Catholic TV Mass Online October 16, 2022: 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Presider: Fr. Matthew Widder Parish: Catholic Community of Waukesha TEXT FROM THE HOMILY One of the more frustrating, kind of annoying experiences that can happen in life is when there is a time that we have to call a customer service hotline. Perhaps there was an appliance or something we bought that's no longer working, we have to call that customer service number. Sometimes it happens with medical issues and trying to get a grasp on insurance benefits and we call these numbers and what can be frustrating and annoying is because we make the number and the phone picks up and we hear something like, "your call is important to us. All of our operators are currently full. Please hold." and then there is some beautiful nice music and then all of a sudden over laid the music is your call is important to us. All of our operators are currently... Please hold. And we kind of get that rhythm. And as that's unfolding as we're in those moments waiting, we say, " I just want to talk to a real person." I just want to talk to a real person. And so it's a test of our perseverance. It's a test of our how long are we going to wait? And then sometimes it happens that we get that real person, and we're like thank you! And then it's like I can't handle that problem. Let me transfer you to someone else. And then it's like no! And then it's back to the “your call is important...” This cycle that unfolds. I think sometimes we can have that same experience within the context of faith. We can feel like we're praying, and we're praying, and praying, perhaps there's something we continue to lift up to God and we say, is anyone listening? Is anyone listening? And perhaps the first perspective that the Lord wants us to know in the gospel today is that when we are praying whether the Lord answers our prayer right away as we would like or not, we are talking to a real person. In fact, we could say we're talking to persons. The father, the son and the holy spirit. That God is real. And so then no prayer goes unanswered. Even when it seems like we're on hold in our spiritual life, when it seems like we're on hold, when it seems like we’re waiting, the Lord is a real person. The Lord is a real person. The Lord can handle our problems. Sometimes the Lord is working in ways that we can't understand or we don't see but the Lord is at work. When we pray, the Lord is a real person. Perhaps we could even flip this gospel around. Flip this, that image around. And say I wonder if sometimes the Lord looks at us, the Lord looks at us as we go about our daily lives and the Lord perhaps at times feels like "he's" the one that's on hold. That the Lord says to us, "I'm here! I am real. I am alive!" Sometimes we put the Lord on hold and sometimes in the process of putting the Lord on hold we transfer our lives, and we transfer what we think is going to help us to other people, other means that are not the Lord. And so as we hear this gospel as the Lord urges us to pray without becoming weary we hear that question. When the son of man comes will he find faith on earth? Prayer is that entry point of faith. And when the Lord comes, will he find that we've got the Lord on hold? That we're waiting. The Lord wishes to find a real person, a real heart, a real mind that's dedicated to him when he comes and knocks on our hearts. And so we pray for that perseverance. We pray for an increase in our faith. Entrance: Lift Up Your Hearts to the Lord Text: Based on Psalm 66. Text and music © 1981, 1993, Robert F. O'Connor, SJ and OCP. All rights reserved. Psalm 121: Our Help is From the Lord © 2019 Brian McLinden Preparation: Fill Me, O God © 2003, Sarah Hart and Kevin B. Hipp. Published by Spirit & Song®, a division of OCP. All rights reserved. Communion: I Am the Living Bread © 2018Brian McLinden Sending Forth: You Are All We Have Text: Francis Patrick O'Brien, b.1958, © 1992, GIA Publications, Inc. Mass of a Loving Father Text from The Roman Missal © 2010, ICEL. Published with the approval of the Committee on Divine Worship, USCCB Copyright © 2014 Brian McLinden Permission to podcast/stream the music in this liturgy obtained from ONE LICENSE, License No. A-718591. www.HeartoftheNation.org