XI Thursday Ordinary Time, Cycle A

2 Cor 11:1-11
Ps 111
Mt 4:1-11

Since this is my first time preaching here and I am newly ordained seminarian, I ask that you put up with a “little foolishness” from me. We seminarians usually have various assignments in the summer, like this summer I’m here at St. Joseph’s. There was one summer where I worked as a hospital chaplain. It was actually an ecumenical (people of different faiths) chaplain training internship. As we introduced ourselves, we found that we came from all over the US. What was unique was that we Texans had quite a bit of pride for our dear state; even if pride is a sin. Being born and raised here, I learned all about how Texas was its own country and won its independence from Mexico. How the state of Texas is so large, that it could be divided into smaller states if we so choose; that the distance from Dallas to El Paso is half the distance to Los Angeles. How we did not really join the United States, but that we let the United States join us. Of all the great and wonderful things about Texas, some had difficulty swallowing all of the facts. A fellow Texan simply declared, “Well it ain’t braggin’, if it’s true.”

Today’s reading has a “little bit” of the bragging that St. Paul when he writes to the Corinthians. “For I think I am not in any way inferior to these ‘superapostles’. Even if I am untrained in speaking, I am not so in knowledge.” So much for humility! I don’t think St. Paul is out of line here. His bragging is really to bring home the message that there are people and things out there in the world that threaten to deceive us and lead us away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ: there are millions of temptations when you step outside these holy walls, not to mention all the ones that you bring with you. Paul says he humbles himself that they be exalted, he preached without charging, begged for them and did not burden them. He says this and does this to show that his love is unconditional and therefore God’s love is unconditional. As incredible as his message may seem, all of these things are true. “It’s not bragging if it’s true!”

What allows St. Paul to say these words comes not from himself, but from the reality that God is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and the fact that Paul remains faithful – persevering in this. God knows we need all the help we can get; and that relying simply on our own effort we cannot do it. Therefore in contrast to the “babbling of the pagans” or lofty words, Jesus gives us a simple prayer – His prayer, the Lord’s Prayer. We send up our repetitive prayers of Our Fathers, Hail Marys, and Glory Bes not because we aren’t creative and can’t think of newer ones, but because the Father already knows what is in our hearts that cannot be expressed in words. God is the almighty, the all-powerful, the ever-living God who created all things out of nothing, who set forth the heavens and the earth and ordered them all to His will and all bow and tremble before His majesty. And yet the Lord’s Prayer is the prayer that allows us to call this God, OUR FATHER. In those two words, we radically recognize that we are His sons and daughters; we are not someone else’s or on our own, we are His. And it is not “My Father” it is “Our Father” signifying that we are not alone, but together on this earthly pilgrimage to heaven. What other god, what other omnipotent deity, or what other religion is there where people call god their “Father”?! And yet we do.... Because you know, “It ain’t bragging if it’s true.”

But that’s not all! When we ask Him to “give us this day our daily bread”, He feeds us with His Body and Blood in the Eucharist. What god does that?! I know I am preaching to the choir when I see you all here daily at Mass – this constant perseverance in faith like St. Paul gives you the authority and the courage to pray to Him and call God “Our Father”. Even if you carry your burdens and your sorrows here, you know that you are really here because you desire to receive Him in the most intimate way possible, day in and day out. The Lord’s Prayer is our constant repetitious reminder of His awesomeness, our relationship with Him, and what we need in our lives daily: Eucharist, Forgiveness in Confession, and perseverance to avoid sin.