The Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

The Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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July 28, 2019

Genesis 18:20-32; Psalm 138; Colossians 2:12-14; Luke 11:1-13

I find it comforting that the disciples of Jesus did not know how to pray and asked for help. I find it distressing that the People of God have not been properly helped by the church to the engage in meaningful private prayer so that they can develop a vibrant relationship with Jesus. As a corporate body, we’ve been taught the Lord’s Prayer, the Mass, the Rosary, the Breviary, Novenas, and certain devotions, but we still lack sufficient assistance to develop continued conversations and an evolving friendship with the Lord.

In the Gospel, Jesus implores the people to ask for what they want and need, but we are reluctant to do that. We are comfortable asking for graces and blessings for other people, but not for ourselves. Let me teach you how to pray for a grace. St. Ignatius of Loyola instructs people who are making a retreat to always precede one’s prayer by stating a grace. The grace is a roadmap for the prayer. It can be likened to a shopping list when you go to the market when you can pull out your list and ask for what you want to buy. Without that list, you may walk aimlessly around the market wondering what to buy. Or is it like a destination that you enter into your GPS when traveling on unknown roads in an unfamiliar region. Unless you have an intended target, you may take roads that lead you in the wrong direction or they may be circuitous. We get frustrated and bewildered unless we have some intended direction.

Think about those frustrating conversations you’ve had when you are trying to make plans for an evening out. The conversation could go something like this: Would you like to go out for dinner? Sure, where would you like to go? I don’t care. Where would you like to go? I have no preference. Well, what type of food would you like to eat? It doesn’t matter. What would you like? I like all types of food. Well, I want to go to a place that pleases you. Well, whatever you would like. I’m happy to go where you like. Ugh. Frustrating. We do the same thing with God. We simply say, “I want to do your will, whatever that is.” We have to help each other and God out by being a trifle bit more explicit.

Ignatius advises, at the start of each prayer period, that we pray for a certain grace, or a gift from God: “ask God our Lord for what I want and desire.” Naming what we deeply desire opens us to receive the gift God wants to give us. What is grace? Grace is above all God’s presence in your life, and God is the giver of this grace. Therefore, the Giver of the grace is the gift. Grace is revealed in the particular gifts God gives you, which is the reason we ask for it. Imagine God asking you, “What do you want me to do for you today?” We realize that the grace is not of our own making but is the result of God’s generosity to us.

Allow me to give you a few examples of graces for which to pray: I pray to have a felt experience of you, O Christ. I pray for the grace to be glad and rejoice because of the victory of Christ. I pray for an awareness of the enemy’s deceits so that I may be attracted to the way of Christ. I pray for a deep-felt awareness of God’s dream for the world. I pray for the grace to know Jesus more intimately, to be able to love him more intensely, and to be able to follow him more closely. When we finish our prayer, we can check in and ask, “Did you give me the grace? You said you would give me whatever I asked in your name. Were you present to me, Lord? Where were you in my prayer?” When we feel an increase of love, faith, and charity, we know that God was indeed present to us.

Let me conclude with the meaning of First Reading when Abraham petitions the Lord to spare the lives of all if there is only one innocent person. God says ‘yes.’ God, in the covenant, promised to look out for each and every person. That is an eternal promise, and therefore, we have confidence to go before God to ask for what we need and want. God will hear our prayers and has rendered a positive judgement already. Let us pray for our confidence that we can learn the language of asking for a grace. We have to see that God appears before us to ask, “What do you want me to do for you today?” Tell God.

Scripture for Daily Mass

First Reading: 

Monday: (Exodus 32) Moses turned and came down the mountain with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands, tablets that were written on both sides, front and back; tablets that were made by God, having inscriptions on them that were engraved by God himself.

Tuesday: (Exodus 33) The tent, which was called the meeting tent, Moses used to pitch at some distance away, outside the camp. Anyone who wished to consult the Lord
would go to this meeting tent outside the camp.

Wednesday: (1 Corinthians 10) Brothers and sisters: Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. Avoid giving offense, whether to Jews or Greeks or the Church of God, just as I try to please everyone in every way, not seeking my own benefit but that of the many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

Thursday: (Exodus 40) It was Moses who erected the Dwelling. He placed its pedestals, set up its boards, put in its bars, and set up its columns. He spread the tent over the Dwelling and put the covering on top of the tent, as the LORD had commanded him.

Friday (Leviticus 23) The LORD said to Moses, "These are the festivals of the LORD which you shall celebrate at their proper time with a sacred assembly. The Passover of the LORD falls on the fourteenth day of the first month, at the evening twilight.

Saturday (Leviticus 25) "Seven weeks of years shall you count–seven times seven years–so that the seven cycles amount to forty-nine years. Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, let the trumpet resound; on this, the Day of Atonement, the trumpet blast shall re-echo throughout your land. This fiftieth year you shall make sacred by proclaiming liberty in the land for all its inhabitants.

Gospel: 

Monday: (John 11) Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.”

Tuesday: (Matthew 13) "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field." He said in reply, "He who sows good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the Kingdom. The weeds are the children of the Evil One,
and the enemy who sows them is the Devil.

Wednesday (Luke 14) Great crowds were traveling with Jesus, and he turned and addressed them, "If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Thursday (Matthew 13) The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,
which collects fish of every kind. When it is full, they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away.

Friday (Matthew 13) Jesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue. They were astonished and said, "Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? Is he not the carpenter's son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are not his sisters all with us? Where did this man get all this?"

Saturday (Matthew 14) Herod the tetrarch heard of the reputation of Jesus and said to his servants, “This man is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why mighty powers are at work in him.”

Saints of the Week

July 29: Martha (1st century), is the sister of Mary and Lazarus of Bethany near Jerusalem. Martha is considered the busy, activity-attentive sister while Mary is more contemplative. Martha is known for her hospitality and fidelity. She proclaimed her belief that Jesus was the Christ when he appeared after Lazarus had died.

July 30: Peter Chrysologus, bishop and doctor (406-450), was the archbishop of Ravenna, Italy in the 5th century when the faithful became lax and adopted pagan practices. He revived the faith through his preaching. He was titled Chrysologus because of his 'golden words.'

July 31: Ignatius of Loyola, priest (1491-1556), is one of the founders of the Jesuits and the author of the Spiritual Exercises. As a Basque nobleman, he was wounded in a battle at Pamplona in northeastern Spain and convalesced at his castle where he realized he followed a methodology of discernment of spirits. When he recovered, he ministered to the sick and dying and then retreated to a cave at Manresa, Spain where he had experiences that formed the basis of The Spiritual Exercises. In order to preach, he studied Latin, earned a Master’s Degree at the University of Paris, and then gathered other students to serve Jesus. Francis Xavier and Peter Faber were his first friends. After ordination, Ignatius and his nine friends went to Rome where they formally became the Society of Jesus. Most Jesuits were sent on mission, but Ignatius stayed in Rome directing the rapidly growing religious order, composing its constitutions, and perfecting the Spiritual Exercises. He died in 1556 and the Jesuit Order was already 1,000 men strong. 

August 1: Alphonsus Liguori, bishop and doctor(1696-1787), founded a band of mission priests that became the Redemptorists. He wrote a book called "Moral Theology" that linked legal aspects with kindness and compassion for others. He became known for his responsive and thoughtful way of dealing with confessions.

August 2: Peter Faber, S.J., priest and founder (1506-1546), was one of the original companions of the Society of Jesus. He was a French theologian and the first Jesuit priest and was the presider over the first vows of the lay companions. He became known for directing the Spiritual Exercises very well. He was called to the Council of Trent but died as the participants were gathering.

August 2: Eusebius of Vercelli, bishop (d. 371), was ordained bishop after becoming a lector. He attended a council in Milan where he opposed the Arians. The emperor exiled him to Palestine because he contradicted secular influences. He returned to his diocese where the emperor died.

August 2: Peter Julian Eymard, priest (1811-1868) left the Oblates when he became ill. When his father died, he became a priest and soon transferred into the Marists but left them to found the Blessed Sacrament Fathers to promote the significance of the Eucharist.

This Week in Jesuit History

·      Jul 28, 1564. In a consistory held before twenty-four Cardinals, Pope Paul IV announced his intention of entrusting the Roman Seminary to the Society.

·      Jul 29, 1865. The death in Cincinnati, Ohio of Fr. Peter Arnoudt, a Belgian. He was the author of The Imitation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

·      Jul 30, 1556. As he lay near death, Ignatius asked Juan de Polanco to go and obtain for him the blessing of the pope.

·      Jul 31, 1556. The death in Rome of Ignatius Loyola.

·      Aug 1, 1938. The Jesuits of the Middle United States, by Gilbert Garrigan, was copyrighted. This monumental three-volume work followed the history of the Jesuits in the Midwest from the early 1820s to the 1930s.

·      Aug 2, 1981. The death of Gerald Kelly, moral theologian and author of "Modern Youth and Chastity."

·      Aug 3, 1553. Queen Mary Tudor made her solemn entrance into London. As she passed St Paul's School, Edmund Campion, then a boy of thirteen delivered an address.