28/10/2007 - 30th Sunday O.T. - year C
First Reading Ecclesiastes 35,12-14.16-18 Psalm 34 2nd Reading
2Tim 4,6-8.16-18
Gospel Reading Luke 18,9-14
The last invocation of the prayer Jesus taught us indicates the importance of being humble and trusting the Father. "Deliver us from evil"! Which translated literally from Greek is "snatch us away from evil". It is the desperate pleading of someone who is already in the grip of whatever wants to kill him and is unable to defend himself. It is true that evil has us in it's grip: the sins for which we have asked forgiveness are proof and they are also proof of the power that temptation has over us. The divisions among Christians, the scandals that destroy the credibility of the Church are also proof. The suffering caused by the sins of individuals as well as that caused by entire populations are further proof, as is the superficiality with which abortion is considered or with which sexual relations of all kinds are permitted or with which shops are encouraged and oblige their employees to work on Sunday. The image Peter uses in his first letter is very expressive: "Be on the alert! your enemy, the devil, like a roaring lion prowls around looking for someone to devour. Stand up to him firm in your faith, and remember that your fellow-Christians in this world are going through the same kinds of suffering" (1Peter5,8-9). Who will save us from the lion who has us in his jaws? We turn to the Father. He only, with his power of love and the look of Jesus can help us. Without his strong grasp snatching us from evil, we are lost. In asking the Father to deliver us from evil we ask him to ignore our cries and our tears, but to use all his power to remove us away from danger. For this prayer we need to be humble and aware of our weaknesses and inability, but also determined not to have false compassion towards ourselves. What the Father does can be compared to what a surgeon does who ignores the cries of his patient in order to remove the cause of his suffering even at the cost of much blood. Deliver us from evil, and we can continue on our path to You!
"The prayers of the humble penetrate the clouds"! These words encourage
us to continue on our path of faith despite much suffering which depresses us
and saps our strength. There is suffering; all that is described in the book
of Ecclesiastes, and that of St Paul, and even more which cannot be described.
The apostle was abandoned by some of his disciples who returned to their old
lives and denied their faith. There is no greater suffering for those who live
for Jesus. He saw much of his efforts and hopes wasted. When someone abandons
his faith it is like dying; you can no longer confide in him, he can no longer
give support and comfort. Those who abandon Jesus and his Church no longer have
the Holy Spirit, the spirit of communion which makes us all brothers and sisters.
Today this suffering is shared by many parish priests and perhaps even more
intensely by many parents and grandparents. What can be done? Prayer in humility
is what the Lord suggests. To continue to pray, to continue to turn to the Father;
his plans are not evil! Not at all! It is from prayer that St Paul receives
the strength to continue witnessing in prison with the support of only a few
faithful disciples. What kind of prayer?
Jesus never stops teaching us to pray, because in our relationship with God
we will never reach him! Today there is an important detail to add to the school
of prayer. Sometimes we think that to be taken seriously by God we have to be
saints, we think that as we are sinners God cannot hear us. This is what Jesus
says: God, the Father, is content to see before him sinners and when they are
aware how much they need his mercy, he will make them just! Today the Lord shows
us two people in prayer. We understand immediately what Jesus is thinking: it
is not enough to recite beautiful words. What is important is our hearts for
God continues to observe the hearts of men and women. If in our hearts we accuse
and condemn others, the prayer that comes from our hearts is not a prayer, but
pride which wounds the heart of God in the same way as blasphemy. We must be
aware of our hearts when we pray. Do we want what the Father wants? The Father
wants to see in us his same love for others, a merciful and compassionate love.
First of all in true prayer we realise how distant we are from God and we ask
him to draw near to us with forgiveness. We can ask the same thing for our brothers
and sisters, even those who are clearly far from observing the commandments
and from communion with the people of God. If our prayer does not render us
more humble, how right are those who criticize and despise saying that prayer
is a waste of time. Prayer is an opportunity to increase mercy for others: in
this way our prayer will be answered and we will be transformed and will be
granted communion with the Father and his son!