Last week after Father Seamus preached his homily on the parable of the sower and the weeds, I said to him, “you could have summarized your homily by saying: “God is determined to do everything to get us into Heaven. The Devil is determined to do everything to get us into Hell.’” When I said that, Father Seamus said that while that was correct, life was never that simple. In fact life is always much more complicated. Life is full of times and instances when we never know what is right and what is wrong. We can find ourselves having to decide between two bad choices or two things that we would never have selected on our own. There are times when we doubt that we have the strength to do what is right and other times when the cost of doing what is right can seem just far too high for us to pay in the normal events of our lives.
Because life often seems to be that way, today’s readings offer us an important reminder that the difficult decisions that we are often forced to make in life are not decisions that we ever have to make alone. Through the scriptures and the wisdom of the Church that has been handed down to us, we can often find guidance and ways of discerning how it is that we can find God’s will in our lives. In the first reading from the Book of Kings, we hear that God praises the young King Solomon for asking for the gift of right judgement, that he may be able to judge between right and wrong for His people. This is a reminder of the importance of prayer in our own lives when we must face a difficult situation. When we do not know how to decide a matter we can look to the scriptures and the teaching of the Church to try and find out how God would have us act in a particular situation.
I remember an experience that I had on a plane several years ago while going to visit my parents. I was reading a book on Catholicism that I was hoping to use for the parish’s R.C.I.A. programme. As I was reading, I noticed that the lady that I was sitting next to was greatly interested in what I was reading. She kept trying to get my attention, so I decided I would glance over at her and give her a smile. As I did so, she asked me immediately if I was Catholic. I told her that I was and that I was a priest. With great joy, she announced to me that she had once been Catholic and now she was a Scientologist. As she told me this, she held up a huge book on Scientology that she was reading. She said that she had found in Scientology all of the answers to the questions of life that she had been trying to answer. She held up a big book and announced that it had changed her life. After she had said this, I asked her if she had ever read anything about Catholicism. She announced with equal pride that she had never done so—not a single thing she proclaimed.
This made me think how we as Catholics do not often do a very good job trying to find answers for our problems within our own tradition. There are people who will go to a psychologist, a psychic or another religion before they will try and find the answer to life’s problems within our faith tradition. This is sad because almost all of the successful answers to the problems of life that have been provided by other sources have actually come from Christianity. Most of the twelve step programs involve a spirituality of handing our lives and problems over to God. These twelve step programmes all pray the Our Father. Scientology is a kind of talk therapy that has developed the art of the confessional in to a type of confessional experience that helps a person find acceptance and God. The great spiritual writers of our faith have articulated beautiful paths to God that each one of us can explore as a way of finding God and trying to grow closer to him.
I suspect the reason why so few people do undertake a great deal of spiritual inquiry or study of the faith is because 1) it is difficult; and 2) we are often discouraged by our humanity and how often we can fall in our attempts to grow spiritually. In this area as well, this Sunday’s readings offer us a great deal of insight. The Gospel talks to us about those who searched hard or gave up a great deal to arrive at the treasure that they found. In our own lives finding the treasure of the wisdom or faith that we are seeking takes hard work. We need to make time for prayer, discernment and spiritual reading. Often, even in our struggle to do the right thing we might find ourselves repeatedly falling. Here, the words of Saint Paul from the second reading today from the Letter to the Romans are important: “We know all things work for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” This reading assures us that by our persistence we will arrive at the good we seek if we trust God and remain faithful to His call to us and seek to understand His will for us. If and when we fail, there is a line from St. Josemaria Escriva that I always like to call to mind whenever I am discouraged by my own humanity: “A saint is a sinner who keeps trying.”
Perhaps many or some of you have already had your summer vacations. I will be taking mine over the next two weeks. Whenever I am going on holiday, I always find it the time to catch up on my spiritual reading. That is what I would like to encourage you to think of doing this summer. Take the time to read something about your faith and discover the treasure that lies within the spirituality and theology of our faith and Christ’s teaching. Whether you read a Gospel from the bible, a book on spirituality, or a book on the art of forgiveness or Christian theology, take the time to discover the great treasure that awaits you in a deeper relationship with Christ. The Psalm response today proclaims: “Lord, how I love your law.” It is amazing how many people who do take the time to know the faith tradition of the Church proclaim this same thing—“Lord, I love your law!” It is also amazing how many people stumble over and past the treasures of our faith and a relationship with Christ without ever knowing what they are missing, simply because they never take the time to look or read.
May we all take the time this summer to discover the treasure that awaits us in Christ!
Fr. Michael McGourty
Pastor—St. Peter’s Church– Toronto
