17th Sunday of ordinary Time, year ’C’
"Jesus said’ When you pray this is what to say :’
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 indebted to us. And do not put us to the test.“At important times of his Life we see Jesus praying : at his Baptism, Transfiguration, during his time of agony in Gethsemane. Jesus answers his disciples :”When you pray, say ’Father’."
May your Person be recognised as Holy may your Name be Sanctified.
It is God’s desire that he be recognised as a unique being extraordinary, called Daddy, Holy One.
With this deep love for this unique Mystery who is God we make this request :
’May your world come’ , a world of justice, of peace, of compassion and of love. It is God who is the masterpiece of such a world for which we need to work for. It is the world which is part of Jesus’ prayer and to which He consecrated his life.
Jesus has us enter into his prayer of intercession and request. He tells us just how far compassion can go, this compassion which manifests the Tenderness and the Goodness of God our Heavenly Father.
We ask the Holy Spirit to come into our hearts so that w may pray for humanity commended to us.
Through our prayer we give thanks to God for everything that is good ,and we beg our God of Love for all the distress we encounter and so we place all things before Him.
“Jesus said to them again : ’Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him in the middle of the night saying ’My friend, lend me three loaves, because a friends of mine on his travels has just arrived at my house and I have nothing to offer him”
If the man does not get up and give it to him for friendship’s sake, persistence will make him get up and give his friend all he wants."
Even the most untimely requests receive an answer because of the boldness of the on who asks. Faced with the visitors’ insistence, the friend ends up giving in.
At the time of this ’story’ people lived in just one room : dining room, bedroom etc. At night time everything was tidied away by the parents and children and the bedding was laid out so they could rest until t e following day. Now here someone is knocking at the door! The master of the house answers’ Stop bothering me, we’re in bed!’ But having listened more he ends up getting up !
What is most important for us is to listen to the Word of God. Prayer is a form of listening to God’s Word, an openness of the heart to listen to what God wants to tell us, as Mary did at the Annunciation.
God expects from us a welcoming of his Person in us, where He establishes His Dwelling place.
"If the man on the inside answers the other ’Don’t bother me! The door is bolted now and we are in bed I can’t get up to give you some loaves of bread.’
I tell you if the man does not get up and give it ot him for friendship’s sake, persistence will make him get up and give his friend all he wants.
So I say to you ’Ask and it will be given you; seek and you shall find; to whoever knocks the door will be opened. For everyone who asks receives, everyone who seeks finds; everyone who knocks will have the door opened to them."
Jesus is now changing perspectives : he puts us in the situation of a Father who has to answer to his son’s requests. In this way he convinces us how God’s Action can be nothing but beneficial for us.
God Is Good, He loves us and when we pray with faith in Him, this faith sustains us and causes us to grow.
It is the Holy Spirit who has us say ’Abba! Daddy!’, ’Jesus Saviour!’
In a prayer full of confidence, we ask the Holy Spirit to pray in us for the world. And so we enter into a communion of Love that is altogether a new one with God and with our brothers.
Our minister is to make the link between our God who wishes to satisfy his People ad our brothers who ask this. We stand up with assurance so that God comes to our aid.