20220724 FORMING OUR IMAGES AND RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
24 July, 2022, Sunday, 17th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
Genesis 18:20-32 © |
Abraham negotiates with the Lord
The Lord said, ‘How great an outcry there is against Sodom and Gomorrah! How grievous is their sin! I propose to go down and see whether or not they have done all that is alleged in the outcry against them that has come up to me. I am determined to know.’
The men left there and went to Sodom while Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Approaching him he said, ‘Are you really going to destroy the just man with the sinner? Perhaps there are fifty just men in the town. Will you really overwhelm them, will you not spare the place for the fifty just men in it? Do not think of doing such a thing: to kill the just man with the sinner, treating just and sinner alike! Do not think of it! Will the judge of the whole earth not administer justice?’ the Lord replied, ‘If at Sodom I find fifty just men in the town, I will spare the whole place because of them.’
Abraham replied, ‘I am bold indeed to speak like this to my Lord, I who am dust and ashes. But perhaps the fifty just men lack five: will you destroy the whole city for five?’ ‘No,’ he replied ‘I will not destroy it if I find forty-five just men there.’ Again Abraham said to him, ‘Perhaps there will only be forty there.’ ‘I will not do it’ he replied ‘for the sake of the forty.’
Abraham said, ‘I trust my Lord will not be angry, but give me leave to speak: perhaps there will only be thirty there.’ ‘I will not do it’ he replied ‘if I find thirty there.’ He said, ‘I am bold indeed to speak like this, but perhaps there will only be twenty there.’ ‘I will not destroy it’ he replied ‘for the sake of the twenty.’ He said, ‘I trust my Lord will not be angry if I speak once more: perhaps there will only be ten.’ ‘I will not destroy it’ he replied ‘for the sake of the ten.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 137(138):1-3,6-8 © |
On the day I called, you answered me, O Lord.
I thank you, Lord, with all my heart:
you have heard the words of my mouth.
In the presence of the angels I will bless you.
I will adore before your holy temple.
On the day I called, you answered me, O Lord.
I thank you for your faithfulness and love,
which excel all we ever knew of you.
On the day I called, you answered;
you increased the strength of my soul.
On the day I called, you answered me, O Lord.
The Lord is high yet he looks on the lowly
and the haughty he knows from afar.
Though I walk in the midst of affliction
you give me life and frustrate my foes.
On the day I called, you answered me, O Lord.
You stretch out your hand and save me,
your hand will do all things for me.
Your love, O Lord, is eternal,
discard not the work of your hands.
On the day I called, you answered me, O Lord.
Second reading |
Colossians 2:12-14 © |
Christ has brought you to life with him and forgiven us all our sins
You have been buried with Christ, when you were baptised; and by baptism, too, you have been raised up with him through your belief in the power of God who raised him from the dead. You were dead, because you were sinners and had not been circumcised: he has brought you to life with him, he has forgiven us all our sins.
He has overridden the Law, and cancelled every record of the debt that we had to pay; he has done away with it by nailing it to the cross.
Gospel Acclamation | Jn1:14,12 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The Word was made flesh and lived among us:
to all who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God.
Alleluia!
Or: | Rm8:15 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The spirit you received is the spirit of sons,
and it makes us cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 11:1-13 © |
How to pray
Once Jesus was in a certain place praying, and when he had finished one of his disciples said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’
He said to them, ‘Say this when you pray:
‘“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 in debt to us.
And do not put us to the test.”’
He also said to them:
‘Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him in the middle of the night to say, “My friend, lend me three loaves, because a friend of mine on his travels has just arrived at my house and I have nothing to offer him”; and the man answers from inside the house, “Do not bother me. The door is bolted now, and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up to give it you.” I tell you, if the man does not get up and give it him for friendship’s sake, persistence will be enough to make him get up and give his friend all he wants.
‘So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him. What father among you would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread? Or hand him a snake instead of a fish? Or hand him a scorpion if he asked for an egg? If you then, who are evil, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’
FORMING OUR IMAGES AND RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Gen 18:20-32; Ps 138:1-3,6-8; Col 2:12-14; Lk 11:1-13]
Many of us have difficulties in prayer. Of course, there are many reasons why we find prayer a burden rather than a help in life. This is because some of us do not have a personal relationship with God. What is prayer if not our relationship with God? For vocal prayer, we are able to manage because we can recite them without feelings or any sense of intimacy. But many of us cannot manage with affective prayer because we think we are of the “intellectual” or “discursive” type. Hence, we feel safer with vocal or discursive prayer when we do not have to deal with our “emotions” and affective faculty. Yet, we know that the levels of prayer move from vocal to discursive, then to affective and contemplative prayer. Otherwise, we will at most pray from the head but not from the heart. The truth remains, the real prayer is prayer from the heart.
One of the major obstacles in developing an affective relationship with God has to do with our images of Him. How we perceive God will determine how we relate to Him. For most of us, like the People in the Old Testament, we perceive God as the unapproachable, wholly other, almighty and holy, who has no tolerance for sin. In the first reading, we have the story of Abraham. The Lord said, “How great an outcry there is against Sodom and Gomorrah! How grievous is their sin! I propose to go down and see whether or not they have done all that is alleged in the outcry against them that has come up to me. I am determined to know.” Like them, we think that God is a judge, a retired architect, either someone who is waiting to condemn us to hell and punish us for our sins or someone indifferent to our needs, our cries and our weaknesses. So, we are afraid of God and keep our distance from Him. We turn to Him for mercy and for our needs only when we have exhausted all avenues.
But this is not exactly the true picture of God. God is also a compassionate God. Abraham perceived God differently because of his intimate and personal relationship with Him. The God He knew was a God of mercy and compassion. “Approaching him he said, ‘Are you really going to destroy the just man with the sinner? Perhaps there are fifty just men in the town. Will you really overwhelm them, will you not spare the place for the fifty just men in it?'” Eventually, he even had the audacity to bargain until ten good men. He knew the Lord was not just a forgiving and tolerant God but also patient. This in fact was how God revealed Himself later to Moses, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty.” (Ex 34:6f)
Jesus too gave us a very different picture of God in His teaching, so much so that in the early church, there was a heresy called Marcionism that says the God of the Old Testament is different from the God of the New Testament. Jesus presented to us a very different picture of God from that of the religious leaders of His days who saw God as calculative and legalistic. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, He said to them, “Say this when you pray: ‘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 in debt to us. And do not put us to the test.'” Jesus asked us to call God “Father”, Abba, daddy, a very personal and intimate term which could be perceived as being over familiar.
To underscore the point, Jesus illustrated how God is our Heavenly Father, greater, more compassionate, than any earthly father or friend. God will give us what we need but of course only what is best for our good. He gave an example of one who goes to a friend in the middle of the night who rejected his request for three loaves of bread simply because he was already in bed. He had to be cajoled before he would wake up to give his friend what he asked for because of his persistence. But God is ever ready to help.
Jesus also gave other examples to show the mercy and compassion of the Father. He always gives us what we need. “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him.” But He will give us what is truly good for us and not things that we asked in our ignorance that can harm us. “What father among you would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread? Or hand him a snake instead of a fish? Or hand him a scorpion if he asked for an egg?” Most of all, He gives us nothing less than Himself! “If you then, who are evil, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
St Paul also gave us his image of God as a merciful God who sacrificed His life for us without us fulfilling the Law. He wrote, “You were dead, because you were sinners and had not been circumcised: he has brought you to life with him, he has forgiven us all our sins. He has overridden the Law, and cancelled every record of the debt that we had to pay; he has done away with it by nailing it to the cross.” After encountering the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, his whole conception and relationship with God changed as well. St Paul wrote in Galatians, “For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.” (Gal 2:19-21)
What lessons can we draw from what we have just said? How our children relate with God as their loving Father and Jesus their caring brother, depends on how we portray God to them. If we give them the impression that God is like a policeman waiting to catch us when we fall so that He could punish us, then their relationship with God would be compromised. Mary and Joseph must also have given a positive image of God to our Lord for we read that when He was left behind in the Temple and later found, His reply to Mary was, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Lk 2:49) Jesus has always experienced the Father’s love. At His baptism and at His transfiguration when He needed confirmation, the Heavenly Father said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” (Mt 3:17) In the same vein, Mary would have received her image of God through her parents.
But our children’s image of God is not just dependent on what we say to them about God. Rather as parents, we are called to be images of God to them. Every father and mother is called to deputize the love and mercy of God to the children. If parents show themselves to be dictatorial, distant, uncaring, indifferent, regimental, always angry and abusive, how would we expect our children to feel or imagine when they open their lips and say, “Our Father.” Their experience of God as Father is also to a great extent impacted by how their parents conduct themselves as the image of God the Father. If parents show themselves to be loving, caring, forgiving and understanding, when they pray the Lord’s Prayer, their perception of God drawn from their own personal experience of their parents’ love will help them to relate with God even in a deeper manner. This perhaps explain why some of our children are closer to their grandparents and more influenced by them than their parents because they see in them, the compassionate and loving face of God.
Indeed, as parents, we are to help our children to grow in faith, in a right relationship with God and most of all, to cultivate an intimate relationship with Him. It is not enough to send our children for catechism classes to learn about the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is equally important to show to them how you relate with God in your prayer life and in your daily life. This is why it is important to have family prayer, not just reciting some formula prayers but also to pray from our heart. When children perceive our intimate relationship with the heavenly Father, they too will learn to relate with Him. We must not just teach or instruct but more importantly be models of intimate prayer and a sacrament of God to them.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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