[Wonderful story about Abraham bargaining with God and pleading for Sodom: “if you destroy Sodom, then you also destroy the good people who are there.” Abraham bargains down to 10 – but 10 good persons cannot be found there! We gradually come to understand God’s love. In the New testament we have a different understanding of God, as St Paul says: But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. [Rom 5:8]. Do you believe in a God who loves us, although we are all sinners?
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.
[Baptism identifies the baptised with Christ’s resurrection so that one begins to live a new life. But we must guard against a mechanical understanding of baptism which gives the idea that reception of the sacrament assures one of salvation. The new life received must be developed throughout life]
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.
[We are more familiar with Matthew’s longer version of the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus tells his disciples to called God “Father” – even familiarly as in “Dad” = Abba. He also says to persist in prayer]
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 to 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!'
A
1. What word or phrase stands out for you? Why?
2. With whom in the readings do you most identify? Why
3. Do you feel attracted to anything in today’s readings? Do you feel
resistant to anything? Do you know why?
4. In what way do these readings affirm you?
5. In what way do these readings challenge you?
6. What can you do to respond to this challenge?
B
1. When has there seemed to be no answer to your prayer? What has been your response? Describe the change in yourself?
2. From your experience, what keeps you praying or not praying?
3. We all need “daily bread.” What does this bread include for you?
4. “Give us each day our daily bread”…. World poverty… world hunger… world debt… our response?
5. “…and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive” – what thoughts come into your head when you read/ say/ pray those words?
6. Reflect on a time when your prayer was answered in a different way than you expected.
One classic definition of prayer is: “Prayer is lifting mind and heart to God.” That’s a wonderful and accurate description of prayer – the problem is we rarely do it. It’s rare that we actually open our mind and heart to God in order to show what’s really there. Instead, we treat God as a parental figure or as a visiting dignitary and tell God what we think God wants to hear rather than what’s really on our minds and in our hearts..
As a result, we have a pretty narrow range of thoughts and feelings we consider suitable for prayer. Most of what we actually think and feel is considered too base for prayer. We feel we are praying only when we have attentive thoughts and warm feelings, when we feel like praising God, when we feel altruistic, when we have good feelings towards God, others, and nature, when we feel the desire to pray more, or when we yearn for moral improvement.
Such thoughts and feelings do make for prayer, but we can’t turn them on like water from a tap. Many times, perhaps most times, we experience other thoughts and feelings: boredom, tiredness, dissipation, bitterness, sexual fantasy, and sometimes even a positive distaste for church, prayer and moral improvement. We don’t feel it is valid to lift these bitter thoughts and impure feelings to God. Instead, we try to crank up the thoughts and feelings we think we should be having when we pray.
There is some legitimacy in this. Classically, spiritual masters distinguished between prayers and distraction. Prayer requires attentiveness, an act of will. It isn’t daydreaming or letting a stream of consciousness occur.
But prayer is “lifting mind and heart to God,” and that means lifting up, at any given moment, exactly what’s there, and not what, ideally, might be there. It would be nice if we always felt warm, reverent, altruistic, full of faith, chaste, hopeful, connected with others and nature, happy about who we are and what life has dealt us.
But that isn’t the case. We all have moments and even seasons of doubt, anger, alienation, pettiness, boredom and tiredness. Our thoughts are not always holy and our hearts are not always warm or pure. It’s at times like this we need prayer, and what we need to take to prayer is, precisely, those bitter thoughts and unholy feelings.
All thoughts and feelings are valid material for prayer. Simply put: when you go to pray, lift up what’s inside of you at that moment. If you are bored, lift up that boredom; if you are angry, lift up your anger; if you are tired, lift up that tiredness; if you feel selfish, don’t be afraid to let God see that.
Jesus said we must become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven. One quality in children is their honesty in showing their feelings. Children don’t hide their sulks, pouts and tantrums. A good mother handles these easily, often with a smile. God is up to the task. In prayer, we can be transparent, no matter how murderous or irreverent our thoughts and feelings might seem.
If we do that, it makes it easier for us to “pray always,” as scripture calls on us to do. What does this mean? Obviously it doesn’t mean that we should always be at formal prayer or even that we should seize every possible occasion we can to pray formally.
To “pray always” invites us rather to live our lives against a certain horizon. It doesn’t necessarily mean to stop work and go to formal prayer, important though that is at times. The point is rather that we need to do everything within the context of a certain awareness, like a married man who goes on a business trip and who, in the midst of a demanding schedule of meetings and social engagements, is somehow always anchored in a certain consciousness that he has a spouse and children at home. Despite distance and various preoccupations he knows that he is “married always” by doing everything out of that kind of awareness. Moreover, when we do spend time in formal prayer, we need, like children do, to tell God exactly how we feel and invite God to deal with that.
Rabbi Abraham Heschel points out how the great figures of scripture did not always easily acquiesce to God and say: “Thy will be done!” They sometimes fought bitterly and said: “Thy will be changed!” That can be good prayer. It lifts mind and heart to God.
• Pray over these words from St John and hear them spoke to you. “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.” (1John 3:1)
• Pray for those who have hurt you and need your forgiveness
• Pray for those that you have hurt