Homily

You may never have thought about it in this way, but the Divine Liturgy is not suited for those who do not like to be told what to do. It is not for those who cannot take directions, or who have a problem with commands, exhortations, promptings, guidance, instruction, directives or supervision. There's a lot of telling people what to do in the Liturgy. And who is the number one bossy guy? That would be me.

It goes from the mild suggestion of, "Let us pray to the Lord," to the slightly more insistent, such as in, "Let us stand and listen to a reading of the Holy Gospel," to the very explicit command, "Bow your heads to the Lord." No hint of a suggestion there, or a gentle, discreet invitation. And what about, "Be attentive!?" There's no subtlety there. I say it seven times during the Liturgy. (Can you remember where I say it?) But it's not just me telling you what to do, it's also me telling us what we should do: "Let us love one another so that with one mind we may profess … Let us stand aright, let us stand in awe let us be attentive to offer the holy oblation in peace … Let us lift up our hearts."

But you guys have your share of commands too: "Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth, sing praise to His name … Say to God: How awesome are Your deeds … Let all the earth worship You and sing praises to You." And you guys don't mind telling me what to do either, "Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy, Lord have mercy. Give the blessing!" You're not just pushovers.

As the congregation you also direct and prompt each other, such as when you say, "Come and let us worship and bow before Christ … Let us who mystically represent the Cherubim now set aside all earthly cares. That we may welcome the King of all … May our lips be filled with Your praise, O Lord."

I had never thought of it before now, but compared to the Roman Mass, our Liturgy is pretty bossy and assertive in what we ask each other to do and to be in the Liturgy. I'll tell you when to bow your heads, and lift up your hearts, and stand upright, and pay attention and approach with the fear of God and with faith. And you are not hesitant to speak as a group who knows what they are doing, and you can say with conviction, "We praise you, we bless you, we thank you O Lord, and we pray to You, our God."

The Divine Liturgy requires that we take directions, in how we ought to worship, and our directions come from the Church which has received them from Christ Himself, Who told us, "Do this in memory of me." It is not a place where we do our own thing but where we worship the Holy Trinity as the Church tells us. We see the Magi taking direction in a dream not to return to Herod. We see Joseph being told when to leave with Mary and Jesus and when to come back. So, we too are people who listen and follow according to the mind of Christ's Church.

I want to point out that four times in the Liturgy I say, "Let us commend ourselves, and one another, and our whole life to Christ our God." To commend one another, to entrust one another, to place each other into the care of Christ our God, just as we place ourselves into His care. We are directed to pray for one another, for the needs and concerns of each other, for the faith, the health, the protection and the lives of those we worship with, as well as for those who have gone on before us. Let us commend ourselves and one another to Christ our God.

We do this at Liturgy, we can do it at our prayer times, but we can also do it throughout the day. Every day we think of people, remember people, interact with people, hear people, read about people, see people and see people driving stupid. I try, many times to stop and say an "Our Father" for them. Someone calls, an "Our Father after that. I remember someone who is sick, an "Our Father" for them. Someone who has moved away comes to mind, someone who has died, someone who asked me to pray for them, someone in the news, someone on Facebook, someone I think of in the shower, or while doing dishes, or at a stop light, I can say an "Our Father" for them. Someone who has been kind to me, or kind to other people, or someone who has irritated me, they can all get an "Our Father" out of me, whether they know it or not. I think it's a good and an easy practice to get into, even if it takes a while to catch on as a habit. For the times in between our prayer times, we can still be reminded of Christ in our lives throughout the day by commending one another into His care, even for someone who is too busy talking on their cell phone to notice the light has turned green. Even moments of irritation or frustration can be reshaped into a few moments of prayer for the person I might otherwise be thinking of in a different way, not to mention those I love and care for. The world will not remind you of this. We have to remind ourselves.

Most of the thoughts running in my head for most of the day are not exactly of such noble and high quality that I cannot afford to set them aside to say some prayers for people on the fly. And, for that matter, even when I am flying. It’s a good time to pray, and I always say an “Our Father” for everyone on the plane when I’m traveling (and sometimes 2 or 3 if someone has really irritated me.) I can fill up that vacuum between my ears by saying an "Our Father" for others, and I can pray for them as they come to mind or to my attention, whether I know them or whether they are strangers, it only takes 20 seconds to pray that prayer and I have plenty of spare 20 second slots throughout every day to be able to do it a number of times. As I commend others to Christ, I am also reminded to commend myself to Him as well, and it's a great way to resist the materialistic attitude that we find all around us today. We remember Christ. He is among us, not in some far distant place. The world will not remind us of this. We need to remind ourselves.

Of course, you can use another prayer besides the "Our Father" if you like, but I highly recommend the practice of praying for others as they come to our mind during the day as we go about our business. It may take a while for it to become a more automatic, or habitual way of reacting to others, but if we commend them to Christ, surely we commend ourselves to Him at the same time. This morning and at every Liturgy let us be aware of one another as we commend ourselves, AND one another and our whole life to Christ our God.