Scripture:
Genesis 18:20-32
Colossians 2:12-14
Luke 11:1-13
Reflection:
When I reflected on the Scripture readings for Sunday, I was reminded once again of our human tendency to try to make God’s will fit what we want. But thanks be to God, God doesn’t operate the way we usually do! We hear this in our second reading from Colossians (2:12-14): “And even when you were dead in transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he brought you to life along with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions; obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims, which was opposed to us, he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross.”
How do we respond to such love and mercy? In our Gospel reading (Luke 11:1-13), Jesus’ disciples ask Him to teach them how to pray. And so, we hear Luke’s account of the Lord’s Prayer. And Jesus begins the prayer with what ought to be our first response to God’s overwhelming love: ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.” In the face of such love and mercy, we are to humble ourselves before God in praise, and await the fulfillment of God’s kingdom. Jesus continues: “Give us each day our daily bread.” We are to acknowledge that even the necessities of life are gifts from God.
Out of praise and thanksgiving for God’s love for us, flows our response to the rest of God’s beloved. Jesus continues with what I think is the most challenging part of the prayer: “…and forgive our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us.” Wow! Or maybe more accurately, “Ow!” Asking God’s forgiveness involves being willing to forgive others! In these divided times, forgiveness doesn’t seem to be too popular, even though it is admired from a distance. In our first reading from Genesis (18:20-32), God is deciding what to do with Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham pleads with God to spare those places even if there are only ten innocent people there, and God states that such mercy will be shown. I find Abraham’s pleading for mercy in sharp contrast to what we see a lot of today. There seems to be a rush to condemnation of the “other,” even to the point of painting a whole group of people with the same brush based on the actions of a few. But again, if we recognize God’s mercy toward us, could we not open our hearts to show mercy to others, and work for justice for everyone? Or have we decided that mercy and justice are not an option?
To follow God’s will takes persistence in prayer and openness. After Jesus teaches His disciples how to pray, He tells a parable about persistence. At times it seemed to me that Jesus was proposing that we nag God until we get what we want. But we don’t need to nag God at all. God knows what we need better than we do. I think the persistence called for is persistence in going to God in prayer in every situation; to be persistent in seeking God’s will, and to be persistent in doing God’s will, trusting that God will give us what we need. This is how we can understand what Jesus means when He says: “Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Later on, after Jesus gives some human examples of this with a father and his child, Jesus then says: “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the holy Spirit to those who ask him?” Note that Jesus says, “how much more will the Father in heaven give the holy Spirit,” not “give the fancy car,” or “the big mansion.” No, the more persistent we are in prayer, the more persistent we are in recognizing God’s love and mercy, and the more persistent we are in seeking to do God’s will, the more we will seek and ask for what is really important, and God will give it to us.
May God continue to give us what we need, and may we always seek to do God’s will.
Fr. Phil Paxton, CP, is the Pastor of Holy Family Parish in Birmingham, and St. Mary’s Parish in Fairfield, Alabama. He is the Local Superior of the Passionist Community in Birmingham, Alabama.