25/07/2010 - 17TH. SUNDAY IN ORDINARY SEASON- C
1Reading Gen 18,20-21.23-32 Psalm 137 2Reading Col 2,12-14 Gospel Lk 11,1-13
"As you, Father, are in me and I in you, may they too be one in us, so that
the world believes that you have sent me". I have already said that the word
"as" can be also understood as "from the moment that". The oneness
of Jesus with the Father is the reason why the disciples are to be one. If the Father
and the Son are one, there is nothing better for men, here on earth, if not to realize
this pattern for life. Fair enough, Jesus prayed this oneness to the Father: men
cannot give it. Sin is very present in them, that sin that divides and impede any
kind of communion. First and foremost they need to be purified, freed from idolatry,
not only that of money, but also from that of work and freedom, and all the other.
Given the fact that the Father and the Son are in each other, free from any jealousies,
without competing with each other who is going to listen, give trust and obedience
to each other, so be among the disciples of Jesus. They shall live the way God lives,
and reflect his light in the world. As a result of this, the world will believe,
believe that Jesus is the truth, that Jesus is the way and the life, will believe
that he is not an earthly man, but that he comes from the Father, from God, as a
gift for us. They will believe that they too will be united with the other believers,
and so the Church grows. If the number of persons in the Church is getting less,
it's because of the many deep divisions that have split and ruined the beauty of
the same Church. The first to do real missionaries of the Gospel is to welcome and
to look for the unity of all believers. The prayer of Jesus to the Father for unity
among his disciples is still needed. We too want to join our voices in prayer and
with insistence, we pray that we too "are one", oneness in the unity of
the Father and the Son. Jesus said: "They too may be one in us". What
is important is that "in us", so that we wont look for useless or fake
unity, and therefore dangerous or illusory unity. Without being united with the
Father and with Jesus, there cannot be a real unity with men. The first thing to
look for and to propose is the deep relationship with the Father through Jesus.
This is a gift of the Holy Spirit, but also the fruit of our daily commitment.
The Reading from the Book of Genesis that we have listened to, is one of the most
beautiful in the Bible. It seems one of those many wrestling stories of man with
God. Man believes that he is intelligent, good, merciful, and better than God. The
man without having experienced God in his life, is drawn to believe so. Is it not
this that many thing, even you and me, that we know better than God himself what
should be done in the Church and in the world? Abraham offered generous hospitality
to God, that is to his angels, even though he felt that he was obliged to offer
them his counsel, his own wisdom, to suggest to them better solutions to the world's
problems. Abraham represents us all. Like him, we too, we come to know afterwards
that God's mercy is beyond ours, a generous love, a wider view of the deep wounds
of human life.
Abraham had the nerve to tell God that the presence of fifty just persons in a city
are to be enough to offer his forgiveness to the many sinners in the same city.
When he saw that God was before him, he brought down the price lower: forty-five,
forty, thirty, twenty, and at the end, ten. At this point Abraham brought his deal
with God to an end. He was not able to bring it lower. But God, in a week, brought
the number to only one. But that one was not in town to save, and therefore he sent
him. God won, he won the race of love. Man is always to surrender, he doesn't know
how to love like God, as much as him.
The prayer of man is not to be a deal, but a confidence, a trust in the hands of
the Father. Man needs to tell God to do his will, because his vision is so short.
Man needs to ask him for his bread because ours never satisfies like his, does not
give strength that the life of the world needs. Man needs to ask him his forgiveness
to give it every day to others, and ask him for his protection, because we are not
able to defend ourselves from the temptations and the enemy who seduces us. We are
to call him Father, because this is the name that opens the heart to hope, and the
mind and hands to love. We call him Father because our life is in his hands, and
we want to leave it in his hands; and we call him Father because its our desire
to be known by him as his children, obedient children, docile children, beloved
children, capable to embrace all his other children as our brothers and sisters
in need of his love.