I’d like us to reflect on two themes this week.

The first comes from the Our Father, which is one of our Gospel readings this week.

St. Cyprian notes: “Above all, [Jesus] did not want us to pray by ourselves in private or for ourselves alone. We do not say ‘My Father, who art in heaven,’ nor “Give me this day my daily bread.’”

Let’s pause there. Nine times the Our Father uses “our” or “we” or “us.” I wonder: Do we really think that way — in terms of “us,” in terms of belonging to a single body or a single family? I think, more often than not, we think in terms of rugged individualism.

Consider how a family sits at Mass: all together. Then consider how we, as a general congregation, often sit at Mass: with as much “safety space” between people as possible. Consider how a group of people drive in a caravan: always thinking of the others. Now consider how we, as a general population, drive on the highways: every driver for him- or herself.

I think this is one of the places we need a conversion in the Church. But what we need is not just an intellectual conversion; we can talk ourselves into the fact that we’re one body in Christ. What we need is an imaginative conversion, where we instinctively think that way. We don’t hesitate to sit next to strangers at a Cardinals game, cheer together and join in “the wave” when it circles the stadium! We don’t hesitate to transform our neighborhoods into welcoming spaces for Halloween and make conversation with strangers. Why are we so hesitant to do those same things as members of the Church? Because we’ve not yet really and deeply been converted to thinking in terms of “we.”

The second thing I’d like us to reflect on is sacrifice.

There’s plenty to object to in the world these days. But people seem to expect that an objection shouldn’t cost us anything but words, and that our words (or outrage) alone should be sufficient to change the world.

Very simply, that’s not how the “economy” of the spiritual world works! There has to be some sacrifice to make our objection carry weight.

Every ancient culture knew this. Now, to be sure, they were wrong about human sacrifice. But if the ancients were wrong about what needed to be sacrificed, they were right about the fact that there needed to be a sacrifice. The ancients made one kind of error about sacrifice; we’ve simply fallen into the opposite error in thinking that sacrifice is obsolete!

Let’s go back to basics: Jesus made a sacrifice. This week we celebrate the Nativity of St. John the Baptist; he made a sacrifice. We celebrate the feast day of St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher; both made a sacrifice. Those sacrifices changed the world!

Every previous generation has known this truth about sacrifice, but we seem to have forgotten it. It’s time to remember it. If we follow Jesus and the saints, then we’ll realize that we have to make sacrifices. If we study them carefully, we’ll learn what to sacrifice and how. Then we’ll be able to change the world.