Homily for 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Homily for 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center
27 June 2009
Year of the Priest
JMJ +m AMDG

Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake. I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen. Most of you knew this prayer as soon as I started saying it. It has been part of the nighttime prayer tradition of Catholic children (and adults, sometimes) for a long time. It is a prayer I said growing up. But I find that there are a lot of children today who do not know this prayer. One of the reasons is because death is scary for us sinners. We try to protect our children from scary things. This prayer about possibly dying before we wake is considered by some to be too scary. Out of sight, out of mind, is perhaps a better way to deal with death. I remember when we taught the St. Michael prayer to children at my first parish, St. Michael's in Leawood, that the kids loved the prayer, even though it was scary. Of course, they could memorize it 10X faster than their parents. But every once in a while we got a complaint from a parent that we were scaring their children. When we prayed that the great St. Michael would thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits prowling about the world seeking the ruin of souls, it was too graphic for some. For some, Satan is better ignored than confronted. Out of sight. Out of mind. Out of reality.

Jesus came down from heaven to be with us so that we could openly confront death and evil without fear. He says to those who report that the little girl in today's Gospel is already dead to not be afraid. Just have faith! Jesus came to deliver in person the message we heard in today's first reading from the book of Wisdom. God did not make death. Nor does he delight in the destruction of the living. No, he made man to be imperishable, in the image of his own divine nature. Jesus says to those who say that evil has overcome the little girl, that her life is completely lost, that death is not to be feared. Nor does it have the final say. Nor does it mean that evil has won a final victory. No, Jesus steers those around Him away from fear and toward hope, by saying that the girl is not dead, but she is sleeping. And He is ridiculed for saying so, but then He goes to show that the Son of God has power over death, and through his resurrection of this little girl he foreshadows his own glorious and victorious resurrection!

Once we have prayed the 'Now I lay me down to sleep' prayer a few thousand times, or ten thousand times, the prayer really doesn't scare us. In fact, the prayer teaches us something important, that our eventual death is to be feared no more than our going to sleep at night. When we go to sleep, we lose awareness of what is happening to us, and we lose control over what the state of the world might be when we awake. Yet we generally fall asleep in peace, with confidence, and with faith that the world is mostly good, and that everything will be ok. In the same way, although death has entered the world, God does not desire it something to be feared as a great evil. Just as going to sleep is a transition to something new, so also dying in this world is to be welcomed as a transition to something new. We are to always look forward in hope, for as good as this world is in which we live, we are not to hold on in fear to something the Lord wants to replace with something better. This world is only the beginning of God sharing His life with us, not the end. As St. Paul says, eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it so much as dawned upon the mind of man, what God has ready for those who love Him!

In the night prayer for priests, we pray a little differently than the 'Now I lay me down to sleep prayer.' We pray that God will grant us a restful night and a peaceful death. Different words, but the same message. Dying and going to sleep are not that different after all. Not for the person with faith. Nor for the person whose sins have been washed away in the blood of Jesus. Mary, our mother, who was assumed into heaven at the moment of her earthly death, did not fear death, but looked forward in hope to her falling asleep, her chance to complete her work on earth and then to assume her new role in the history of salvation as the Queen of Heaven. May Mary teach us not to be afraid of death, for God does not will it, but by the power of the Eucharist that we will now share together, may we through the intercession of Mary, grow younger each day toward the eternal life that God desires for us His children, made in His eternal image and likeness! +m