SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY OF YEAR "C"

Gen 16, 20 – 32; Lk. 11, 1 – 13

In the heart of Burrabazar, Calcutta, you must have seen those wily shopkeepers sitting among mountains of sacks of potatoes, onion and food grains. They are smart businessmen and know how to drive a hard bargain. Well, that was very much what Abraham was like. Before God called him, he was in business in a place just like Calcutta, in a very commercial city called Ur of Chaldea.

In today’s first reading you heard how the old man was driving a hard bargain with God, haggling with the Lord over Sodom and Gomorrah, two very commercial and criminal cities. “If there are 50 good men, will you save the city; if there are 30 good men…Well, what about 20; all right make it 10; how about five?” Abraham lost in the bargain: not even five men to impress God with their probity! The city was destroyed and all the evil with it.

I think you’ve guessed what was wrong with Abraham’s approach: it was too businesslike, reducing his relationship with God to a commercial contract, even political by trying to put up good candidates. But all the potatoes in his storehouse were rotten!

A thousand years later the prophet Jonah would improve substantially on Abraham’s approach. He would go through the sinful city of Nineveh, preaching repentance. The citizens would confess their sins with their king, and the city would be spared the destruction threatened by God. Another two thousand years and the world would wake up to the greatest teacher of all time: Our Lord Jesus Christ, who would take us beyond Abraham and the prophets. No more commercial bargaining, no sniveling and squealing before and omnipotent and destructive power, but a deep and meaningful relationship between loving parent and child.

“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come.

Forgive us our trespasses,

For we are naughty children, but you are our Father.”

Jesus’ teaching on prayer is geared towards expanding our horizon and opening us up to a new world of hope, expectancy and confidence.

Use today’s Gospel as an opportunity to have your thinking challenged. After all, we are privileged to have the teaching of the Master. No teacher on prayer can compare with the wisdom of Jesus.

There is an important issue that Jesus makes sure to include in the subject on prayer. And that issue is forgiveness. To forgive when you have been deeply offended is one of the most difficult demands made on a human being. Yet, forgiveness, letting go of hurts and moving on, is essential in any relationship. And relationships are about the future. To forgive requires humility, and self-confidence to re-establish trust and to resist the temptation to recall the hurtful incident when something else goes wrong. We need to forgive ourselves also if we are to grow in spiritual and emotional maturity. We all need to forgive and to be forgiven. And when that happens, prayer becomes so much easier. It’s like a block that has been removed from the artery and the blood can flow freely again. Then we can pray with confidence and persistence.

St. Augustine prayed with stark confidence, telling God, “Look at me that I may love you.” He had no doubt about the serenity of God’s gaze, and that it would bring out the best in us.

My dear friends, look into God’s eyes; look long and searchingly; have no fear that you might see an accusation or demand. The only message you will read in those eyes is: “I love you.”

Let me end with this simple but profound prayer of Blessed Beatrice of Nazareth who died in the year 1268.

“Teach me to pray, God.

You see everything

You know everything

You experience everything in me and with me,

For you are my companion and my beloved.

Nothing is hidden from you

Your love for me is light

And in this light of your love

You see everything.