Homily: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C
“Should not the judge
of all the world act with justice?”
Friends,
the readings for our Mass this weekend point us to reflect on the relationship
of prayer. In the first reading, we see Abraham
acting out this relationship of prayer with God. We see him exploring the limits of God’s justice
with each repeated question: lowering his number each time in search of the
true answer to his first question, “Will you sweep away the innocent with the
guilty?” He has a true sense of justice
and so he is convinced of the truth that the innocent should not be condemned
with the guilty. He acknowledges God as
the all-powerful judge of the world, but he does not yet know whether God will
act with justice, and so he explores this with God. Abraham also knows that God could strike him
dead in an instant and so he approaches the question humbly, not presuming to
know God’s will, but rather exploring the limits through his repeated
questions, hoping to discover that the “judge of all the world” will act with
justice and thus demonstrate himself honorable.
Besides revealing to us that God is just and that he will act with
justice, Abraham also demonstrates for us the relationship of prayer: that is,
that prayer is not only transactional, but relational.
In
a transactional style of prayer, something is asked of another and that other
responds either positively or negatively: either “Yes, I will give you that” or
“No, I will not give you that”. If
positively, perhaps there’s a cost for receiving the thing requested: “Yes, I
will give you that and this is how much it will cost.” Think of it as going to McDonald’s: You ask, “May
I have a Happy Meal?” and the clerk responds, “Yes. That will cost five dollars”. You hand over the five dollars, the clerk hands
you the Happy Meal and the transaction worked as designed.
Because
our lives are filled with these kinds of transactions, it becomes very easy to take
this approach when we pray. We believe
that God is all-powerful and so can provide us with whatever we need. We also believe that he is good and that he
does not want to see us suffer. And so,
we approach him like we would a benefactor: pleading with him for the thing
that we need and hoping that he will respond generously to our request, ready
to offer something of ourselves as “payment” for what we’ve received. This “transactional style” of prayer is a
very natural and honest way to pray. Prayer
that is a relationship, however, is much deeper; and it is the prayer that God
desires for us.
What
Abraham demonstrates for us in the first reading is how prayer is a vehicle for
coming to know God more deeply. At this
point in his life, Abraham has had a long relationship with God. God called Abraham out from his homeland to
settle in a new land and the book of Genesis documents that there were many
twists and turns along the way. Thus, Abraham
learned to trust in God and came to know himself and God more deeply. Nevertheless, when God expressed his
intention to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham was confronted with a
question: “Is God truly just? Will he sweep away the innocent with the guilty?” Abraham’s prayer, then, was about exploring
this question with God. He did so, I
believe, for two reasons: 1) to know God more deeply, and 2) to test whether
what he had come to know about God (that is, that he is just) was really
true. In doing so, his deeper question, “Should
not the judge of all the world act with justice?”—a question that addresses
Abraham’s understanding of how the world works—would also be answered. ///
When
Jesus’ disciples observe Jesus in prayer and ask him to teach them how to pray,
Jesus teaches them: giving them a form for and an attitude to take toward
prayer. In doing so, he teaches them
something important about God and about prayer: God is our Father who wants
only good things for us, and prayer is our way of engaging in and deepening our
relationship with him. In the examples
he gives, Jesus is encouraging his disciples to be bold in exploring the limits
of God’s generosity: saying that, “If you sinful human beings can be generous even
when you are resistant to doing so, how much more is God, who is without sin and
thus never resistant in his generosity?”
Thus, Jesus is teaching us: When we explore the limits of God’s
generosity in prayer (or his justice, in the case of Abraham), we come to know
him more deeply and intimately, and thus our relationship with him grows. When our relationship with him grows, we grow
our trust in his providential care, and thus become more resilient to the struggles
and challenges that we face every day, as well as the bigger questions that the
world and the way it operates often presents to us. ///
“Should
not the judge of all the world act with justice?” This was the “bigger question” that the world
and God’s actions presented to Abraham that day. Abraham knew the answer to this question: “Yes!” What he needed to know, however, was whether
the judge of all the world would act
with justice. Engaging his prayer as a
relationship, Abraham explored this question with God and he found his answer:
God, the judge of all the world, would not sweep the innocent away with the
guilty, and thus would act with justice.
What
are the “bigger questions” that you are facing in your life today? Pause today and try to name them. Then write them down on a piece of paper and
focus on it in prayer. Instead of simply
asking God to give you an answer, see if you can engage God in prayer
relationally, exploring the limits of his generosity (or his justice, or his mercy…
whatever your bigger question demands).
In doing so, you will deepen your relationship with God and, presumably,
your trust in him. This trust, this faith, will strengthen you to face the
struggles and challenges that each day brings and will make you are more joyful
witness of the call to relationship that God makes to each person, perhaps
leading some to respond to that call.
The
Mass is the preeminent place where we collectively exercise our relationship
with God in prayer. As we approach this
altar today, let us give thanks for this gift, and let us commit ourselves to growing
our relationship with God in prayer so that we might respond more joyfully to
the struggles and challenges of our daily lives and thus be greater witnesses
to God and his love in the world.
Given in Spanish at St. Paul Parish: Marion, IN – July 23rd,
2022
Given in Spanish at St. Joseph Parish: Delphi, IN and Our
Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish: Carmel, IN – July 24th, 2022
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