'Hear the Word!' by Deacon Charles Paolino: Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

A reading from the Book of Genesis

(Chapter 18:20-32)

This passage describes a dialogue between God and Abraham about the future of the city of Sodom whose people, along with those of Gomorrah, God has condemned because of their "grave" sin. In what is almost a comical exchange, Abraham negotiates with God until God agrees to spare Sodom from destruction if he can find but 10 righteous people there. As it turned out, according to the biblical account, the depravity was so pervasive that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, sparing only Abraham's nephew, Lot, and his family.

But the message for us in Abraham's banter with God is to be persistent in prayer, because God is just and would have kept his promise to Abraham had there been 10 righteous people in those cities. 

Responsorial Psalm

(Psalm 138:1-2, 2-3, 6-7, 7-8)

“O Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.” The psalm continues the theme struck in the reading from Genesis, but takes it to the next step: "I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart,
for you have heard the words of my mouth." Our relationship with God is not only about asking for favors; rather, it is also about being grateful that God is not remote from us but with us at every moment; that God has given us life and the physical world; that God has given us the promise of eternal life and a Savior who has made that life open to us. "Your right hand saves me" 

A reading from St. Paul's Letter to the Colossians

(Chapter 2: 12-14)

In reading this passage, we must remember that most people being baptized in the early Church, such as the people of Colossae in what is now Turkey, were adults. Otherwise, the imagery of being "buried with Christ in baptism" could be confusing. That imagery means that, in baptism and the actual or symbolic immersion in water, we die to our old lives, and in the reemergence from water we enter new lives. This ritual is an echo of the death and resurrection of Jesus, who accompanies us when we receive the sacrament. Most people being baptized today are infants, and while infants cannot have committed actual sin, they are born with the burden of original sin. Baptism removes that sin, so the infant, too, rises in baptism to new life. Whether the baptized is an infant or an adult, the sacrament is only the beginning because, having been freed from sin and incorporated into the community of the Church, we are commissioned to lead lives of generosity and justice and actively spread the Gospel. 

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke

(Chapter 11:1-13)

In the episode Luke describes in this passage, one of Jesus' disciples asks him, "Teach us to pray," and Jesus responds with the words we know as "The Lord's Prayer." But Jesus goes on to give his disciples two examples, both of which emphasize the importance of prayer. In the first example, a parable about the neighbor who knocks on the door at midnight requesting bread to feed unexpected guests, Jesus stresses persistence in prayer. In the second example, he asks what father would give his son a snake when the boy asked for a fish, or a scorpion when the child asked for an egg—meaning that God will give us what is best for us. And while we might, over a lifetime, ask God for many different things, Jesus concludes with the gift we should be constantly seeking: "If you, then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your chldren, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him,"

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Photograph by Patrick Fore on Unsplash.

Excerpts from the English translation of the Lectionary for Mass © 1969, 1981, 1997, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation (ICEL). All rights reserved.

Charles Paolino is managing editor at RENEW International. He is a permanent deacon of the Diocese of Metuchen.