RENUNGAN – MINGGU BIASA KE-17 TAHUN C
17th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C
Genesis 18:20-32; col 2:12-14; Luke 11:1-13
REFLECTION:
This Sunday, the Church draws our attention to the need to always turn to God in prayer in all circumstances of our life. She reminds us that prayer is the key to unlock and enter the heart of God. Christ Himself has given us in truth the power to become children of God.
To persevere or to be persistent means without stopping to start something and to finish it to the end. We should be persistent in our living faith which includes : Our worship of God; Our continuous struggle to inherit the salvation that we received through Jesus Christ who is Lord and God, and our concern for the salvation of our spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ until our last breath.
In the first reading, We heard that the Lord God had come down from Heaven to go and visit the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of the outcries against them that were reaching the Heavenly Throne. Abraham our father in faith demonstrated great confidence. Abraham obtained God’s unconditional promise that He would not destroy the city. His prayer was that of intercession not for his own sake but for the sake of his nephew, Lot and his household. Abraham taught us to take pains to help others, and never under-rate the power of intercession because it is said ‘God governs the world while prayer governs God’.
Oftentimes, we hear people imploring us, ‘please pray fo me or remember me in your prayers’. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, Afterall, we owe it as a duty to pray for one another. Paul constantly requested for prayers, ‘pray also for me so that when I open my mouth words may be given to me…pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should’. However, it may not be completely out of place to suggest that one of the reason we ‘indulge’ in asking people to pray for us always is that we ourselves are very lazy to pray, and in some cases do not actually know how to pray. What will we say or do when our child humbly request us to teach him/her how to pray.
Paul reminds us of our redemption in Christ Jesus. It is through faith that we approach God in prayer as a loving father who listens and never fail. It reminds us to live our lives in Jesus, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as we were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Meaning, we must build up our faith in the sound Catholic teachings that the Apostles of Jesus have handed down to the Holy Chuch. Through Jesus, we come to know each and every Divine Person of the Holy Trinity.
The Gospel explicitly call to us, Christian to pray. Our prayer life is a reflection of our true faith in God. For us to pray effecticely, we must long to pray, thirst for prayer, and even get down to our knees and start to pray. Today Christ prayed and at the same time taught us, His disciple how to pray. Jesus not only taught us how to pray but through His two stories reassures us that if we pray God will not fail to answer us. All we need is to be persistent, patient and humble.
We may have lost faith in prayer and consequently in God or lost the right approach to prayer and so, we are nowhere close to praying in spite of all the noise we generate in the name of praying. Paul tells us, in Romans 8:26, that ‘We do not know what to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us in groans that words cannot express’. So, whenever we lack wisdom of how to pray and what to pray for, we must ask the Spirit of Jesus to teach and help us to pray.
In truth, we may now know that to persevere in our living faith means to worship God, to continuously struggle to inherit the salvation that we have received through Jesus Christ and to continuously be concerned for the salvation of our brothers and sisters in Christ until our last breath. Such is persevering in our living faith.
When the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray, our Lord taught them the Lord’s Prayer: That is, Praising the Almighty Father, consent to His Divine Will regarding Heavenly Kingdom, request to God for the daily reception of the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist, the living Bread; to forgive others. Jesus concluded His teaching that the reference to asking, searching and knocking is a reference to requesting the Holy Spirit; a reference to divine knowledge, understading and wisdom; a reference to the gifts of the Holy Spirit; a reference to the fruit of the Holy Spirit – all these are needed for the sanctification of the soul during its perseverance in the living faith.
Let us adopt Abraham’s resoluteness, and the courage and humility of Jesus’ disciple, not quick to give up, for God never keep silent, rather waits for the appropriate time to respond and act. We must not give up in the habit of prayer because it is a gift of Jesus through which he empowers us to be constantly in touch with God. If we pray according to the mind and will of God, we shall gladly join the Psalmist in saying, ‘ On the day I called, you answered me, O Lord’.
By:
James Jimmy Totu
St. Michael’s Parish Penampang.
