Sunday, July 24, 2022

 SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, July 24, 2022

(Genesis 18:20-32; Colossians 2:12-14; Luke 11:1-13)

If a student were to ask a teacher to give lessons on public speaking, how would she respond?  Perhaps she would be so stunned as to become speechless.  But once she regained composure, she probably would form a lesson plan in her head.  Today’s gospel can be taken as Jesus’ lesson plan in teaching his disciples how to pray.

The plan has three parts.  First, it indicates to whom the prayer is addressed.  Second, it makes a list of things to petition.  And third, it develops an effective way to express one’s needs.  The best of teachers, Jesus does not lack a sound methodology.

Of course, Jesus wants his disciples to pray to God.  He tells them to call God “Father.”  What is fascinating here is not so much that we are to call God “Father.”  Even the Old Testament in various placers describes God as a father.  What is surprising is that Jesus does not insist that we say “Our Father” as he does in Matthew’s gospel.  In Matthew only Jesus calls God simply, “Father.”  But here in in Luke Jesus permits us to call God with the same intimacy as he enjoys.

Jesus wants us to ask first for peace and welfare for the world.  This is what “your kingdom come” means.  Certainly, the coming of the kingdom will mean the end of violence on our city streets as well as the withdrawal of Russian forces from the Ukraine.  But it does not leave out our own desires for a more worthy life.  Perhaps we are worried that there may not be enough money to pay the rent.  Or we may really need a few days’ rest.  Asking for the reign of God includes these types of requests. 

Also, we are to ask for “our daily bread.”  There are two meanings at play here.  First, “daily bread” means sufficient food that we maintain good health.  Also, the phrase suggests the Eucharistic bread that nurtures us for eternal life.  Because we live on the earth so that we may have everlasting life with God, we should not want the one kind of bread without the other.

It may be difficult for us to ask for forgiveness of our sins.  Particularly in our narcissistic society, many prefer not to think about their sinning. But the truth is that we sin, sometimes seriously.  We lie; we want inordinate pleasure; we consider ourselves better than others.  If we are going to be included in God’s family, we must seek forgiveness from these and other sins.

Finally, we are to ask that we may “not be subject to the final test.” Jesus has in mind the great trials that can undermine our confidence in God.  By this request we are imploring God that he doesn’t take the life of one of our children or that we suffer terribly before death.  It is said that Pope Francis has difficulty with this petition because God would never lead us into sin.  He may be right, but still it is not unheard of that good people suffer tremendously.

And how are we to pray?  According to Jesus in this gospel, we must pray with persistence.  In the reading from Genesis today, Abraham shows how to pray in this way.  He does not cease asking the Lord reduction of the requisite number of good people to save Sodom until the quota can be easily met.  True prayer never gives up because the one praying knows that God always wants to bring us closer to Himself.

Jesus, our teacher, is beyond compare, and his plan has been proven through twenty centuries.  Nevertheless, if it is not put into practice, it will be as useless as a snow sled in the summer.

Friday, July 22, 2022

 Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene

(II Corinthians 5:14-17; John 20:1-2.11-18)

Padre Santiago Martin is a Spanish priest who every weekend comments on Church affairs in a YouTube video.  Recently he commented that some in the Church want to reinterpret its tradition.  Fr. Martin said that some “tradition breakers” say that Jesus is not God but a great prophet like Martin Luther King or Mohandas Gandhi.  Today’s gospel belies such an interpretation.

Mary Magdalene goes to Jesus’ tomb thinking that Jesus is dead.  She sees him as a great prophet who was crushed by the Jewish-Roman power structure.  Then Jesus confronts her with the reality of his resurrection from the dead.  He also commissions her to be the first person to proclaim his resurrection to others.  Jesus shows her that he is not another prophet but the living Son of God.  St. Paul testifies to the same truth in the first reading.  He tells the Corinthians that even those who knew Jesus in the flesh must now see him as something very different. The resurrection has revealed Jesus definitively as the eternal Son of God.

Mary Magdalene has become a model for all Christians.  We may wonder if Jesus was just a great prophet to be heeded as far as his message applies to our times.  But then the truth of the gospel confronts us.  We too are charged to tell others that Jesus has risen from the dead.  He is God’s eternal Son whose teaching will endure forever.

Thursday, July 21, 2022

 Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Jeremiah 2:1-3.7-8.12-13; Matthew 13:10-17)

We think of parables as little stories that illustrate what Jesus is trying to teach.  They are like the vignettes a high school religion teacher used to tell to make a point.  Most of his students will remember the teacher’s anecdote about the bank robber Willie Loman.  Asked once why he robbed banks, Loman replied, “…because that’s where the money is.”  Then the teacher said to his students that they must decide what is most important in life and, like Willie Loman, go after it.

In today’s gospel passage, however, Jesus says that he uses parables to confuse his listeners: “’This is why I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.’”  It is only right to ask, what gives?  The evangelist Matthew, writing perhaps fifty years after Jesus, knows that many people have already rejected the message of the gospel.  But even in Jesus’ time many follow him with scant intention of heeding his call to repentance.  They merely want to see him work a wonder. For the first group Jesus’ death and resurrection will seem like a fantasy.  For the second his stories will sound so.

But, hopefully, it is not this way for us.  We believe that Jesus has the words of eternal life and want to follow him. 

Wednesday, July 20, 2022

 Wednesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Jeremiah 1:1.4-10; Matthew 13:1-9)

Jeremiah in the first reading today has reason to be fearful.  The Lord has told Jeremiah that he will put His righteous words on his lips.  They will console but also chastise.  Not just people who regularly do evil will resent Jeremiah for speaking God’s words.  Pope Francis, echoing conventional wisdom, has said that there is a bit of larceny in all of us.  The regularly virtuous may not always welcome them either.

Nevertheless, the word of God can bring about wonders.  In his parable Jesus tells how the word coming to worthy listeners will have abundant fruit.  Everyday thousands of volunteers around the country give themselves to feed the homeless and poor.  They do so because they have heard the word of God tell of the feeding of the Israelites in the desert and Jesus providing the multitude with bread.

We too may find others resenting the word of God on our lips.  We may have to remind those who engage in ridicule that homosexuals are God’s children worthy of our respect.  Or we may have to tell our children that cohabiting offends God.  Such statements will cause us pain, but we do so out of love both for God and for those whom we address. 

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

 

Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Micah 7: 14-15.18-20; Matthew 12:46-50)

People still try to make a distinction between the “God of the Old Testament” and the “God of the New…”  They see the God of Abraham and Moses as angry and vindictive, and the one of Jesus as loving and compassionate.  Today’s first reading belies such a wrong-minded interpretation of the Scriptures.

The prophet Micah (or possibly another whose works are included with his) utters a prayer.  He extols the Lord for His mercy and looks forward to the revelation of His justice.  According to the prophet, God “pardons sins” and “delights in clemency.” Jesus will manifest these divine attributes in his very being.  For this reason the gospel today pictures him saying that his disciples are only his mother, sisters, and brothers but not his father.  His father is God alone. 

God is merciful and loving as some say, “all the time.”  This affirmation does not mean we are exempt from obeying His will.  But it does mean that we can count on Him when we approach Him with repentant hearts.