A prayer for the twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

God.

We come to you and ask that your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.

It sounds noble.

Then we read words from James that “the royal law found in scripture” is to “love our neighbor as ourselves.”

That sounds okay for those of us who have carefully chosen our neighborhoods, who have strategically chosen our schools, who have found a church that is comfortable to our way of thinking and living, who have selected teams and clubs and groups appropriate to our tastes and asp...