Reading of the holy gospel according to Saint John. Our lord said to his disciples, he who obeys the commandments he has from me is the man who loves me, and, he who loves me will be loved by my father. I too will love him and reveal myself to him. Judas, not Judas Iscariot, said to Jesus, Lord, why is it that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world? And Jesus replied, anyone who loves me will be true to my word, and my father will love him.
We will come to him, and we will make our dwelling place with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words. Yet the word you hear is not mine. It comes from the father who sent me. This much I have told you while I was still with you.
The paraclete, the holy spirit whom the father will send in my name, he will instruct you in everything and remind you of everything that I have told you. And this is the gospel of the lord. Jesus Christ. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen.
There's much in the readings today which certainly deserve underscoring, italicizing, having more of some attention paid to them. But I am moved to share with you. Please pardon me for saying that, I hate that phrase. That's like the word challenge. Anyway, it's a it's a matter of personal prayer.
I cannot help by being startled by the lack of emphasis today on personal holiness. You see, you as soon as you use those words, people think you're talking about the saints. Well, we are. We are. Because that's what we're called to be, saints.
And we have no choice. Either you make that or you flop and you fail dismally. So let's not be be let's not shy away from the word. And remember, there is no such thing as societal communal holiness. The only reality that approaches God and says, my Lord and my God, is the individual human being.
And it's the individual human being who is responsible for himself or herself before god. And all that holiness means is that you're trying to live your life in the consciousness of God's presence and your dependence upon him. Now, I've been out on the Chesapeake Bay for five days and it's pretty hard weather. And believe me, you get pretty close. At least, I'll tell you one thing happens, you don't feel completely independent out there.
You feel you're dangling by sometimes a very thin thread. Now you'll say that's foxhole religion. That's just running away. That's just fear. That's what made our primitive ancestors, create God.
Well, of course, that's a lot of first rate nonsense. So that we come back to you see, how many how often do you hear, for example, any kind of emphasis on Saint Francis de Sales introduction to a devout life? That used to be the common book to help people to live in the world, not to go into cloisters, not to go into the Sahara Desert, not to turn your back back on your responsibilities in your home, in your office, in your factory, or wherever you are, not to seek self fulfillment by quitting your job, your obligations, and leaving husband and family and wife and children, but fulfilling them all in the world, but with a devout life in the world. So we come back to this. It's my relationship with God, and social worship is important because it helps me to do that.
And, of course, I know that society, whatever that that. Remember society is an abstract term. It has no reality except the reality of the individual men and women, children, maidens, youths, kids, infants. That is the reality, the individuals. We may make the abstraction and talk notice, look, you all you have to do is look at the English word and you see it's an abstraction.
Community, society, They're abstract terms. The reality is the you. The the irreplaceable you as our holy father is so it's amazing how often he comes back to that, the irreplaceable you. Now, when our Lord today, in this excerpt from Saint John says, keep my commandments, I do not think he was referring to the one I'm going to quote. I think he was referring to something else.
But he our lord did say this, pray always. Christ said that. Pray always. He did a lot of praying. He prayed in the synagogue.
He prayed in the temple in Jerusalem. But in according to the the four gospels, whenever in every crisis of our lord's life, he withdrew to a desert place. He withdrew by himself to the mountain to be alone. And even sometimes when he took one or two or three disciples with him, he took them only approximately to where he was going to be alone to pray. After the last supper, when he took his chosen disciples, two of them, when they went into the garden, he said, you stay here and stay awake and pray.
And he went on and prayed and sweated blood, and the faithful disciples went to sleep. That's where we are. We go to sleep. Christ does the sweating in the of the blood on the cross. Prayer and I'm not saying prayer is easy, but I'm saying this, have a formula.
Don't depend on the on the inspiration of the moment to pray. If you do that, you'll never pray. Any more than anyone who wants to write will ever write if they wait for inspiration. And anyone who's tried writing knows how truly I'm speaking. You cannot have nothing but this extemporary, off the cuff prayers.
It will not suffice. You've got to have a formula. You've got to have a set series of prayers. You have to know some prayers and use those prayers. Because sometimes you just are bluff.
You can't do any thinking. Well, then don't try. Prayer is no different from any other human activity. Then's when you need your strict formula, the prayers you know by heart, to use them. The church gives her clergy debrivary, and we read it every day or we're supposed to.
And that's a pretty much of a set prayer. And so I urge you to bring your personal prayer into your daily life, to make your job, whatever you're doing, a prayer, to think of god, his reality, his presence that you dangle from his hand. In the name of the father, and of the son, holy spirit. Amen.