HOMILY The Father Loves Me

Transcription

1 HOMILY The Father Loves Me Father Larry Richards Moderator, Bread of Life Community Homily for 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle A Exodus 19:2-6 Romans 5:6-11 Matthew 9:36-10:8 Today I want to spend time on the second reading, the one from Romans. So let's go to Romans 5. The readings today began with verse 6, but I want to begin with verse 5. "And this hope will not leave us disappointed because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. At the appointed time, when we were still powerless Christ died for us godless men. It is rare that anyone should lay down his life for a just man, though it's barely possible that for a good man someone may have the courage to die. It is precisely in this that God proves his love for us while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." It is precisely in this while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, and this proves God's love for us. A couple of weeks ago, I was in Canada at the Ste. Anne de Beaupre Shrine in Quebec. I sat for a moment in prayer, and as I was sitting there I looked up and there on one of the pillars -- this is the year of the Father -- on one of the pillars were a couple of words -- in English, which surprised me -- The Father loves you. As I read that, I was so struck. The Father loves me. The Father loves me. These words really took root in me. That's what I was meditating on while I was driving back. The Father loves me. Our whole retreat this past week at Steubenville was "The Road to the Father." Father Francis Martin, who is one of the best Scripture scholars in the world, a most phenomenal man, not only in his intelligence, but how he expresses it. He

2 talked about the reality that the biggest lie of the world today, the biggest lie that so many in the Church have bought into, and the world especially, is that we have no Father. That lie is very deep in the heart of each of us. That we no longer talk about our Father. In fact, you're not allowed to talk about the Father. You go to a lot of places -- don't ever talk about God as Father. It's a lie from the devil himself that God is not our Father. It's a lie. If you and I cannot call God our Father, we do not have the Spirit of God within us. Nowhere in the Old Testament, nowhere does it refer to God as Mother. Not even hinted to. God is Father. That has been revealed. What we must do to rid ourselves of the lie and find healing is know that our Father loves us. What did Jesus come to do? Jesus came to reveal whom? The Father. He didn't come to reveal the Creator. He didn't come to reveal some Spirit up there. He came to reveal his Father. What happens when a person becomes a Christian is we enter in to that same relationship as Christ has. When we talk about the relationship that Christ has, he did not look up to heaven and say, "O my Creator." He looked up to heaven and said, "O my Father. My abba." Abba. Intimacy. So many have bought into the lie. So often we say my relationship with my Father wasn't so very good. MY relationship with MY Father stunk! So what! It doesn't matter where you're coming from. If you had a bad relationship with your Dad, so what? God wants to show you what a real Father is like. He wants to show you the compassion of the Father. He wants to show you the strength of himself, that he is our Father who loves us. Until we come to know that we are just going to go through the motions. You need to know who your Abba is. I've told this story once or twice here, I'm sure. I just forgot it. It was the core of my relationship with God. It's when I finally came to conversion. It was after many years of prayer. I was trying to find out who God was, and my spiritual director, who was a nun, looked at me and said, "I want you to spend time with Isaiah 43. I'm sitting there reading it, once, twice, three times, four times, five times. Isaiah 43: 1-5. If you haven't memorized it, memorize it now. It's so important. In Isaiah 43:1-5 it says, "Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you walk through fire, the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your savior. I give people in exchange for you. Fear not for you are precious in my eyes and honored, and I love you." As I spent an hour with that verse and I'm struggling with God telling him all the reasons why he couldn't love a jerk like me, I'd hear "the Father loves you." And I'm struggling: You can't love me, God; look at me. I'm such a jerk. I'm so angry. I'm so lustful. I'm a person who has to have my own way. I'm so selfish. I was struggling with God. Then deep

3 within myself I heard, "You -- are -- my -- son." The relationship clicked! I found out who I am in Jesus Christ. I am a son of the Father God. That's all that matters and when I came to that I remember bawling like a baby. I finally knew who my Dad was. Completely, fully. That night I had a dream in which I was in Pittsburgh and all my friends and relatives were there and they were possessed. Oh, did we learn a lot on possession and deliverance this week in Steubenville. Father Scanlon for three afternoons for two hours, we learned the new rites of exorcism and deliverance, and all. In my dreams all my friends were possessed and I was exorcising them in Jesus' name. "In Jesus' name leave that person," and the devil kept laughing at me. "In Jesus' name," and the devil kept laughing and then I said, "You don't understand." Then all of a sudden, the devil began to possess me in my dream. My arms go around, my knees go up to my chest and I start levitating on the ceiling. Doo, doo, doo. Doo, doo, doo. Then I'm screaming, "You can't do this to me." And the more I screamed, the more he blasted me. All of a sudden I heard in my dream the same thing I heard in my prayer, "Larry, he can't do this to you. You are my son." And as soon as I said, "Yes, Father, I am your son in Jesus," the devil screamed and left me. Then I went to my friends and relatives and just touched them and said, "You are God's son or you are God's daughter" and immediately, the devil screamed and left them. Then I woke up and I was soaking wet. That dream was so real. My spiritual director came in and asked if God said anything to me last night. And I said, "Oh, Joan, and I told her." And she said to me, "Your whole point in ministry is to be going around telling people who their Father is." I lost touch of that for so many years, every once in awhile giving this talk in a retreat, but not fully accepting it in my own heart because as the time went on and I started listening to these different things -- that we should call God this or that and we don't want to offend people -- I lost touch with revelation. The objective revelation that has been revealed through the Holy Spirit, and as a matter of fact through the whole old Testament and through the New. I lost the fact of revelation subjectively when the Father confirmed it to me that I'm his beloved son. And in losing touch with that I lost touch with all the ministry God has called me to. We have to know who we are -- sons and daughters of the Father. Beloved! Beloved! That the Father looks at you and smiles. The Father cries out that you are my daughter, you are my son. We have to know that and enter into that. Because if not then we're not conformed into Jesus Christ because when we finally surrender our lives to Christ then we have the same relationship that he has with God. We don't conform ourselves to the age. We don't conform ourselves to Sophia. We conform ourselves to Jesus Christ, and Jesus cries out, "Abba, my Father." So we, too, our prayer needs to be directed -- every single prayer except for twice a year in the sacramentary -- is

4 directed to the Father. Every single one, except for a few times like for the Sacred Heart of Jesus we direct our prayers to Christ. But Christ comes to reveal the Father. How do I come to enter into this relationship? What's Romans 8 say? Let's go to Romans 8: 15: This is the key. This is how we enter into this relationship. "You did not receive a Spirit of slavery leading you back into fear. But you have received the Spirit of adoption in which we cry out, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit himself gives witness with our spirit that we are children of Abba." Do you have that? Do we have anything to be afraid of? Who's your daddy? God. It's that simple. This has been such a powerful week for me to understand who the Father is. Every day I spent at least two to three hours before the Blessed Sacrament, and as I sat in a little court just immersed in the love of the Father I was saying the daily prayer, the daytime prayer that priests say everyday and the one psalm prayer that day was: "Jesus, give us the confidence you had in your Father, and we shall be saved." That became my prayer. "Jesus, help me to have such confidence in the Father that you had." Think about Jesus, even when it came to raising Lazarus from the dead, what did he say in John 11? Lazarus is dead for four days. Jesus says, "Abba, I thank you for having heard me, but I know you always hear me, but I've said this in behalf of the crowd that they may know that you sent me." To know that every time I say, "Abba", God always hears me. That I'm his beloved son whom he will always take care of. I have no need to fear the world, I have no need to fear death, I have no need to fear the devil, I have no need to fear anything because the Creator of the Universe is my Dad, and he will let nothing happen to me. He will do everything in his power as God to save me if I but trust him and enter into this relationship. In this day in your heart if you do not know God as "Abba", then beg God's Holy Spirit, surrender to the Spirit that he has been given to you at Baptism. Only four times in the whole Bible does it talk about what the Spirit does for us. One, the Spirit makes us cry out, "Jesus Christ is Lord." Two, the Spirit says, "Come, Holy Spirit." Another the Spirit utters groans within us. And the last one is Romans 8, the Spirit prays within us "Abba". Daddy. When was the last time in prayer you called Almighty God, Abba? It's been way too long. He wants you to call him by the name his son revealed to you. May each of you know the Abba's love today and forever. Amen.

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