Fr Jack SJ MD: Jim Morrison was wrong: Homily for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ex 17:8-13

Ps 121

2 Tm 3:14-4:2

Lk 18:1-8

The Doors released their album “The Soft Parade” in July of 1969. A few weeks later it became the soundtrack for my remaining years at Penn State when my roommate arrived with a vinyl LP. I still listen to the album.

The title track, which is at the end rather than first track, begins with Jim Morrison proclaiming, “when I was back there in seminary school there was a person there who put forth the proposition that you can petition the Lord with prayer.” He repeats, “petition the Lord with prayer” twice with sarcasm dripping from each word and then screams: “YOU CANNOT PETITION THE LORD . . . WITH PRAYER.” This blasphemy is followed up by a beautiful melody that is incongruous with the intro. Unfortunately, by the time the album was released drugs had him on the course that ended with his death of a probable heroin overdose two years later in July 1971. He was 27 years old. He was wrong.

You can petition the Lord with prayer. You should petition the Lord with prayer. You must petition the Lord with prayer. The first reading and the gospel tell us how. That how can be summarized in one word: importune

Importune means: to demand with urgency or persistence, to beset with solicitations, to be troublesomely persistent, or to be annoying in one’s requests. A two year-old’s full-time job is to importune. Many a parent has given into importuning requests for a box of triple sugared chocolate bombs cerealso as to stop the pleading. Unlike most of us subject to importuning be it that of a 2 year-old or a friend, it is impossible to annoy or trouble God with prayer. What some would think is too much is just barely enough. The entire psalter, from Psalm 1 to Psalm 150 is one long importuning prayer with periodic bursts of thanksgiving.

The image in the first reading is fascinating. As long as Moses’ arms were raised in prayer the Israelites were winning the battle. When his hands dropped with fatigue the tide would shift. But Moses had help. Aaron and Hur supported his arms as long as necessary. So it is for us. We can’t always do it alone in prayer. That is why we are surrounded by a community of believers. That is why we pray for others. That is why others pray for us.

Aaron and Hur represent the community of believers supporting us when we are too fatigued, too anxiety-ridden, or too overwrought to pray. And we support the arms of others when we pray for and with them.

The community of believers is first, foremost, and always must be, a community of prayer. All other agendas, programs, environmental concern, and social activism must take a backseat to prayer and in particular, the sublime prayer of the Eucharist. Persistent prayer is crucial to the ongoing salvation of the world. Prayer may be the only force keeping the world spinning on its axis.

The Gospel is fascinating. The widow was relentless. No matter what the unjust judge did she returned importuning until he gave her a just judgment. The judge’s motivations for that judgment were less than honorable. He was not motivated by a thirst for justice but by the fear of being struck.

We have much in common with that judge. Too many today give wrong judgments or avoid speaking out against immoral agendas for fear of being cancelled or being accused of one of the myriad of faux-isms, pseudo-ists, and unintentionally hilarious phobias with which we are bullied daily. Jesus asks the rhetorical question: “Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him” in prayer? We know the answer is a resounding yes.

The responsorial psalm, Psalm 121, is among the most beautiful and poignant prayers in the entire psalter. It is also one of the most difficult to apprehend. At first glance the opening seems consoling but, as the song goes, It Ain’t Necessarily So.

About twenty-five years ago Jesuit Father Paul Harmon was addressing a group of us about Psalm 121. He suggested that one interpretation of the first verse is that when the psalmist looked up to the mountains he saw that he was surrounded by sacrificial fires and sacrifices being offered to the pagan gods. That compelled him to ask “Whence shall help come to me?”

The psalmist had been abandoned by his people. who chose not to follow the God of the covenant, the one and only true God, but the gods du jour, because it was politically correct or socially expedient to worship them. Things haven't changed much.

And then, from the depths of his despair, the psalmist recalled, “My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”

Upon realizing that he had been abandoned by his people, the psalmist had to look interiorly, he had to pray, he had to realize that help did not come from the heathen gods and goddesses of fire. Help did not come from power, money, or social status. It did not come from any of the “isms” that are today’s false gods and pagan religions. Help only came from the Lord, who created both heaven and earth.

"I lift up my eyes toward the mountains;
whence shall help come to me?
My help is from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth."

Meditate on that for the rest of the day.

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The photos below were taken earlier today while I was at St. Joseph Trappist Abbey in Spencer, MA about 1 hr 45 min from BC. It was a glorious day from the drive out to the return though it was dark for the end of the trip. As I go there one Saturday per month the drive home was a preview of coming attractions for the next visit after EDST ends.