SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
24 JULY 2016
The
disciples of Jesus observed him praying frequently. They also learned that there was an intimate
connection between the quality of his praying and the quality of his living,
teaching, and healing. So, they ask him
to teach them to pray. In response,
Jesus teaches what we know as the Lord’s Prayer. The version which we pray comes from the
Gospel of Matthew. This version from the
Gospel of Luke is shorter and more direct.
In praying,
we address God as Father. Like Abraham, whose
intimate relationship with God allowed him to barter honestly with God, we can
know God so personally that the Father we address is our “daddy,” the English
equivalent of the Aramaic word which Jesus uses. God’s name is to be hallowed, or protected,
because God is all holy. God’s kingdom
is in our midst now: not the kingdom
where people attack each other because they disagree, but a kingdom of radical peace
and justice. We ask for daily bread,
because we cannot take the gift of food from God for granted. We ask for the real presence of the Lord in
the Eucharistic Bread at Mass. We
acknowledge that we are sinners in need of God’s mercy. Aware of our sinfulness, we ask for the
courage to extend that same mercy to those who are in debt to us. Finally, we ask that we be given the strength
to resist all the temptations facing us now and in the future.
Having
taught this prayer, Jesus insists that our prayer be persistent. We need to get into the habit of persistent
prayer and not just falling on our knees when things go badly in our lives or
when we need a favor. Like the friend in
the parable who keeps pounding on his neighbor’s door, we need to continue to
ask and seek and knock in our daily prayers.
We enter into this persistent prayer not to change God’s mind, but to
trust that in God’s Kingdom, the Father will not give us a snake when we ask
for a fish, or a scorpion when we ask for an egg.
In bartering with God, Abraham did
not change God’s mind. In his persistent
prayer, Abraham came to understand that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were
bringing the destruction of their towns on themselves. In contrast to Abraham’s incredible
hospitality to the three divine visitors, the people of those towns had not
only been hostile to them, but they had also tried to take advantage of them
sexually. Things had gotten so bad that
there were not ten innocent people in that town. In his persistent prayer, Abraham was
changed. Abraham began to understand the
mysterious balance of God’s mercy and God’s judgment.
Persistent
prayer requires incredible trust in the Father’s goodness and love. At every Mass, the final prayer in the
Prayers of the Faithful invites us to “commend the
prayers in the Book of Intentions and our own prayers to the Lord in the
silence of our hearts.” Take a
look at the intentions written in that book on the stand near the baptismal
font. There are many heart-felt needs
written in that book and commended to our prayers. One intention is for the healing of one of
our parishioners. Tim is a devoted
husband and father of four children. He
has a rare form of stomach cancer, and the doctors do not offer much hope. We are praying for a miracle through the
intercession of Blessed Basil Moreau, the founder of the Congregation of Holy
Cross. Father Moreau needs one more
miracle to be canonized. Tim needs one
miracle to continue to remain here with his family. We are asking, seeking, and knocking in a big
way! However, we are also trusting that
God loves Tim and his family. We are
trusting in the ultimate miracle of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
When we pray, we pray with the
trust of Saint Paul, who reminds us in the second reading that Christ has wiped
away the debt for all of us. We pray
with the awareness that in the midst of suffering, pain, and evil, God’s
Kingdom is in our midst.
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