First Reading – Genesis 18:20-32 ©
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm
137(138):1-3,6-8 ©
Second Reading – Colossians 2:12-14 ©
Gospel Acclamation – John 1:14, 12
Alternative Acclamation – Romans 8:15
The Gospel According to Luke - 11:1 -
13 ©
(NJB)
Listen!
This is the way:
Speak the truth, love justice and seek mercy all the days of your life; insofar as you are able to do this you show your love for God.
Consider the Shema:
Hear O’ people of the world, God is one.
Love God with all your strength, all your
heart and all your mind…and love your neighbor as yourself; this is the whole
of the law.
It is right to praise God, the creator of the universe; it is right to lift your voice in witness to any acts of mercy you may see, because mercy is what God desires more than anything…more than all of our creeds and confessions and ritual pieties.
Trust God, who does not desire glory; have faith in God’s humility.
Understand this.
God made us and the entirety of creations in a state of radical freedom and will not intervene in the material order of the universe, including our affairs; do not expect God to take sides in our struggles with one another, even in the face of true evil…because the salvation we are promised is not of this world, and the whole of sin and evil are bound to time and space.
Know this!
Baptism is a right of initiation, it signifies the intention of the individual to follow the way that Jesus instructed us to follow. It does not confer a special status on us or give us any special powers. Baptism does not confer extraordinary grace or enhance God’s love for us or desire to see us well and whole.
As scripture says:
God has forgiven us our sins, God forgave them at the beginning, in the first moment of creation God knew all that we would become and accepted us for who we are.
God’s love is free as with the love of a parent for a child, there is no debt and there never was; there were no accounts to settle.
Do not repeat John’s errors; be mindful of the fact that we are all born the children of God, every single one of us. We are not made into the children of God by any power (mundane or divine), not by any power that comes from within us, nor external to us…we come into being as children of God, in the Word, by the Word and through the Word.
Our status as children of God is as unconditional as God’s love for us; we are loved because we are.
Remember!
God is the cosmic parent; father, mother and we are the children of God, each and every one of us, not by adoption but by birth; God’s spirit dwells within us, animating us, speaking to us from the recesses of our heart.
When you look on your mother and father, your brother and sister, your friends and family, when you see the stranger in your midst, you are looking on a child of God, a person who carries the fullness of God within them, therefore treat them as you would treat God; love them, be just to them, honor them, show them mercy in a spirit of contrition and humility
Consider today’s reading from the Gospel of Luke, and know this:
Christians pray a version of this prayer every day, every week, every time they are at mass; at every hour of every day this prayer is said in churches all around the world. It is quite possible that not a minute goes by without this prayer being said somewhere.
God is the creator of all that is, of everyone who is, ever was and ever will be.
God is not a king, a lord or a prince, God’s heart does not have the capriciousness of royalty, and because of this we pray that God’s eternal will serve as the measure of our lives. We thank God for the life and the foods that sustain us, work toward a time when no person will be hungry, thirsty or bound by chains.
The first act of someone who follows the way is to repent…to repent means simply to return to God; from our desire to repent we forgive those by whom we have been hurt, love them and work toward a reconciliation with them. This is the way that Jesus walked.
First Reading – Genesis 18:20-32 ©
Abraham Negotiates with the Lord
The
Lord said, ‘How great an outcry there is against Sodom and Gomorrah! How
grievous is their sin! I propose to go down and see whether or not they have
done all that is alleged in the outcry against them that has come up to me. I
am determined to know.’
The
men left there and went to Sodom while Abraham remained standing before the
Lord. Approaching him he said, ‘Are you really going to destroy the just man
with the sinner? Perhaps there are fifty just men in the town. Will you really
overwhelm them, will you not spare the place for the fifty just men in it? Do
not think of doing such a thing: to kill the just man with the sinner, treating
just and sinner alike! Do not think of it! Will the judge of the whole earth
not administer justice?’ the Lord replied, ‘If at Sodom I find fifty just men
in the town, I will spare the whole place because of them.’
Abraham replied, ‘I am bold indeed to speak
like this to my Lord, I who am dust and ashes. But perhaps the fifty just men
lack five: will you destroy the whole city for five?’ ‘No,’ he replied ‘I will
not destroy it if I find forty-five just men there.’ Again Abraham said to him,
‘Perhaps there will only be forty there.’ ‘I will not do it’ he replied ‘for
the sake of the forty.’
Abraham said, ‘I trust my Lord will not be
angry, but give me leave to speak: perhaps there will only be thirty there.’ ‘I
will not do it’ he replied ‘if I find thirty there.’ He said, ‘I am bold indeed
to speak like this, but perhaps there will only be twenty there.’ ‘I will not
destroy it’ he replied ‘for the sake of the twenty.’ He said, ‘I trust my Lord
will not be angry if I speak once more: perhaps there will only be ten.’ ‘I
will not destroy it’ he replied ‘for the sake of the ten.’
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 137(138):1-3,6-8
©
On the day I called, you answered me,
O Lord.
I
thank you, Lord, with all my heart:
you have heard the words of my mouth.
In
the presence of the angels I will bless you.
I will adore before your holy temple.
On the day I called, you answered me,
O Lord.
I
thank you for your faithfulness and love,
which excel all we ever knew of you.
On
the day I called, you answered;
you increased the strength of my soul.
On the day I called, you answered me,
O Lord.
The
Lord is high yet he looks on the lowly
and the haughty he knows from afar.
Though
I walk in the midst of affliction
you give me life and frustrate my foes.
On the day I called, you answered me,
O Lord.
You
stretch out your hand and save me,
your hand will do all things for me.
Your
love, O Lord, is eternal,
discard not the work of your hands.
On the day I called, you answered me,
O Lord.
Second Reading – Colossians 2:12-14 ©
Christ Has Brought You to Life with Him
and Forgiven Us All Our Sins
You
have been buried with Christ, when you were baptised; and by baptism, too, you
have been raised up with him through your belief in the power of God who raised
him from the dead. You were dead, because you were sinners and had not been
circumcised: he has brought you to life with him, he has forgiven us all our
sins.
He has overridden the Law, and cancelled
every record of the debt that we had to pay; he has done away with it by
nailing it to the cross.
Gospel Acclamation – John 1:14, 12
Alleluia, alleluia!
The
Word was made flesh and lived among us:
to
all who did accept him he gave power to become children of God.
Alleluia!
Alternative Acclamation – Romans 8:15
Alleluia, alleluia!
The
spirit you received is the spirit of sons, and it makes us cry out, ‘Abba,
Father!’
Alleluia!
The Gospel According to Luke - 11:1 -
13 ©
How to Pray
Once
Jesus was in a certain place praying, and when he had finished one of his
disciples said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’ He
said to them, ‘Say this when you pray:
“Father,
may your name be held holy,
your
kingdom come;
give
us each day our daily bread,
and
forgive us our sins,
for
we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us.
and
do not put us to the test.”’
He
also said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him in the
middle of the night to say, “My friend, lend me three loaves, because a friend
of mine on his travels has just arrived at my house and I have nothing to offer
him”; and the man answers from inside the house, “Do not bother me. The door is
bolted now, and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up to give it you.”
I tell you, if the man does not get up and give it him for friendship’s sake,
persistence will be enough to make him get up and give his friend all he wants.
‘So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given
to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.
For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the
one who knocks will always have the door opened to him. What father among you
would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread? Or hand him a snake instead
of a fish? Or hand him a scorpion if he asked for an egg? If you then, who are
evil, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will the heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’
A Homily - The Seventeenth Sunday of
Ordinary Time (Year C)
.JPG)
No comments:
Post a Comment
I am very interested in your commentary, please respond to anything that interests you.