Sunday Jul 25, 2010
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Scripture Readings: Genesis 18: 20-32; Colossians 2:12-14; Luke 11:1-13
Last Sunday the Scripture readings focused on the idea of genuine hospitality and its place in our life. This Sunday draws our attention to the subject of prayer, another essential part of the journey to God.
In the passage from Genesis, the first reading this Sunday, Abraham's plea to God, a prayer of great respect and familiarity, reflects on the perennial problem of the suffering of the just. In this case, it is fear on Abraham's part that the good would be destroyed along with the wicked, simply because of the misdeeds of wrongdoers.
This question is a recurring theme in Scripture and a reality throughout the ages. For some it is sufficient reason to "give up on God," so to speak, or resist any belief system. However, the prayer of Abraham is closely linked to the deep conviction of the early Israelites, who identified themselves first and foremost as a community, a people, and not merely individuals.
As such, they thought of themselves as rising or falling as a group, sometimes called a "corporate personality." This concept can be hard for us to grasp today in our fiercely individualistic society and even religion, where salvation can be viewed as so "private" as to hardly relate to others. "My salvation and to hell with everyone else," as it is sometimes heard described.
God dealt with his people, the Israelites fervently believed, collectively, hence the question of the individual was not so prominent as it would be today. The problem which Abraham addressed in his prayer was not so much about why the just suffer along with the wicked, but more about the importance of God's justice tempered with mercy, offered to the people as a whole, a community, whom God desires to save rather than destroy.
God is thus ready to spare the people if even ten just people can be found among them. There is a good chance of that, if not fifty just ones, where the dialogue with God initially began.
Apparently Abraham judged that ten just people were a reasonable minimum requirement for confidence that God will show mercy. Pride and haughtiness are not part of Abraham's plea, but confidence that God will spare the people, who are loved by God, and who desires the good of all.
That attitude should also characterize our approach to God, believing that our God wishes our good and always ready to receive our prayer and to be the center of our existence.
This Sunday's Gospel passage is also about prayer. It is a compilation of sayings of the Lord on the topic of prayer. The reading falls easily into four parts: an introduction, where Jesus is presented by the Gospel writer as the prototype of prayer; next, the teaching of the Lord's Prayer; then, a teaching on the importance of confidence in prayer, with a parable and its application; finally, two mini-parables with the reassurance that God freely and lovingly bestows good gifts.
It is always important to remember that Jesus prayed often in his earthly sojourn. The follower of Jesus is to do likewise, all the Gospel writers emphasize. Prayer is a bond of unity between believers and a mark of identification of the followers of Jesus, who desire above all to belong completely to the living God.
For Christians the Lord's Prayer, the Our Father, has come to be regarded as the most characteristic and beautiful of prayers. It is a part of every liturgy and to be on the lips of believers day and night, year in and year out.
In teaching the disciples to pray, Jesus intended to unite them to himself, and lead everyone to the source of life, God the Creator, enabling us to address our God as Abba, Father. In awe and yet with full confidence, we are always to go to God with the whole company of believers now alive and with those who have gone before us, "marked with the sign of faith," according to the words of one of the Eucharistic Prayers at Mass.
In our prayer to God we are always to be filled with gratitude and love, allowing God to draw us into full life and salvation in Jesus Christ, whose own life, words, works and most especially his death and resurrection, make our joy complete and our deepest longings fulfilled.
We are called to pray without ceasing, meaning our life is to be a cry of complete trust and love of God, who satisfies our hunger and who leads us from darkness to light. The Sacraments of our Church, most especially Baptism, Holy Communion or Eucharist and the Forgiveness of Sins, or Reconciliation, are intended are means of receiving God's life more fully.
With a little parable about the persistent neighbor asking for bread, Jesus illustrates that God on no occasion will fail to respond to our prayer. The response may not be what we want or expect, but God replies nonetheless. The challenge comes in accepting God's answer to our prayers. So we are told, "Ask and it will be given." God will give and we need to be ready for the reply, in whatever form it takes.
Two little parables at the end of this Sunday's Gospel point out that God gives good gifts, as any loving father would. "Let's be reasonable," Jesus seems to be saying to his disciples and to all of us, "If you know how to treat your loved ones, don't you think God the Almighty does as well, and maybe even better?"
This is a reassurance of the unlimited love and concern of God who will give, to all who ask, the Holy Spirit, the great gift of the present and final age, the culmination of all God's gifts. Let usgreatly rejoice in the Lord today and always!
Fr Christian Leisy, OSB
Monastery of Christ in the Desert
Abiquiu, New Mexico
Scripture Readings: Genesis 18: 20-32; Colossians 2:12-14; Luke 11:1-13
Last Sunday the Scripture readings focused on the idea of genuine hospitality and its place in our life. This Sunday draws our attention to the subject of prayer, another essential part of the journey to God.
In the passage from Genesis, the first reading this Sunday, Abraham's plea to God, a prayer of great respect and familiarity, reflects on the perennial problem of the suffering of the just. In this case, it is fear on Abraham's part that the good would be destroyed along with the wicked, simply because of the misdeeds of wrongdoers.
This question is a recurring theme in Scripture and a reality throughout the ages. For some it is sufficient reason to "give up on God," so to speak, or resist any belief system. However, the prayer of Abraham is closely linked to the deep conviction of the early Israelites, who identified themselves first and foremost as a community, a people, and not merely individuals.
As such, they thought of themselves as rising or falling as a group, sometimes called a "corporate personality." This concept can be hard for us to grasp today in our fiercely individualistic society and even religion, where salvation can be viewed as so "private" as to hardly relate to others. "My salvation and to hell with everyone else," as it is sometimes heard described.
God dealt with his people, the Israelites fervently believed, collectively, hence the question of the individual was not so prominent as it would be today. The problem which Abraham addressed in his prayer was not so much about why the just suffer along with the wicked, but more about the importance of God's justice tempered with mercy, offered to the people as a whole, a community, whom God desires to save rather than destroy.
God is thus ready to spare the people if even ten just people can be found among them. There is a good chance of that, if not fifty just ones, where the dialogue with God initially began.
Apparently Abraham judged that ten just people were a reasonable minimum requirement for confidence that God will show mercy. Pride and haughtiness are not part of Abraham's plea, but confidence that God will spare the people, who are loved by God, and who desires the good of all.
That attitude should also characterize our approach to God, believing that our God wishes our good and always ready to receive our prayer and to be the center of our existence.
This Sunday's Gospel passage is also about prayer. It is a compilation of sayings of the Lord on the topic of prayer. The reading falls easily into four parts: an introduction, where Jesus is presented by the Gospel writer as the prototype of prayer; next, the teaching of the Lord's Prayer; then, a teaching on the importance of confidence in prayer, with a parable and its application; finally, two mini-parables with the reassurance that God freely and lovingly bestows good gifts.
It is always important to remember that Jesus prayed often in his earthly sojourn. The follower of Jesus is to do likewise, all the Gospel writers emphasize. Prayer is a bond of unity between believers and a mark of identification of the followers of Jesus, who desire above all to belong completely to the living God.
For Christians the Lord's Prayer, the Our Father, has come to be regarded as the most characteristic and beautiful of prayers. It is a part of every liturgy and to be on the lips of believers day and night, year in and year out.
In teaching the disciples to pray, Jesus intended to unite them to himself, and lead everyone to the source of life, God the Creator, enabling us to address our God as Abba, Father. In awe and yet with full confidence, we are always to go to God with the whole company of believers now alive and with those who have gone before us, "marked with the sign of faith," according to the words of one of the Eucharistic Prayers at Mass.
In our prayer to God we are always to be filled with gratitude and love, allowing God to draw us into full life and salvation in Jesus Christ, whose own life, words, works and most especially his death and resurrection, make our joy complete and our deepest longings fulfilled.
We are called to pray without ceasing, meaning our life is to be a cry of complete trust and love of God, who satisfies our hunger and who leads us from darkness to light. The Sacraments of our Church, most especially Baptism, Holy Communion or Eucharist and the Forgiveness of Sins, or Reconciliation, are intended are means of receiving God's life more fully.
With a little parable about the persistent neighbor asking for bread, Jesus illustrates that God on no occasion will fail to respond to our prayer. The response may not be what we want or expect, but God replies nonetheless. The challenge comes in accepting God's answer to our prayers. So we are told, "Ask and it will be given." God will give and we need to be ready for the reply, in whatever form it takes.
Two little parables at the end of this Sunday's Gospel point out that God gives good gifts, as any loving father would. "Let's be reasonable," Jesus seems to be saying to his disciples and to all of us, "If you know how to treat your loved ones, don't you think God the Almighty does as well, and maybe even better?"
This is a reassurance of the unlimited love and concern of God who will give, to all who ask, the Holy Spirit, the great gift of the present and final age, the culmination of all God's gifts. Let usgreatly rejoice in the Lord today and always!
Fr Christian Leisy, OSB
Monastery of Christ in the Desert
Abiquiu, New Mexico