Sermon on the Range with Fr. Bryce Lungren
(October 19th Sunday Homily)
Readings:
Reading 1 — Exodus 17:8-13
Psalm — Psalm 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
Reading 2 — 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
Gospel — Luke 18:1-8
Transcript:
This is one of the parables of our Lord that, we kind of get the point, we kind of relate to it, but there’s still, a little bit more to be revealed, for us to relate to, at least me. I do think that the book ends, really the beginning of this gospel and the end, give us the moral of the story.
So our Lord begins with, Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. That’s what we’re after. To pray always without becoming weary. Then he concludes it with, but when the Son of Man comes will he find faith on earth? That faith is the antidote for not becoming weary, right?
We trust and believe that the Lord will answer our prayers. The widow in today’s Gospel does highlight that reality. To pray without becoming weary and to do so we’ve got to have faith. Again, that’s a human reality, a temptation to become weary. Even Moses in our first reading, succumbs to weariness. Here he is on the mountaintop with his arms lifted up interceding on behalf of Joshua and the troops. And as long as his arms are lifted up, they’re winning the war. But when he gets tired, when he grows weary, lets his arms down, they start to lose. Even Moses ran into weariness. We do as well. They improvised, they sat him down and they lifted up his arms. And as long as he had his arms up, they won the war.
So there’s a good example of the reality of weariness and the reality of improvising in faith. So faith, trusting, believing that God can and will answer our prayers is how we don’t grow weary. It’s a good lesson for us to learn and to put into action. There’s also a reality of intercession that’s laced throughout our gospels here today.
So Moses, intercedes on behalf of Joshua and the troops. We come from a faith background of intercession. We employ the intercession of others. Will you pray for me? Yes, I will pray for you. We also employ the intercession of the Saints. Moses is a really a good example of interceding for the troops down below. He’s got his arms stretched out, interceding, however that looked.
The greatest intercession we have is from our Lord Himself, right? As Scripture testifies, lives forever to intercede for us. So in this realm of praying, we want to pray constructively without growing weary. We’re at the best place to do that, the Mass. Standing behind us is our Lord with His arms outstretched, fixed to the cross, interceding on our behalf.
That’s the reality of what we do when we come to Mass, we offer our prayer to the Father through Jesus who intercedes on our behalf. It doesn’t get any higher than that. If we don’t want to really grow weary, continue to come to Mass and offer our prayer to the Father through the Son who intercedes on our behalf. That being said, that’s beautiful, it doesn’t get any higher. There are opportunities for us to then intercede on each other’s behalf. This whole notion comes from the communion of the saints.
The communion of the saints is the reality that even if we physically died, we are still in communion with each other spiritually as Scripture would testify that those who have died in Christ are not dead, they’re alive. They continue as Revelation, the book of Revelation would say, continue to intercede on our behalf. We wanna implore that reality just as I would intercede on your behalf, you would intercede on my behalf.
The Saints in heaven want to intercede on our behalf. I think of this partially because All Saints Day is coming up here soon. We want to kind of keep this on the forefront. It kind of relaxes some of the pressure off ourselves. Pray always without growing weary, you know, help me out. We do need some assistance in our prayers. The Saints, our older brothers and sisters in heaven, are there to intercede on our behalf as well, through the Son who intercedes forever to the Father on our behalf.
Through our relationship, our communion, our baptism with Jesus, the one Mediator, then we can intercede on each other’s behalf. I just really want to put that reality of the intercession of the Saints in heaven in our forefront to take advantage of that aspect of our faith. We’re not just slugging it out alone. We need Moses on the hill helping us out. That’s what our older brothers and sisters do as well, which all stems from the Lord himself. There’s one big happy family here, this communion of Saints, and we want to really rely on each other’s intercession so that we don’t grow weary, because that’s a reality in our life. Again, this all stems from faith, belief that Christ can do what he promises, and he does. We just need to remain faithful as our Lord commands us today.
The son of man comes, will he find faith on earth? Yes, he will. If we are here at Mass where it’s just the ultimate prayer, the ultimate intercession. May we keep up the good work. Definitely keep coming to Mass, offering our prayer to the Lord, but also seek the intercession of others. Will you pray for me? Yeah. Likewise. As well as the intercession of the saints who long to be on the hilltop, interceding, offering prayers on our behalf as well. So may we listen to our Lord about the necessity for us to pray always without becoming weary.
