2016July 24, Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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

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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.