A Great Place to Find Peace

Deacon Bruce Maltzen's
Homily for March 8, 2009
2nd SUNDAY in Lent, CYCLE B

In the past several months we’ve all encountered in our lives things that have added most likely immense stress. Perhaps you’ve either seen people laid off from their jobs at your work, or worse, you’ve been laid off. If you’re saving for retirement you may have seen your 401K nosedive about 50%. If you have credit cards, you may have seen the interest rate on them double and even triple even though you’ve been making your payments on time. You probably have noticed things becoming tighter and tighter in your budget as the costs begin to creep up. With all this stress, you may have noticed that people are more easily angered, quick to retort or even “looking for a fight”. Life seems to have sped up, with the weeks seeming to fly by without a chance to catch up on the important things – like quiet time and peaceful moments.

Do you feel that you need a place to go and just be quiet, a place where no one will try to ask you questions or tell you about the miseries of daily life? Where no one will try to tell you what to do?

That place exists. It’s in the chapel behind you, the place we call the Adoration Chapel. In it we take the time to just be quiet, to just relax in God’s hands, to allow you a moment of peace in this world. There you can let Him take care of you for that moment, let him soothe you with His loving embrace, let Him calm you with His peace. It is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (except during Mass) and it is there that He waits for you.

I know, I know, some of you are saying to yourself, “When in my day do I have time for that?” OR “That’s that prayer thing again, it’s just not for me”, OR “I can do that at home, why should I come here?”

Well, in answer to those, 1) you have time for anything you make a priority and shouldn’t peace and calm in your life be a priority? Or do you like having that background anger and stress roll about you all day? 2) Yes it is that prayer thing, but isn’t that what we are about? Isn’t that why you’re here today? Yes – prayer is for you, it is talking to God, and if you can’t talk to God about your life, who do you know that can help you and that you CAN talk to? And 3) yes you can do this at home, but it won’t be in that wonderful, amazing, beautiful presence of the most awesome person, the one who died for us when we didn’t deserve it. Here you can be face to face with God, something you can’t do anywhere else. Here you can talk directly to him in his physical presence, and He will listen.
We are fortunate here at Epiphany to have perpetual Adoration. Here we have Jesus available for that peaceful moment every day, every hour. But the only reason we have it is because a lot of people have signed up to take one hour a week, 1 hour out of 168 hours in that week, that comes out to 6 tenths of 1 percent of the week to spend it here in the Adoration Chapel on a regular basis so that others may also enjoy that peace, that tranquility, that moment of calm in their week.
What we are asking you to do, is try this out. Sign up to spend an hour in Jesus’ presence in either prayer or silence or reading. This hour that you spend with Jesus can be spent in any way you want –with your own favorite prayer book, reading the Scriptures, praying the Rosary, speaking to Jesus heart to heart as one does with a friend, or you may be so tired, troubled or worn out that you may just want to sit and relax and enjoy the peace that comes from simply being in his presence.
You may find that you want to spend your hour there in the night time, as that may be the only time you have available. This time spent there at night is especially peaceful and strengthening. You may find it more restful than some of the fitful sleeping you get at night.

Remember that sacrifice is the language of love. Christ sacrificed his life so that we might gain eternal life with Him. Here we can take a moment of that time and perhaps sacrifice an hour of our sleep to be with him.

Jesus wants nothing more than a chance to be with you, to listen to you and to talk to you. The least you can do is give him that chance. Give it a try, see what benefits your life will receive, if only 1 hour of peace and quiet.

I want to thank you for the wonderful response that you make today and leave you with one thought. We all hope one day to see God the Father face to face. On that day He will welcome his children with open arms and embrace them and spend eternity loving and caring for His children. What a chance to now to begin that relationship.


Your brother in Christ,
Deacon Bruce