The doctor was still skeptical about the power of prayer until many years later, when he began to investigate the matter further, looking at the results of some scientific studies that have been done concerning prayer and it’s effectiveness. Needless to say, now he’s a believer--which is why he wrote this article. But the thought occurred to me--God was trying to teach him this lesson about prayer way back during his residency. If he had learned the lesson back then, he would have been a much more effective doctor in the succeeding years--because he would have given his patients the best medical care possible, and he also would have encouraged them to turn to God directly for healing. Praise the Lord he finally learned the lesson when he did--better late than never. In doing so you could say that Dr. Dossey changed his grade for that lesson from an "F" to an "A." Which is also what the apostles eventually did. They got an "f" on holy Thursday and good Friday, but from Pentecost Sunday until the end of their lives they got an "a." Because from Pentecost Sunday onward they were totally committed to Jesus as their messiah and Lord. Like the apostles, and like Dr. Dossey, we are students in the Lord’s school of life. We will have lessons taught to us today, and every day--until the moment we leave this earth. Let’s pray that when that moment comes, we will have all A's on our spiritual report card.

Second Sunday of Lent (A): This homily was given on February 27, 1999 at Medium Security Compound, ACI, Cranston, R.I.  Edited for prison use by Francis Valliere, written by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read [Gen. 12:1-4]; [2 Tim. 1:8-10]; [Matthew 17:1-9]

Now the lessons we learn in school--regardless of how good they might be--are useless (from a practical standpoint) unless we put them into practice. For example, learning addition in a classroom is useless unless we take that knowledge out of the classroom and use it in our daily lives--when we pay the cashier at the supermarket, when we balance our checkbook, etc. And so it is with the important spiritual lessons the Lord teaches us in the school of life. Those lessons don’t make a positive difference unless we integrate them into our everyday experience. Now the problem is Peter, James and John didn’t do that (at least initially) with this powerful, important lesson that the Lord taught them in the Transfiguration. And this became evident on Holy Thursday and Good Friday. You see, Jesus gave them this lesson so that they would be strong in the face of His passion and death. These were the three leaders of the apostles. And Jesus knew that when he was condemned, they would be tempted to lose faith in Him and run away. Consequently, he taught them this lesson on the mountain, so that when the temptation came they wouldn’t give in. Well, we all know the story. The bible tells us clearly that every one of them ran away in fear after our Lord was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane. To put it in academic terms, on exam day, they all flunked.

I mention this today because, as I said earlier, life is God’s school, and the Lord is always trying to teach us, as he tried to teach His apostles. The question is, are we learning these lessons, by allowing them to affect our everyday lives? We certainly aren’t as a society--that’s clear enough. Consider the holocaust of World War II--six million innocent Jews, and 6 millions others--murdered by a madman in Germany. That was certainly not God’s will. He didn’t cause that tragedy--people caused that tragedy. But God certainly wanted the world to learn a lesson through this horrible evil--the lesson that all human life is to be respected and treasured. With 4,000 abortions a day in this country alone, it’s very clear, we haven’t learned the lesson yet. And if that figure doesn't get your attention try these figures. In the last 30 years, since the horrendous verdict of Roe vs. Wade, legalized abortion on demand has been the untimely murder and death of over 35 million children. A conservative world wide estimate is 40 billion. That estimate, brothers, exceeds the total number of persons who have lived since Adam and Eve, the beginnings of the human race.

Consider too, the approach to personal morality that our society has taken in the last 30 or so years. Very simply the approach has been to be wishy-washy. We don’t say to young people, "This is right and this is wrong." We say, "This might be right, this might be wrong. We’re not really sure. You have to decide for yourself. And we’ll support you in whatever you choose." And so what happens? They choose!: they choose whatever they feel like choosing--some choose to bring guns to school and use them, some choose to be sexually active, some choose to abuse their bodies with alcohol or drugs. Some choose to be dishonest and steal."

Now in the midst of all this, our loving, caring Lord is desperately trying to teach us a lesson. The lesson is that moral fence walking doesn’t work. Moral wishy-washiness, better known as relativism, has terrible consequences. But as a society we refuse to accept that lesson. And I’m reminded of that every time a public figure comes along who upholds something like the ten commandments. That person is immediately called a dangerous, radical, right-wing extremist, a religious fanatic. And those are some of the nicer things they’re called!

On the contrary, we have President Clinton, not only a public figure but one who holds the highest office in our country. He committed adultery and lied about it; then perjured himself which in turn obstructed justice in a civil suit. The consequences of his actions have been felt for over a year and will be with us for a long time to come. The lessons the Lord desires we learn from all this are that adultery and lying are sinful acts that go beyond the personal. These sins are social and carry social consequences with them; many people are injured and suffer; this is not a private matter. Some people have opened their eyes and learned the lesson but according to the polls, most Americans haven't learned a thing. Unfortunately, there will be those who have learned but will forget the lessons in time--just as the apostles forgot the lesson of the Transfiguration on Holy Thursday night.

I’ll share with you one other example of how God teaches us in and through everyday experiences. There was an article in readers’ digest written by a Dr. Larry Dossey. There Dr. Dossey writes that at the very beginning of his medical career, when he was a resident at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, a patient came to him with terminal cancer in both his lungs. The cancer was quite advanced. Dossey mentioned the therapies that were available, but he also told the man he didn’t think they would do much good, given the severity of his condition. So the man opted for no treatment. But Dossey said that he noticed that whenever he went to visit this man in his hospital room, he was always surrounded by friends from his church, who were singing and praying with him. Dr. Dossey says that he thought to himself, "good thing, because pretty soon they’ll be singing and praying at his funeral." Well, a year passed and Dr. Dossey moved to another hospital. One day a doctor from Parkland called him and asked him if he wanted to see his old patient. Dossey couldn’t believe he was still alive. He went over to Parkland, looked at the man’s chest x rays and was stunned, because his lungs were completely clear--there was no sign of cancer. The radiologist there with him said, "his therapy has been remarkably successful." The doctor thought to himself, "therapy--there wasn’t any therapy--unless you consider prayer……."