17^th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE C – 2019   

Ø  In the last two Sundays, the theme of the liturgy was about hospitality.  The hospitality of the Samaritan and of the two sisters Martha and Mary.

Ø  Today the theme will be prayer.

FIRST READING   Gn 18:20-32

Ø  The three strangers who visited Abraham left in direction to Sodom and Gomorra, two cities that were and have always been considered corrupted.  

Ø    Abraham thinks that God is going to destroy the city of Sodom for its sins.  

Ø  I do not believe God destroys in order to punish sin, on the contrary,  I believe that God is always the Creator and He gives all of us the opportunity to renew our life; whether I understand it or not.

Ø  This reading is very interesting; it helps us to see a very close and natural relationship between Abraham and God.   Abraham knows how to bargain, maybe he was used to do it in his  businesses.    However, what is beautiful and remarkable is his closeness to God.   

Ø  First, he questions God, whether he is going to punish the just and the sinners equally, because this is not what the supreme judge are supposed to do. 

Ø  Afterwards he starts with 50 just people in the city and ends with 10 just people. 

Ø  What we can learn for our prayer is his simplicity and friendship with God, and his concern for his nephew Lot and the rest of the human beings. 

Ø  At the end of this conversation, God says that for the sake of 10 just men he will spare the city.  From history, we know that a volcano destroyed both cities. God does not use one part of creation to destroy another part of creation. On the contrary, God helps us in the difficult situations to go through them, and many human beings when they are suffering come back to God following his gentle voice calling them. 

Responsorial Psalm: Ps  138: 1-2ª. 2bc-3. 6-7ab. 7c-8

R.Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.
I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart,
for you have heard the words of my mouth;
in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;
I will worship at your holy temple
and give thanks to your name.
R. Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.
Because of your kindness and your truth;
for you have made great above all things
your name and your promise.
When I called you answered me;
you built up strength within me.
R. Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.
The LORD is exalted, yet the lowly he sees,
and the proud he knows from afar.
Though I walk amid distress, you preserve me;
against the anger of my enemies you raise your hand.
R. Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.
Your right hand saves me.
The LORD will complete what he has done for me;
your kindness, O LORD, endures forever;
forsake not the work of your hands.
R. Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.

Ø  The author of the psalm gives thanks to the Lord in the name of all human beings   

o   Because the Lord listens   

o   He is pleased with the humble and despises the proud  

o   He protects us from our enemies  

o   He will conclude in us the work he has begun. 

o   His love endures forever.   

o   We are the work of his hands.  

SECOND READING  : Col 2:12-14

·       In Our baptism we have been submerged in the death and resurrection of Christ

·       To be submerged is the meaning of the word baptism. The external sign reminds us that we have been submerged in Christ, as if he were a sea of mercy, pardon and new life.   

GOSPEL: Lk 11:1-13

Jesus is praying, and one of his disciples full of enthusiasm   observing him praying so naturally to God, wants him to teach them to pray like him.  

The reading has three themes or three teachings related to prayer: the Our Father, the friend who comes untimely,  parents and children.  

     Let us begin by the Our Father  

o   This prayer in Luke is somehow a little bit different than in Matthew   

o   He does not say where God is “in heaven” but speaks immediately of the Kingdom

o   After mentioning the Kingdom the petitions that follow have to do with that Kingdom:  

§  The bread, the opportunity to live as real human beings everyday 

§  The forgiveness of sins by God and by us, this is what we ask Him, to forgive us because we also forgive. 

§  We do not ask to be freed from temptations but the strength not to fall into them. Temptations will always exist because they come from things we like but which are not good for us, they do not help us to be better human beings. Like the toddlers when they discover the fire, the electricity, the swimming pools, and many other things which are dangerous for them. Parents continually have to protect them and forbid them to do what they would like but which is dangerous for them. 

     The friend who comes untimely

o   He comes at a time which is not appropriate for the family  of his friend  

o   However he continues knocking at the door and the door is opened and he gets what he needs  

o   It seems that the Lord wants to teach us the need to persevere knocking, why? 

o   I have always heard that God likes us to insist, to persevere asking, and they have explain this to me in very different ways.   

o   Since I did not like the explanations,  something was missing in them, I kept reflecting and asking the Lord for the meaning. I think that the Lord teaches us to repeat over and over the same petition,  not because he needs this or wants this from us, but because he knows that it is for our good. As we keep repeating the same petition, little by little we change, we start allowing  the Lord to change our heart and to mold it according to his own heart.     

     Parents and Children   

o   I find this section most reassuring  

o   God is a good father. When I look at the parents, how they do good things for their children, and reflect on the words Jesus   told us that none of us is good; I say to myself, will not the Father God who is good, do much more for each one of us his children? When I say “we” I think of all the human beings.  

CLARETIAN CORNER

August 27 1856. During the thanksgiving to God after the Holy Communion, when I made my profession, our Lord told me to take rest from my fears, that I had written well what he had commanded me. And that my prelate was holy but he had to sanctify himself more by the means His majesty commanded me to write, that this was His will. Venerable María Antonia París, foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 68.

Ever since I was a small boy I have been attracted to piety and religion. I used to attend Mass on all feasts and holy days and on other days, too, when I possibly could. On feast days I usually attended two Masses, a Low Mass and a High Mass, always together with my father. I cannot remember ever playing, looking around, or talking in church. On the contrary, I was always so recollected, modest, and devout that when I compare those early years with the present I am ashamed because, to my great embarrassment, I must admit that even now I lack the fixed attention and heartfelt fervor that I had then. ...  Saint Anthony Mary Claret,  founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 36.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, Saint Anthony Mary. Autobiography.

PARIS, Venerable María Antonia. Autobiography