Word to the Wise
Sunday, July 29, 2007 - Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
[Genesis 18:20-32; Colossians 2:12-14; Luke 11:1-13]And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.....
It is interesting to read these gospel words after reading the story of Abraham bargaining with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham's bargaining is to no avail simply because it was based on a principle without any reality. As usual God saved a remnant connected with Abraham's family but God knew that Abraham was not going to find ten people worthy of being saved in those towns! What is more important for our purposes is that God dialogued with Abraham on the subject. Abraham was willing to "engage" God on a person to person basis and to be persistent about it. Notice the consistent recommendation of Jesus to be persistent in prayer - to keep it up! When I pray for others, I think of it as a way of staying in touch with them as well as with God. It is the relationship that is supported by communication - namely, by prayer. The particular outcome may have to be open ended, as all relationships may be. There has to be trust and faith. The guy who knocks on his neighbor's door realizes that the neighbor will respond simply because the persistence of the one who knocks or else lose face in the neighborhood! Abraham slyly appeals to God's sense of honor, "Should not the Judge of all the world act with justice?" But he has to be persistent in his efforts. It is not really a matter of "nagging" God, but of keeping the lines of communication open, trusting in God's greater vision, which will often not be the same as ours. AMEN
config
view
logs
3840.0 KB
75 ms
4
