Word to the Wise
Monday, July 2, 2007 - Thirteenth Monday in Ordinary Time
[Genesis 18:16-33 and Matthew 8:18-22]Far be it from you to do such a thing, to make the innocent die with the guilty, so that the innocent and the guilty would be treated alike! Should not the judge of all the world act with justice?
Whatever may be said about the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, what I find wonderful about this story is the bargaining between God and Abraham. Just consider the line earlier, ".....the Lord remained standing before Abraham...." It is a face to face event. The Lord seems to be enjoying it as much as Abraham. The Lord knows that Sodom is so bad off that Abraham can bargain all day and it won't make any difference. It's possible that Abraham knows this too but has to make the effort. Both Abraham and Moses appeal to me because of their direct and "face to face" relationship with God. We all try to bargain with God from time to time but it is often more like a pleading than a bargaining. We don't enter into the dialogue with the confidence of friends. No, we are not equals with God, but we can establish terms of familiarity - terms of friendship - that can place us in the position of "discussing" a possibility with God in such a way that we gain confidence in dealing with the problem. It seems to me that this is the essence of prayer. We have to enter into prayer as if it is the face to face encounter with God and not a shout in the dark. AMEN
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