The Power of Prayer!
Genesis 18:20-32; Colossians 2:12-14; Luke 11:1-13
Sodomy or homosexuality, it boils down to the same thing – Sodom and Gomorrah, symbol and reality of sin, not just of yesteryears but of today as well. The destruction which awaits every sinner, gay, straight and every sexual activities without God’s approval. But it is unthinkable that Sodom and Gomorrah was exclusiveness a gay town, at least Lot and his wife and daughters were there. It follows that there were births and marriages, and conventional families living their. In fact, Lot’s wife did not turn into a pillar of salt for being a lesbian, but for disobedience. Moreover, the whole city of Sodom and Gomorrah went down with all its inhabitants, gays, heterosexuals, thieves, swindlers, liars, thugs, rapists, abortionists, prostitutes, etc. Sin was the problem, not a particular kind of sin: every sinner will be destroyed, if not now, on judgment day. But is this the message of this Sunday, the death of all sinners?
An African adage says, “when you point an accusing finger at others, there are four other fingers pointing back at you.” Now, four fingers against one makes the pointer of fingers four times worse off! It is the understanding of this proverb that should guide our reflection this Sunday. That God created and saw everything to be good and beautiful, but today the cry of iniquities, of which certainly you and I are responsible for, whatever may be the nature of our sins, have turned the beauty and goodness of creation into an eyesore. Above all, it has deformed the beauty which the human person, the image of God, is! So, what is the remedy to sin?
Quite often we refuse, in our conceptions of God, someone who punishes. We are contented with a God who came to Abraham last Sunday and promised him a child, a God who blesses and loves. Today, we reject a God who punishes the iniquities of Sodom and Gomorrah, a God who makes us accountable for our misdeeds. But does it really make any difference, what we conceive God to be? It is smart to accept the way God reveals himself to us, through sacred Scriptures and in nature – he punishes and he blesses!
More importantly, today’s lesson is not about sin, because we are all sinners and more than qualified for God’s condemnation. Something more powerful than sin is the lesson of today – the power of prayer. The fact that God allows human beings to intercede for other human beings and he will listen to pleas for mercy and compassion. This begins from the realization that every human being is my neighbor! Consequently, I need to pray for and intercede on behalf of every human being for God’s mercy. Abraham intercedes today for Sodom and Gomorrah, not just for Lot and his household. The example of intercession which Abraham offers us today is definitely an example of who God is in himself because Jesus Christ, God made man, will do exceedingly the same -“Father, forgive them, for they not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). The mission of Christ is that of intercession for the forgiveness of sin. At every Eucharistic celebration, the priest reminds us of this: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!”
Apparently, God gets two kinds of invitation from human actions: first, our good actions invoke his blessings; and, second, our evil actions draw his punishment. So, God visits to bless, as he did with Abraham, and today he visits to punish, as he does today with Sodom and Gomorrah. However, the audacity of Abraham before God gets its impetus from a God who visited him because he kept faith with God. The efficacy of intercession comes from our capital investment in God – frantic efforts to do his will, which makes us his friends, people he will hearken to.
Today’s gospel, in the Lord’s Prayer, juxtaposes God’s will with human will: “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” and “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” First of all, the will of God can only be done when we imitate God by forgiving others their trespasses. The highest degree of blindness, to my mind, of Christians, is the non-recognition that we are sinners! Only a sinner recognizes the need to receive and show mercy. The contemporary legal language of rights, obliterates the theological concept of sin and forgiveness. Yet, our world is full of sin, anarchy and chaos! As human beings, we have marked out which sins or wrong doings merit capital punishment, which are private, and which are public. We have mastered the art of concealing our sins, and parading ourselves as angelic, although we are rotten inside! Yes, some day, we’ll come out of the closet.
As a matter of fact, the word “sin” or “trespass” does not exist in Matthew’s version of the Our Father (Matthew 6:9-13). Matthew uses the Greek word ὀφειλήματα (opheilēmata), meaning “debt”. It is a capitalist or financial word. In contradistinction to Matthew, Luke uses both a theological (sin-ἁμαρτία-hamartia) and secular (debt-ὀφειλήματα) terms (Luke 11:2-4) to qualify wrongdoing. By implication, God alone forgives sins, but there is a human expectation, we need to show one another charity, like debt cancellation which follows a declaration of bankruptcy. Just as Abraham was interceding for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, our charities plead for us before God. This need for charity for the cancellation of our debts is succinctly made in the parable of the man who refuses to help his friend in need, except with lots of persistence, in today’s gospel. This man is oblivious of the fact that what he had was a gift from God to be shared with others. Just as we spend our time condemning the sins of others and doing nothing about ours, except to justify them!
In order to make all of us debtors to his mercy, our second reading reminds us of the power of Baptism, which washes away our sins. Behind the water of baptism is the power of the blood Christ shed for sinners, that we all are. To be a sinner is to lose every right to condemn others, but have the sole obligation to be charitable. If Jesus Christ died for your sins and mine, he perfects the act of intercession which Abraham exemplifies in the first reading. If Jesus Christ teaches us the essence of prayer as intercession and doing God’s will on earth, then we should be ready to spend long hours at prayer for the salvation of every soul, including ours! Indeed, we are the sinners worthy of condemnation like the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah: have mercy upon us Lord! Lord, help us to extend your mercies to others by making us intercessors like Jesus Christ and Abraham!
Assignment for the Week:
Could you pray the Divine Mercy prayer/chaplet everyday this week for God’s mercy upon us all?