Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR C SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - 25.7.04 Gn 18,20-32; Col 2,12-14; Lk 11,1-13 Do you hurt when you pray? Do
you pray when you hurt? This
question bounces out of this
weekend’s Liturgy as we are asked to compare & contrast two stories about
prayer: one from Genesis, the other from Luke. We know that prayer is intensely
personal & unique for each individual; and there are many methods of
praying. And we know also that there’s a lot more to prayer
than simply saying prayers. Whether we pray with our words, or use
prayers composed by others, at the bottom of it all, prayer expresses our
yearnings & longings, our awareness of helplessness, our vulnerability &
hurting, our inability to cope with our daunting tasks surrounding us and we
hurt & grieve as we experience utter futility and obsolescence in our
striving. Today’s message is clear: prayer is gives meaning to our life.
Whatever the method, just pray, pray always, persevere in prayer, never give up,
remembering the twisting proverb: “Seven pray-less days make one week”.
Sadly, prayer for some people, is only a statement of selfish arrogance. When we
pray, as if we have all the answers, and as if life is a matter of black &
white, then we operate from a mind-set where we are telling God how to run the
world, how to live & die; indeed we are telling Him, what he must do and do
it now. We are giving the impression that we have power to make God do what we
want according to our whim. At times we may pray out of mind-set where, after
years of training towards perfection, we believe to be in a state of
transparency, we know all that there is to know and no longer have any needs: we
now can tell others how to live or
be damned. When we pray from this mind-set, our words give the impression that
we know it all, and indeed can teach theology even to God himself Or
do you hurt when you pray? The two stories of today’s Mass have a profound lesson to offer. Of
course we can take the Genesis story of Abraham and Luke’s story of the friend
that knocks at midnight, as exaggerated examples of being bold & daring when
we pray. But then we miss the point and vaguely end up saying, that the lesson,
whatever it may be, is meant to change the lives of some sinners out-there,
while we ourselves have little to learn, since we are on God’s side and are
good solid Christians. This and similar attitudes are wrong!!! In the story of
Genesis, Abraham is not reminding God that there may be a few just people in the
cities of Sodom & Gomorrah... Indeed Abraham is not playing a teasing game
with God... On the contrary, he is
grieving and hurting with God, over the tragic realization that, not just in
Sodom & Gomorrah, but in all our cities, right across the centuries, there
are millions who live mindless and destructive lives, totally hardened to the
discernment of right from wrong. And the same is true in the story of Luke’s
Gospel: the man who knocks at midnight is not just a case of proverbial
exaggeration, where the leader in the story is a nuisance and makes a
fool of himself. Here the man who knocks is sincerely grieving and hurting over
the sad reality that he is a derelict, has no food at home, and still has the
duty to provide for his visitor. It is not a matter of having ‘stones or
snakes’ to give, on the contrary we are alerted to the need to grieve and hurt
over the thousands around us who are deprived, dejected and hurting; while our
inability to provide is due to our lack of caring. Lesson:
Whatever our opinion about the way we air our concern in prayer, let us keep
in mind the hurting prayer of Jesus himself in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the
Cross, when he prayed: Father forgive them.... and when Jesus says: come to me
all you who are hurting and overburdened... ______________________________________ |
