If You Know How To Give Good Gifts To Your Children, How Much More Will The Father Give The Holy Spirit To Those Who Ask!

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Reading I
Genesis 18:20-32
In those days, the LORD said:
"The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great,
and their sin so grave,
that I must go down and see whether or not their actions
fully correspond to the cry against them that comes to me.
I mean to find out."

While Abraham's visitors walked on farther toward Sodom,
the LORD remained standing before Abraham.
Then Abraham drew nearer and said:
"Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty?
Suppose there were fifty innocent people in the city;
would you wipe out the place, rather than spare it
for the sake of the fifty innocent people within it?
Far be it from you to do such a thing,
to make the innocent die with the guilty
so that the innocent and the guilty would be treated alike!
Should not the judge of all the world act with justice?"
The LORD replied,
"If I find fifty innocent people in the city of Sodom,
I will spare the whole place for their sake."
Abraham spoke up again:
"See how I am presuming to speak to my Lord,
though I am but dust and ashes!
What if there are five less than fifty innocent people?
Will you destroy the whole city because of those five?"
He answered, "I will not destroy it, if I find forty-five there."
But Abraham persisted, saying "What if only forty are found there?"
He replied, "I will forbear doing it for the sake of the forty."
Then Abraham said, "Let not my Lord grow impatient if I go on.
What if only thirty are found there?"
He replied, "I will forbear doing it if I can find but thirty there."
Still Abraham went on,
"Since I have thus dared to speak to my Lord,
what if there are no more than twenty?"
The LORD answered, "I will not destroy it, for the sake of the twenty."
But he still persisted:
"Please, let not my Lord grow angry if I speak up this last time.
What if there are at least ten there?"
He replied, "For the sake of those ten, I will not destroy it."
+++    +++    +++    +++   
Responsorial
Psalm 138
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.
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.
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.
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.
Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.
+++    +++    +++    +++  
Reading II
Colossians 2:12-14
Brothers and sisters:
You were buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him
through faith in the power of God,
who raised him from the dead.
And even when you were dead
in transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
he brought you to life along with him,
having forgiven us all our transgressions;
obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims,
which was opposed to us,
he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross.
+++
Gospel
Luke 11:1-13
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
"Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."
He said to them, "When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test."

And he said to them,
"Suppose one of you has a friend
to whom he goes at midnight and says,
'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey
and I have nothing to offer him,'
and he says in reply from within,
'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked
and my children and I are already in bed.
I cannot get up to give you anything.'
I tell you,
if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves
because of their friendship,
he will get up to give him whatever he needs
because of his persistence.

"And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
What father among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish?
Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"
+++
Today’s reading from the Book of Genesis follows last Sunday’s first reading, which told of the visit to Abraham of three messengers from God prophesying that Sarah would give birth to a son in her old age. Now, we hear a decree from the LORD God himself: “The citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah have sinned greatly, and I must punish them.” God does not punish – or threaten punishment – unless He is sure they deserve to be punished. He “went down to the earth before the great flood to warn the people, and again, before the tower of Babel was destroyed. Here, he visits Abraham, with a similar warning.

In our text, the LORD says: “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their sin is grave”. In the original Hebrew text, we read, “I have heard the protests that have come to me”, which tells us more clearly why He is speaking with Abraham about this situation: “I have to go and see for myself whether their actions really deserve to be punished.”

Abraham understands God’s intention, but he also has learned about God’s goodness. After all, he has promised that Sarah, in her old age, will bear a child. Abraham doesn’t understand – but he believes. And his faith gives him the courage to speak out to his three visitors:

“Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty? If there are fifty innocent people in Sodom, will you spare the city for their sake?” “If I find fifty innocent people in Sodom, I will spare the city.” Abraham is a “quick learner”, as we see when he makes his next move: “What about 45?” then 40, and 30, and 20. But Abraham is persistent: “Please, don’t get mad if I speak out one more time: What if there are at least ten innocent people in Sodom?” And the LORD replies, “For the sake of those ten, I will not destroy the city.”

A few years ago, I was talking about this reading from Genesis with the religion class at Saint Joseph’s High in North Adams, and one of the students asked this question: “Father, God must have known all along that he was going to spare the city. So, why did God play this game with Abraham?” “God doesn’t ‘play games’ with us, Martha.” “Then, what lesson did God want Abraham to learn?”

That was a much better question. The real purpose of what God said to Abraham – and to everyone who reads this passage from Genesis – is to teach us how to pray: with confidence, and with persistence.

That lesson is echoed in today’s reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Colossians. Many of the people of Colossae that Paul baptized were pagans, but there was a group of Jewish people there who had become Christians through Paul’s preaching and teaching. They wanted the converts to become Jews before they became Christians. If a pagan man wanted to become a Jew, he had to be circumcised. That would have been a rather painful experience for the adult male converts. Paul, a Pharisee and a teacher of the Law, knew that the Hebrew Scriptures refer both to “circumcision of the flesh”, and “circumcision of the heart”. It is, Paul teaches, by baptism in water and in the Holy Spirit that converts, whether they had been Jews or pagans, become disciples of Jesus Christ.

In today’s gospel, we find Jesus praying “in a certain place” – which means “a place away from the hustle and bustle, where he could be alone in conversation with the Father”. When he finished, and came back to his disciples, one of them asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John the Baptist taught his disciples.”

Jesus replied: “When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
And forgive us our sins,
For we forgive everyone in debt to us,
And do not subject us to the final test."

This is a shorter form of the Lord’s Prayer than the version in Matthew’s gospel, which we use in the liturgy of the Mass and in our prayers. The Scripture scholars say that this is the original, but the key message of both versions is the same.

Jesus goes on with his lesson to the disciples: Suppose you go to a neighbor’s house late at night, and say, “Please lend me three loaves of bread. A friend of mine is on a journey, and he just stopped at my house. But I don’t have any food to share with him.” If your neighbor answers from inside the house –without opening the door – “Don’t bother me! The door is locked. My children are in bed. I am not going to get up to give you anything.”

But the story Jesus tells doesn’t end there. He goes on to say: “Your neighbor might not get up and give you what you ask for because he is your friend. But, if you keep on asking, he will eventually give you whatever you need.”

And finally, we come to “the moral of the story”:

God doesn’t act like the next door neighbor in the story. He is always ready and willing to listen to his children’s prayers. Whenever they make requests, he will answer them. On the other hand, God is different from human parents. We do not give our children anything that would hurt them, but sometimes, we don’t realize that what they are asking for may not be what is best for them.

God, our heavenly Father, knows perfectly what is best for each and every one of His children. He can be more generous to us than any human parent can be. And so, as the gospel concludes: "Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened."

Human parents are not perfect. But they would not willingly give their children anything that would hurt them. On the other hand, God, our heavenly father, is perfect. He knows what is best for his children, and he can be far more generous that any human parent can be. If we ask for something that God knows will not be good for us, and He will show his love and mercy by giving us something else instead – something even better. Luke tells us that the Father will give us the gift of the Holy Spirit, the best of gifts, through whom all blessings come.

All we have to do is pray – and trust!