24 July. Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Genesis 18:20-32
Abraham intercedes and haggles with God to spare the city of Sodom
Then the Lord said, “How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin! I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me; and if not, I will know.” So the men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the Lord.
Then Abraham came near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.”
Abraham answered, “Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” Again he spoke to him, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” Then he said, “Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.”
He said, “Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” Then he said, “Oh do not let the Lord be angy if I speak just once more. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.”
2nd Reading: Colossians 2:12-14
Through baptism into his death and resurrection, we rise to a new life
When you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.
Gospel: Luke 11:1-13
When asked how we should pray, Jesus teaches the Our Father
He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.”
And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.
“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Jesus taught his disciples to call God “Father.” We are indeed his children, so if we need anything we ask our Father for it, trusting that he won’t let us down. See K. O’Mahony on today’s readings at http://www.tarsus.ie/page6/index.html
Relearning to trust
Luke and Matthew have gathered in their respective Gospels some of Jesus’ words that without doubt remain deeply engraved in the minds of his closest followers. They easily could have been words that were used while Jesus moved about with his disciples through the Galilean villages, asking for something to eat, seeking friendly faces, or knocking at a neighbor’s door. They probably didn’t always receive the answer they wanted, but Jesus doesn’t give up. His trust in the Father is absolute. His followers should learn to trust as he does: «So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you». Jesus knows what he’s saying since such is his experience: «everyone who asks, receives; everyone who seeks, finds; everyone who knocks will have the door opened».
If there’s something that we need to relearn about Jesus in these times of crisis and confusion in his Church, is trust. Not as a naïve attitude of someone sitting around waiting for better times. Even less so a passive and irresponsible posture, but rather a more evangelical and prophetic behavior of following Jesus the Christ right here and right now. In fact, though his three invitations point toward the same basic attitude of trust in God, his language suggests diverse nuances.
«Ask» is the proper attitude of the poor who need to receive from another what they can’t get by their own effort. Thus did Jesus imagine his followers: as men and women who are poor, conscious of their frailty and extreme poverty, without any indication of pride or self-sufficiency. It’s not a disgrace to live in a Church that is poor, weak and deprived of power. What’s deplorable is to try to follow Jesus today by asking of the world a kind of protection that can come to us only from the Father.
«Seek» isn’t just asking. It’s more: get going, step out to reach something that is hidden from us because it’s covered or concealed. Thus Jesus sees his followers: as «seekers of God’s Reign and God’s justice». It’s normal to live today in a Church that is confused in the face of an uncertain future. What’s strange is that we don’t mobilize ourselves to seek together new paths to sow the Gospel in our modern culture.
«Knock» is to make a loud noise for someone to whom we don’t feel close to, but we believe can listen to and attend to us. Thus Jesus shouts out to his Father in the loneliness of the cross. It’s understandable that today we find blocked the faith of not a few Christians who learned to talk about, celebrate and live faith in a pre-modern culture. What’s sad is that we don’t push ourselves more to learn to follow Jesus today, shouting out to God from the contradictions, conflicts and questions of the world we live in. [José Antonio Pagola]
Lord, Teach Us To Pray
Methods and techniques of prayer have always been in demand and the variety on offer has multiplied recently. Yet, when all is said and done, what can compare with the perspicacity of the disciple who, having watched Jesus praying, said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” The first step for us too is to ponder on the prayer-life of Jesus and the content of his prayer. Even a cursory glance at St Luke’s Gospel would justify our dubbing it the Gospel of Jesus at Prayer. How many times is Jesus found in the Gospels praying ?” alone, on the hills, with his disciples!
Beginning with the prayer of Jesus takes our minds off the techniques and draws us towards that point where we too, like the disciple, will simply and humbly ask, “Lord, teach us to pray.” But, before that, we may have to wait for a long time in silence, just observing him and listening to his prayer. Then gradually, like the apprentice learning from the master, or rather, like the soil of the earth becoming fertile from the falling dew his prayer takes root and germinates in our hearts. Slowly, and over and over again, we too begin to repeat that prayer ?” the only one he left us ?” which is a relating of our whole being to him who is his Father and our Father. to him in whom both he and we ?” but we because of him ?” can call, “Abba, Father.”
We are not used to praying Luke’s wording of the Lord’s Prayer. The official version adopted by the Church is Matthew’s, which is longer, more solemn, more harmonious in its seven petitions. Luke’s is shorter, containing only five petitions, but is more direct, more personal. Instead of “Our Father who art in heaven,” as in Matthew, it begins with the simple cry “Father!” It is a way of addressing God that would never have been heard on the lips of anybody except Jesus. It originated in, and revealed, the profound nature of his relationship in the Trinity. He was Son as no other man could know how to be son; he was the unique Son of God.
The early Christians, especially in the communities schooled by St Paul, cherished the moment of Baptism when they became children of God, “sons in the Son.” In the depths of their hearts they could hear the voice of the Spirit of Jesus urging them to make their own this word of infinite tenderness, “Abba, Father” (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6), a title of familiarity for every child, a title that expressed perfectly the sweet intimacy and total confidence of their new status. Even as it revealed the person of the Son in Jesus, it also brings out for us the dignity of our adoption as sons of the Father. Yes, there could scarcely be any better person to introduce us to prayer than Jesus himself and, of course, his Spirit!
Guardian of us all
The Old Testament uses “Father” of God as the Go’el or guardian of the people or of groups within the nation (see Deut 32:6; Ps 68:5; Is 63:16; 64:8; Jer 3:4, Mal l:6,2:10). This is expressed with even a more personal touch in Sirach 23:1,4, Wisdom 14:3. But neither in the Old Testament nor in the writings of Qumran is there such an intimate tone as we find in Luke 11:2. Scholars generally regard the preservation of the word “Abba” in Romans 8:15, Gal 4:6 and Mark 14:36 as memories of how Jesus spoke of his intimacy with the Eternal Father.
Jesus differs in the relative frequency with which he is portrayed as speaking of God as Father. Each stratum of our Gospel sources has a number of examples of this. Matthew alone has 44 references, while John has 120. Surprisingly, it seems that Jesus spoke of this subject only to his disciples but not to the crowds. This view of God was not one far removed from their lives and struggles, but one who could be known intimately like their own parents (10:22,18:15-12.)
The simplicity of Luke’s prayer contrasts with many of the fulsome formulations used in Jewish and Greco-Roman prayers, not to mention some modern equivalents! Although “abba” can be translated “daddy,” one should not think of Jesus’ Father as a weakly indulgent “papa,” destroying his children by granting every whim and never chastising them. On the contrary, Jesus taught much about our duties to love our enemies and to trust, love and fear the heavenly Father who is the Lord God Almighty.
The need for structured prayer and for set times to pray is part of the Church’s traditional wisdom. In contrast to the tendency to limit personal prayer to only when one feels like it, let’s not forget what a structured prayer-life Jesus himself led, by regular synagogue and temple-attendance, as well as the daily prayer life of a faithful Jew. The early Christians are presented in the New Testament as faithful to the Jewish traditions. If our Lord criticised the Jerusalem temple, it was for failing to be a house of prayer for the nations of their world.
What about our own life of prayer? How real is it? Do I pray that God’s will be done, in my own life? Do I pray that God’s name as Father be really respected by all, especially by our leaders of church and state ? How can it be respected if so many are marginalised and poor? Do I long and hope for the coming of the Kingdom which means the salvation of all people? Do I pray for so many undergoing trials, tests and sufferings of all kinds?