SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
28 JULY 2019
The
disciples of Jesus notice that he often goes off by himself to pray. So, they ask him to teach them to pray, just
as John the Baptist had taught his disciples.
Jesus responds by teaching the most important prayer that Christians
pray every day. We are accustomed to
pray the version of that prayer from the Gospel of Saint Matthew. Listening to Saint Luke’s version today gives
us a chance to reflect on the words that we often rush through.
Jesus tells
us to call God “Father.” The Aramaic
word he uses is Abba, which means dad or daddy.
Our prayer acknowledges our closeness to him. But as close as we are, his name is hallowed,
because he is holy and totally other than we are. Throughout the Gospel of Luke, Jesus
proclaims that the Kingdom of God is at hand.
Jesus personifies that Kingdom. Our
prayer reminds us that God dwells with us, even in the midst of sin, hatred,
racism, war, and disasters. We ask for
our daily bread. The Greek words used
here are very rare, and they imply that God gives us an overwhelming substance
of food. Of course, we recognize that
substance at this Mass, when the accidents of bread and wine are transformed
into the substance of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. We ask the Father to forgive our sins, which
he has already done in the saving death and resurrection of his only Son. When we forgive those who sin against us, we
are already advancing the peace and mercy of the Kingdom in our midst. Finally, we ask that we not be subjected to
the final test. In other words, when the
Lord comes again in glory (either at the end of the world or at the end of our
mortal lives), we will recognize him.
When we
pray this prayer, we are not only praying the prayer that Jesus taught us, but
we are also recognizing our status as beloved sons and daughters of the
Father. We are living out our mission as
disciples of Jesus Christ. That is why
Jesus tells us to pray often and persistently.
We often see ourselves as the friend in the parable who knocks with
shameless resolve until God finally answers our prayers. That is not what Jesus is telling us. In his culture, families huddled together in
their one room home to sleep. The father
is reluctant to answer the door, because he does not want to disturb his
sleeping children. We are his disciples,
those sleeping children whom the Father loves and cares for. He is not abandoning us when it seems that he
gets up to answer other people’s prayers.
He knows our needs and responds to them.
If any of
you have traveled to a third world country, you understand the bargaining
skills of Abraham in the first reading.
When I was in Uganda for the dedication of Father Larry’s new church, I
saw him buy bananas, the staple food of the country. He argued and went on and on with the seller,
until the seller gave in and offered the price he wanted. In bargaining with God, Abraham is not trying
to change God’s mind. Instead, his
persistent bargaining brings him to the conclusion that Sodom and Gomorrah are
completely corrupt and inhospitable towns.
Instead of changing God’s mind, he understands the justice of God.
In our
prayer, most of us have tried to bargain with God. “I will stop smoking, Lord, if you cure my
mother.” Or, “I will go to Mass every
day if you heal my cancer.” There is
nothing wrong with asking God for specific things, even the best of
things. But we must ask with the complete
trust that our Father loves us and wants only the best for us. Saint Augustine argued that God does not
grant our requests immediately, because he wants to stretch us. He wants us to expand our desire for the gift
he gives us – the gift of the Holy Spirit – so that we may truly appreciate
what we have received. Our persistent
prayer does not change God, our Father.
It changes us; so that we may know more fully the gifts we have already
received and often take for granted, even when life becomes very
difficult.
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