17th Sunday of Year C 2016

DOCTRINE AND FAITH 
(Gen 18, 20-21; Colossians 2, 12-14; Luke 11, 1-13: 17th Sunday of Year C 2016)

 The dominant theme of today’s liturgy is clearly prayer. In the first reading we have the courageous and stupendous imploration of Abraham which made God relent from destroying the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah that were noted for their immorality.  In the Gospel Jesus retired to a lonely place to pray and later taught his apostles how to pray, thereby giving them the sublime prayer of the Our Father.

    The first reading episode teaches that God is not only disposed to accept the supplication of the good person but also considers the merits of the just in not punishing the wicked. This revelation comforts us even today. We have a lot of wickedness in the society: immorality, corruption, dishonesty, theft, murder, etc. How is it possible that God tolerates such situations? Well, if God holds back his anger, if he spares the world from punishment it deserves, then we have to admit that there are so many good souls, who in silence and in secret, live virtuous lives, live in the grace of God and with their sanctity, prayer, and sacrifices, attract divine benevolence upon the whole of humanity. This truth should stimulate us, the Christians, to be just people in the eyes of God, people who live in the grace of God and perform good works in such a way as to counterbalance, somehow, the so many evils that are done in the world.

    The evangelist Luke presents Jesus in today’s gospel in the moment he was engaged in colloquy (prayer) with God, the Father. Jesus then taught his disciples how to pray and what to ask in prayer. When we talk of praying and prayer what do we mean? Prayer is communion with God, constantly opening to Him in good and bad times. In prayer we discern the will of God. Prayer is not the manipulation of God or an attempt to fulfill our wishes. Prayer is not using God as deus ex machina, that is, an effort at using God to solve our immediate problem and forgetting him as soon as the problem is solved. Prayer is also not using God as instrument of vengeance for us. We do not send God on an errand to perform dirty and odd jobs for us. We should not trivialize prayer that should be a means of continuous connectedness between us and God. Indeed, prayer is (using ICT terminology) staying on line with God so as to remain in constant communion, union and communication with God. The fact is that we will not understand prayer if we do not connect ourselves to God or to the logic of faith. To pray means to admit our nothingness, our inability to achieve anything. Payer means recognizing God’s sovereignty, and in addition exalting his autonomy and independence.

    The disciples of Jesus made this request to Jesus: Master, teach us how to pray. We ourselves have need to know how to pray. Jesus teaches us, first and foremost, how to address God, calling him, Father. We Christians are really sons and daughters of God by virtue of the grace we received at our Baptism. Our relationship with God should be like that of a child with his father, a rapport of love, trust, familiarity, and not of fear and calculated distance. Our prayer should be a dialogue or a filial and loving colloquy with God who is our Father. We can and should ask from God the Father all that we need: daily bread, a house/shelter, work liberation from physical and moral evil, forgiveness of sins, etc. In prayer we should be able to recognize the gifts which God continues to shower on us, in order to praise, adore and thank Him. Jesus taught us, specially, to ask in prayer for the full realization of the design of salvation and the fulfillment of his divine will: thy kingdom come, your will be done. In the light of the Our Father, there is the implication of a sincere desire, as well as constant and generous effort to enter God’s plan and fit into it very well, that one should think, chooses and conducts one’s life according to the dictates of the content of the prayer. One wonders how those who occupy high public places, with lots of responsibilities, could cope up, if they excludeprayer from their lives. If things do not go well in the church and in the society, could it not be that little prayer is said or probably that prayer is regarded as useless?

    In the gospel passage, Jesus indicates two fundamental characteristics of Christian prayer. The first is perseverance: Ask and you shall receive, seek ad you shall find and knock and the door will be opened for you. The second characteristic of prayer is trust, filial and serene abandonment to God the Father: If you who are wicked know how to give what is good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. Bear in mind that with the Holy Spirit one has the light, power, love, consolation; in fact all good things are the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Jesus compared God the Father, to a friend who yielded to help and to a papa (daddy) who condescended to accommodate the desires of the children. To pray and pray well in a Christian way, our point of departure should be from the conviction of faith that God is our friend indeed, a friend par excellence and that he loves us like a papa (daddy) does. In this way prayer becomes a colloquy which gives joy and serenity; a normal or natural thing, vital need of our existence; it should neither be sporadic nor occasional. If we consider God to be a Friend and a Papa (daddy), prayer becomes, as it really should be, a dialogue, a give and take, and a conversation. Then God listens to us as we listen to him speak. Our attitude in prayer then should include that of the young Samuel who was taught how to respond to the call of God: Speak Lord, your servant is listening. When we listen to God in prayer, we will be able to discern his will for us and certainly He will show us areas where we have to change in our lives. If we get really convinced that God is our Friend and Father, just as Jesus revealed to us, we would know how to come under his will and abandon ourselves to him, assured that his Love will never betray us, even if He leads us across obscure and humanly speaking, impenetrable path. We therefore conclude with these prayers: Lord teach us how to pray; Speak Lord, your servant is listening! Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye  

(graphics  by blogger)