2016July 24, Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
GN 18:20-32
1.
Abraham pleaded with the Lord God to spare Sodom
and Gomorah for the sake of at least ten good people.
2.
The presence of goodness spares the city from
destructions but when all the people are evil they are bringing destruction to
themselves.
PS 138:1-2, 2-3, 6-7, 7-8
R. (3a) Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.
COL 2:12-14
.
1.
ST. Paul preaches the power of baptism into the
Lord Jesus.
2.
The Baptism is the new law that binds the people
of God and no longer the circumcision nor blood.
LK 11:1-13
1.
The disciples inspired by Jesus example in
praying, ask to be taught how to pray and Jesus taught them how to pray.
2.
The Lord’s Prayer is the Model of Prayer that we
are ask to pray for it contains the basic elements of he Faith.
3.
The Lord’s Prayer caters on three important
issues in our lives.
a.
Hospitality and perseverance.
b.
Doing our part in achieving what we want.
c.
Openness and Patience that something good comes
our way even thoug not in the form that we expected them.
Good Morning…..
Our World today have changed so
much within the last 20 years, with much improvements in the means of
communications, transportations and facility in industry and food production.
We can say that our world today manifest the achievement of the human genius
and what humans can do. To some this is a great development but for others
these developments poses a danger, a threat to humanity itself.
Our World today is driven by these
achievements and success and failures is seen as weakness and weakness is seen
as a liability in our society, No one does not want to fail. This drive for
success put so much pressure on life and also on relationships. The struggle to
have the latest gadgets and the latest items in the market becomes the usual
crazy event in the market place. The drive to own this and to own that, to have
this or to have that hinder us from seeing the more noble in our lives such as
relationships, hospitality and service for one another.
In times like this, let us be
reminded by the words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta that we are called to
faithfulness and not to success. This words of Mother Teresa echoes the words
of the Bible that: “ what profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses
his soul.”
The disciples in today’s Gospel
from St. Luke were inspired by what Jesus had done. In their busy lives
walking with Jesus in his ministry,
teaching, curing the sick from town to town, they pause and ask the Lord for
one important thing that they need to continue to follow Jesus, they said :
Lord Teach us to pray, just like John taught his disciples.”
Teach us to pray… this request of
the disciples is what I believe is what we also need in our world today. We
have to pause and assess our lives whether with all the achievements that we
have, with all the gadgets and technologies that we have, with all the
assurances and money that we have, whether we become better persons with a
better family – a family that loves and cares for one another.
Did all the achievements of the 20
years brought us a peaceful world to live in ? Sad to say, the answer is no, we
still have a world that is full of biases , Biases that breeds hatred and violence against one another. The recent news
is full of such hatred and violence in our world.
Teach us to pray….. and actually
praying the Lord’s Prayer will bring us back again the Sense of God , the Sense
of the Sacred that we are now losing in our world.
To Pray the Our Father who art in
Heaven, will give us the sense of the
community that in spite of our color, beliefs, cultures, we have one God , One
Father.
To Pray Holy be your name, will
remind us once more that there are things in life that are sacred and holy that
we have to respect and uphold.
To Pray Your will be done on earth
as it is in heaven, will remind us that our lives is not only for us, not only
for our own pursuit for liberty and personal happiness but that our lives is
designed also for service for the good and enhancement of humanity as Willed by
the Creator.
To pray for Give us this day our
daily bread, reminds us that We need God in our lives for everything comes from
Him and not from our own efforts.
To pray: Forgive us our sins as we
forgive those who sins against us and lead us not into temptations but deliver
from evil, reminds us that weakness is part of our being human, We should not
be ashamed with our failures but accept the lessons of our failures so as we
can learn to forgive ourselves and one another.
Lord Teach us to pray just like you
teach Your disciples, becomes our prayer today as we desire to continue to
follow Jesus in our world today and hopefully becomes God’s instruments of
peace, love and mercy in our world today. AMEN.
