | Matthew 6:7-15 © |
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| How to pray |
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Jesus said to his disciples: ‘In your prayers do not babble as the pagans do, for they think that by using many words they will make themselves heard. Do not be like them; your Father knows what you need before you ask him. So you should pray like this:
‘Our Father in heaven,
may your name be held holy,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us.
And do not put us to the test,
but save us from the evil one.
‘Yes, if you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours; but if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either.’
We saw something strange in the desert today, dark rain clouds passed overhead, lightning sounded but the hot air from the desert floor ascending consumed the water before it could hit the ground. I am not even sure how this storm made it over the mountains, On our side of the mountains, there is nothing but sun and sand like a never-ending beach but no water to sully the dry, lifeless, and hot sand.
The day had been long and except for the ten or fifteen minutes of the "storm", the sun beat mercilessly down on us. Every step was harder than the step before. Everyone, except the Master, was on edge when we stopped to eat lunch. The meal was over and we were checking the camels, making sure that none of the bindings were chaffing and that the load remained balanced. Two of my companions were checking Hercules who as usual was in a sour mood when it happened. One of the men checked a strap by pulling on it and thus loosened it and immediately the whole load became unbalanced. The Hercules, not a camel to suffer fools easily started to walk away and the whole load fell off the camel's back into the grit of the desert floor. The man who had charge of the camel called the other a bloody fool and as men do he followed that up with curses, threats, and saber rattling and a description of the culprit's home life that was hard to believe. The two began to fight. The Master came and after a moment He demanded that they stop. Reluctantly, they separated. One of the men had what looked to be a black eye and the other was bleeding from his nose and his upper lip. Hercules for his part was standing and peering at his masters and if a camel could chuckle, that is what he would be doing at this moment.
The Master was not happy. He told everyone to unload and set up the camp because we would go no further this day. The Master walked off to be alone while what He commanded was completed. When the camp was set, the Master came to where the fire would be built and summoned us and had us sit around as we would at night. Except that doing this during the day was almost worse than walking through the sun. We sat with the vain hope that our hats would protect us from the sun. Once we were all assembled, with the two combatants separated on opposite ends of the circle, the Master joined us. He stood near the center of the group and He looked at us with eyes that, for once, did not reveal the inner peace that dominated Him. Rather, the eyes seemed to register concern for someone or something. This look was as rare as a rainstorm in the desert. He stooped and picked up a handful of sand and examined it intently for a moment and then He addressed us.
"Every man here volunteered to follow me on this journey. Every one of you took on the responsibility for taking care of one another, looking out for the good and pushing away the bad. What happened to us today is a symptom. There is tension between us and that may interfere with our journey. We are on our way to Jerusalem for reasons that have been explained to you already. You need to keep the goal in mind and it seems we have lost that because of petty squabbling and now even fisticuffs. The two who were fighting, arise and face one another. Now approach and each of you apologize to the other."
One of the culprits refused. The Master took it in stride, almost as if he expected this to happen. He told them to sit down. He began walking around the circle and continued his talk.
"We pray a common prayer. We say "Our Father" which means that we are all brothers. We are not strangers who pass each other in the night. Look at the people around you. When you get to heaven these faces and those of a million trillion others will be ones you see. When you go to Church on Sunday, look at the people in the pews. Among them are your companions in heaven. Yes. the lady with the squealing baby, and yes, the man who is constantly playing with his smartphone, and even the family that arrives late to mass and leaves right after communion every week. Besides your friends, besides the people you know and love, there will uncounted millions of people that will be brothers and sister to you. But once again, let us look at our common prayer, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. There! There it is! Take heed of this sentence as you learn which is the hardest part of being one of my servants! You must learn to forgive. I was not kidding or exaggerating the need for you to forgive. If you carry hate or bitterness in your heart for even one of your brothers or sisters, your entrance into heaven will be delayed or if your hate has hardened your heart so greatly, it may send you to be with the goats into everlasting torment. This fight that occurred today was minor and I know that it was caused by feelings of frustration and the uncomfortable heat we are dealing with during our journey. But one bad word between friends can change the destiny of one or both of the brothers unless it is followed by an apology and a deeply felt need to right the wrong. The devil looks for weakness. Imagine the dam at Aswan. It is a marvel of human engineering. But, all it takes is a small crack that is ignored by those whose job it is to tend the dam, and sooner or later, the dam will break and the loss of life will be great. When you hate somebody, imagine if you will, that God's grace is in your soul protecting you and your brother insults you. That is the crack in your dam and sooner or later the dam will burst, you will learn hate and your fate will be like that of the rich man who refused to feed Lazurus. I say again, you must forgive those who hurt you. In order to enter heaven, you must be a person of peace. Now the two that were fighting, approach one another and settle this score at once."
The two men walked towards one another. One with his black eye showing beautifully against his tan skin and the other with a lip that seemed to be swollen twice as large as normal came together, embraced and when they dropped the embrace, each looked at the other, one pointing to a black eye and the other pointing to a split lip and they burst out laughing and took places next to one another in the circle. The Master was pleased and he showed it with his warmest of smiles. He left the circle and went to His tent.
