GROANING  PRAYERS 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 30^th Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Groaning Prayers.”

Today’s first reading from Romans 8: 18-25 brings up the whole idea of groaning prayers.

They are groaning sounds which we can begin to see as prayers - sounds we make when things are out of your control - as in others, as in weather, as in health, as in the big mysteries of twists and turns in life. They are deeper than screams to our God and at others and at ourselves.

Last night after reading today’s first reading I was trying to figure out just how they would go.

So I experimented with various groans:

·       uuhhhhhhh

·       ooooooooooohhh

·       aaagggh

·       urrrrrrr

·       grrrrr

·       mmmmmmmmh

FOR STARTERS - THE IDEA OF GROANS

We’ve all heard people groaning and moaning - oohing and ahing - coming out with non-verbal soundings.

I’ve yet to hear them in church with Father Tizio’s puns - but a good pun is supposed to get a superficial - sort of surfacy - groan or moan. However, I’ve heard people make those pun groaning and moaning sounds in the corridor.

Paul in Romans 8 tells us that the whole of creation is groaning - like a woman screaming and groaning and moaning in giving birth.

Is that a woman’s greatest prayer - the groans in giving birth to a baby - bringing new life into our world?

I’ve never been at a birth - but I’ve been at several deaths - and heard the so called “death rattle” as well as painful other sounds when someone is dying - or feeling great pain - especially when they have to lift or shift their bodies.

TWO TYPES OF GROANS

I don’t know if anyone did homework on all this. This is a first draft about these sounds.

I assume that there would be two basic sounds - 2 basic groans. - joy and sorry, celebration and destruction. Awe and uh oh!

Paul says all of creation gives off groans.

Wolves howl - dogs growl and also whimper when they are hit by a car. I’ve seen documentaries showing  animals caught in an animal trap. They can  make eerie hurting sounds. I heard whales and dolphins yellings caught on sound recorders from under the sea. Are they mating calls? Are they screams. Everyone get here quickly - I found a whole supermarket of food. Do they have death moanings?

I’ve heard humans blurt - actuate - deep hurting sounds - when they are caught in a trap - stealing - cheating on a spouse - seeing a son or daughter caught in a horrible accident or crime or scandal. 

I’ve always been on the side of sound -  if a tree falls in a forest - I believe that it makes sounds - even if nobody hears it.

I picture glaciers screaming a squeaking, ice grinding and chunk - plummeting - making growling losing it sounds - when they start to split - losing big sections of their being - ice and snow that might have been part of themselves for 20,000 years.

SO WHY NOT HEAR ALL THESE GROANINGS AS PART OF REALITY?

Why not pray with these groans? See them as groans to God - groans  of pain and sounds of joy - about all the wonders and realities of creation.

Picture the sound of a kid who is living in a horrible home or orphanage and someone wants to adopt her or him. See, hear, their sounds when they realize they are free. Hear their celebration as we celebrate that God adopts us into the Trinity - as Paul tells us happens in today’s first reading.

Get in touch with the deepest sounds we all make in the depths of the ocean of our soul.

CONCLUSION

Okay the gospel for today, Luke 13: 18-21, also urges us to calmly see and sense the beauties in our backyard: tiny plants like mustard   trees - or sitting there in a morning kitchen looking out and watching birds getting seeds out of the bird feeder - or see the rich greens and colors in the fruit and vegetable section of Giant and let our gentle growls.

Or smile when making bread - at the whole process of moments called “life”. Amen.