Seventeenth
Sunday in Ordinary Time
Is-17-il
Ħadd taż-Żmien ta' matul is-Sena
Messalin C pp348
Reading 1 - Genesis
18:20-32
In those days, the LORD said: “The outcry against Sodom
and Gomorrah Sodom Sodom
L-Ewwel
Lezzjoni - Qari mill-Ktieb tal-Ġenesi 18,
20 – 32
F'dak
iż-żmien, il-Mulej qal: "L-għajta ta' Sodoma u Gomorra hi tassew qawwija, u t-toqol ta'
dnubhom hu kbir. U issa se ninżel u nara minn
Responsorial
Psalm PSALM
138:1-2, 2-3, 6-7, 7-8
R. (3a) 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/
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/
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/
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/
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/
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/
The LORD will complete what he has done for me;
your kindness, O LORD, endures forever;
forsake not the work of your hands. R/
Salm
Responsorjali - (Salm
137 (138)
Meta sejjaħtlek, int weġibtni, Mulej.
Irroddlok ħajr,
Mulej, b'qalbi kollha,
għaliex int smajt
kliem fommi.
Quddiem l-allat irrid
ngħannilek.
B'wiċċi fl-art
ninxteħet quddiem is-santwarju tiegħek. R/
Irroddlok ħajr
għat-tjieba u l-fedelta' tiegħek,
għax int kabbart
ismek u kelmtek fuq kollox.
kattarli l-qawwa
f'ruħi. R/
Kbir il-Mulej, imma
jieħu ħsib iż-żgħar;
u, għalkemm fl-għoli,
jagħraf mill-bogħod.
Jekk insib ruħi
fl-għali, inti tħarisli ħajti;
terfa' idek kontra l-għedewwa
tiegħi. R/
Il-leminija tiegħek
issalvani mill-qilla tagħhom.
Il-Mulej iżomm kelmtu
miegħi.
It-tjieba
tiegħek, Mulej, tibqa' għal dejjem,
la titlaqx għemil
idejk! R/
Reading
2 -
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. This is the Word of The
Lord.
It-Tieni
Lezzjoni - Qari mill-Ittra lill-Kolossin 2,
12 -14
Ħuti,
intom indfintu ma' Kristu bil-magħmudija u rxuxtajtu miegħu permezz tal-fidi
tagħkom fil-qawwa ta' Alla li qajmu mill-imwiet. Kontu mejta minħabba dnubietkom
u għax ma kellkomx iċ-ċirkonċiżjoni f'ġisimkom; imma issa Alla takom il-ħajja flimkien ma' Kristu.
Ħafrilna dnubnietna kollha. Ħassar
il-kont tad-dejn li kellna bl-obbligi li kien hemm kontrina; neħħieh min-nofs u
sammru mas-salib. Il-Kelma tal-Mulej.
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?” This is the Word of The Lord.
L-Evanġelju
- Qari skont San Luqa 11,
1-13
Darba
Ġesu' kien qiegħed xi mkien jitlob. Kif
spiċċa mit-talb, wieħed mid-dixxipli tiegħu qallu: "Mulej, għallimna nitolbu, bħalma Ġwanni
wkoll għallem lid-dixxipli tiegħu." U qalilhom: "Meta
titolbu, għidu: Missier, jitqaddes ismek, tiġi Saltnatek, Ħobżna ta' kuljum
agħtina kuljum. U aħfrilna dnubietna, għax aħna wkoll naħfru lil kull min hu
ħati għalina, u
la ddaħħalniex fit-tiġrib." Qalilhom ukoll: "Wieħed minnkom ikollu ħabib li jiġih f'nofs ta' lejl u
jgħidlu: "Ħabib, islifni tliet
ħobżiet, għax ġie għandi wieħed ħabib tiegħi mill-vjaġġ u ma għandix
x'nagħtih." U l-ieħor iwieġbu minn
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Centrality of prayer in Christian life
Throughout Luke’s
Gospel, Jesus at prayer is a model for us. In each prayerful moment, Jesus
lives out the story of God’s great dialogue with the human family by remaining
totally open to the power of God. We must pray unceasingly, for prayer is a sign
of our faith in God. Prayer is not something that we use to put pressure on God
to get our own way. Authentic prayer opens us up to the action of God’s Spirit,
bringing us in line with God’s desires, and making us into true disciples,
obedient to Jesus and to the Father who has sent him. Prayer becomes one of the
ways by which we follow Jesus in the Christian life.
Three episodes
concerned with prayer
In this Sunday’s
Gospel scene, Luke presents three episodes concerned with prayer (11:1-13). The
first (1-4) recounts Jesus teaching his disciples the Christian communal
prayer, the “Our Father”; the second (11:5-8), the importance of persistence in
prayer; the third (11:9-13), the effectiveness of prayer.
The Matthean
version of the “Our Father” occurs in the “Sermon on the Mount” (6:9-15); the
shorter Lucan version is presented while Jesus is at prayer and his disciples
ask him to teach them to pray just as John taught his disciples to pray
(11:1-4). His disciples watch him from afar, and are keenly aware of the
intensity and intimacy of his prayer with God. Jesus responds to them by
teaching them the Our Father. Jesus presents them with an example of a
Christian communal prayer that stresses the fatherhood of God and acknowledges
him as the one to whom the Christian disciple owes daily sustenance (3),
forgiveness (4), and deliverance from the final trial (4).
The prayer of the
community
The “Our Father” is
taught to the Twelve in their role as disciples, not just as individuals to be
converted but also as persons already co-responsible for the community. This
prayer is an apostolic prayer, because it is said in the plural and takes for
granted one’s awareness of a people, of co-responsibility, of solidarity,
linking each of us to the other.
When we pray “thy
kingdom come,” we reveal our deepest longing to see the day when the
triumphant, sovereign lordship of our loving God will no longer be a mere hope
clung to desperately by faith, but a manifest reality in all human affairs. Our
souls can never be entirely content until God’s honor is fully vindicated in
all creation. These words utter a heartfelt plea: When will the reign of evil
and death end?
When we beg for
bread, we are really pleading for more than food. We beg the author of life for
all the necessities of life. “God, give us what we need in order to enjoy the
gift of life … bread for today and bread for tomorrow, to sustain us as a
community.”
We ask God to
forgive our sins as we forgive everyone their debts to us. This may possibly
reflect Luke’s concern that possessions not hinder community fellowship. The
final petition is most likely eschatological: Do not lead us into trial; i.e.,
the final, great and ultimate test and agony of evil before the end.
The “Our Father”
becomes the prayer of the poor, of those who plod along — weary, hungering and
struggling for faith, meaning and strength. It is perhaps the first prayer we
ever learn, and the last prayer we ever say before we close our eyes on this
life.
God’s assurance of
good gifts
The parable of the
friend at midnight is found nowhere else in the New Testament. Its message,
too, is about prayer and its point is that if our friends answer importunate or
shameless appeals, how much more sill God who desires to give us the kingdom
(12:32). The concluding section (9-13) builds on the previous section. The
analogy moves from friends to parents: if parents give good gifts, how much
more so will God. Prayer is to be continual asking, seeking, knocking, but even
so, this persistence is within a parent-child relationship, which assures good
gifts. Authentic prayer opens us up to the action of God’s Spirit, bringing us
in line with God’s desires, and making us into true disciples, obedient to
Jesus and to the Father who has sent him.
I conclude this
reflection by offering you two thoughts on Luke’s great lesson on prayer in Sunday’s
Gospel. First, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 239: “By calling
God ‘Father’, the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the
first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the
same time goodness and loving care for all his children. God’s parental
tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood, (cf. Is 66:13; Ps
131:2.) which emphasizes God’s immanence, the intimacy between Creator and
creature. The language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents,
who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience
also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of
fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the
human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He
also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin
and standard: (cf. Ps 27:10; Eph 3:14; Is 49:15) no one is Father as God is
Father.”
I also draw your
attention to one of Cardinal John Henry Newman’s homilies on this Gospel. The
great cardinal wrote in the 19th century words that still ring loud and clear
today: “He (Jesus) gave the prayer and
used it. His Apostles used it; all the Saints ever since have used it. When we
use it we seem to join company with them. Who does not think himself brought
nearer to any celebrated man in history, by seeing his house, or his furniture,
or his handwriting, or the very books that were his? Thus does the Lord’s
Prayer bring us near to Christ, and to His disciples in every age.
“No wonder, then, that in past times good men
thought this Form of prayer so sacred, that it seemed to them impossible to say
it too often, as if some especial grace went with the use of it. Nor can we use
it too often; it contains in itself a sort of plea for Christ’s listening to
us; we cannot, so that we keep our thoughts fixed on its petitions, and use our
minds as well as our lips when we repeat it. And what is true of the Lord’s
Prayer, is in its measure true of most of those prayers which our Church
teaches us to use. It is true of the Psalms also, and of the Creeds; all of
which have become sacred, from the memory of saints departed who have used
them, and whom we hope one day to meet in heaven.”
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