17th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Gen 18: 20-32; Col 2: 12-14; Luke 11: 1-13
Dc. Larry Brockman
Prayer, today’s scriptures are all about prayer. We heard the Our Father and how it is a blueprint to prayer to the Lord. That is, it tells us how to pray and what to pray for. But there is much more to learn from the scriptures today than that. To begin with, prayer is when we join our minds and hearts with the Lord.
Well, let me pose this question about prayer- How well do you know the Lord? Do you know the Lord well enough to join your minds and hearts with Him? It is pretty clear from both the Old Testament story about Abraham’s petition for Sodom and Gomorrah and the Gospel where the Apostles asked Jesus to teach them to pray, that both Abraham and Jesus knew the Lord pretty well. Abraham is “walking” with the Lord. The conversation is casual and friendly. And Jesus addresses the Father as “Abba”, which means “Daddy”. So, the first thing we should notice about praying to God, is that those who are familiar with God are good at it. Think of it this way, can you imagine having an intimate conversation with someone you don’t really know? It doesn’t sound like it would be very comfortable for either party.
And then there is the matter of mutual trust. That may seem like a no brainer- trusting God. But do you really trust God? Our trust should be the same as that exhibited by little children a kind of unlimited, comfortable trust like the kind that comes with the relationship between a young child and a familiar parent. So being familiar with the Lord would really help when we pray.
How do we achieve that familiarity? Well, knowing about the Lord would help. That means, for example, reading the Bible and knowing what the Catechism says. But it also means having frequent contact. The more often we pray, the more likely we will be familiar with the Lord, just like the more often we come in contact with any other friend, the more familiar and comfortable we become with them.
And then there is the matter of persistence. Abraham was certainly persistent, carefully talking the Lord down from finding 50 good people in Sodom to just 10. Jesus uses a parable about waking a sleeping friend after midnight to ask for three loaves of bread as a way to address persistence. Now I have asked myself, why is persistence so important? After all, God knows what we want even before we ask for it. Why not just ask once; why burden the Lord. Well, I think it’s because we should take the Lord at His word. He wants it that way. Ironically, the persistence in the Gospel story implies that the friend will open his door and give the three loaves of bread to the requester because he is irritated and just wants to get rid of the problem. But, as the story of Sodom and Gomorrah shows, God always listens no matter how many times we ask him. He is receptive when we do pester Him, our persistence doesn’t put him off because it shows our commitment to Him; it shows our recognition of our limitations and need for God.
Now in the story about Sodom and Gomorrah, we see a loving Lord who is willing to accommodate Abraham’s petition, that is, his prayer. Abraham has confidence in the Lord, and is well aware of His power and might. So very respectfully, Abraham pushes the situation to the limit confident that the Lord will do what is best. Now, we all know what happened. Sodom and Gomorrah were totally destroyed by the Lord. This happens right after the story we just heard. So our loving, Lord, who was so willing to accommodate Abraham went ahead and destroyed Sodom because He couldn’t find even 10 good souls in Sodom. Was Abraham’s prayer answered? Yes, it was, because God kept his bargain. However, it seems like a “no” because saving Sodom was Abraham’s objective and yet, that is not what was best. And we can all identify with that. Because we all can see that Sodom was a disaster.
Sometimes when we pray, we ask for something but the answer is “no” by the Lord, only we don’t see the other side of the story like Abraham did. We don’t see what’s best for us. In the Gospel, Jesus tells us that our heavenly Father knows what is best for us, and uses an example of a Father giving his son a fish rather than a snake. As a parent, I can identify with that. How many times do our children ask for snakes rather than fish? And as a parent, we have to tell them, “no” rather than “yes”, or “not right now” for one of their requests Those are God’s three answers too- yes, no, and not right now. But we need to trust God and be confident that he has answered our prayer, even when it seems like the silence is deafening because He gives us the Holy Spirit always to work through the situation when the answer is no or not now.
In the clutter and humdrum of today’s world where both parties work in a marriage, sometimes 60-70 hours a week; with cell phones and radios and TVs blaring constantly; we all need a friend- a real friend. Take some time to get to know the Lord. Pray; pray often to your friend and confidant, the Lord. Pray with confidence and persistence.
Tags: Raising Minds and Hearts to God; Praying to the Lord as a Friend