17^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C-)
July 24, 2022
Fr. John C. Garrett


Today’s readings remind us that the reason we pray is that we expect good things from Our Lord, although sometimes we pray to him because we expect bad things to come from him instead. Throughout salvation history, Our Lord has shown us that we should expect good from him, not evil.
In the First Reading, the Lord sends angels to confirm that Sodom and Gomorrah are as bad as reports say, and Abraham knows what that means: annihilation. The Lord speaks of hearing an outcry over Sodom and Gomorrah. What just souls had already clamored in prayer for the evil taking place there to be ended?
Abraham’s cousin Lot lived there, and Abraham knew his cousin was a good man, so he feared the Lord would wipe him and his family out along with the wicked. It’s almost comical that in his prayer Abraham is trying to give the Lord an ethics lesson: he doesn’t speak specifically of Lot, just the apparent injustice of good men being struck down with wicked ones. Abraham questions whether the Lord will do the just thing or not, which is why he couches his potentially insulting questions with such humility and self-deprecation.
The Lord humors Abraham in his discourse, but also says he will spare the city if good people are still there. The Lord is as good as his word, but he doesn’t spare the city. He rescues Lot’s family before destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, and Sodom and Gomorrah fail their last chance to do the right thing (see Genesis 19). Abraham had already dealt with the Lord for years when this incident takes place, but he shows his faith and trust in the Lord is still a little weak.
In contrast to the First Reading, where wicked men are about to be destroyed, in today’s Second Reading St. Paul reminds us that Jesus took all the wickedness upon himself, wickedness for which he was not responsible, and surrendered himself to destruction on the Cross to destroy that sin as well and any debt owed to God for it. How would Abraham have responded to a good man being struck down for the wickedness of others? That is precisely what Our Lord underwent on the Cross.
Spiritually we face a death sentence for our sins, just as physical death awaits us one day as the consequence of our sins and the sin of Adam and Eve. In Baptism we go down into the depths of death, symbolized by going under the water, but Our Lord leads the way, just as he leads the way for us to arise from the waters into new life. For us, this involves a sacramental and spiritual death; for Him, it meant a physical one, which he undertook to destroy our sins and to free us from sin’s bondage. Jesus, especially on the Cross, continues that conversation with God that Abraham had so long ago by showing us how far God in his justice and mercy is willing to go for us. As we go deeper in prayer, we come to understand that God is a God of justice, but one of love and mercy as well.
In today’s Gospel Our Lord explains the willingness and commitment of Our Heavenly Father toward us using the examples of friendship, persistence, and paternal love.
A good friend knows that if he is in a fix, he can count on his friends to help him out. The friend asking for bread today is passing along the opportunity to be a good friend: he welcomed a guest into his home in the middle of the night, and he needs help to provide for that guest. Yet even if his friend refused at first, his persistence would pay off: that shows the friend, even if inconvenienced, is a friend who’ll come through.
It is the friendship that gives the confidence to ask, repeatedly if necessary. God is our friend; we can ask him for whatever we need, and he’ll respond as a friend should. However, Our Lord reminds us today that our relationship with God goes even farther: he is Our Father, and no father would give his child misfortune instead of a blessing. Ask today and you will receive; maybe not on your timetable, maybe not as you’d have expected, but the Lord as friend and Father will provide for you what you truly need. He showed that to Abraham in today’s First Reading, and he showed it dying on the Cross for us.
In August of 1887 fourteen-year-old Thérèse Martin (the future St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church) heard that Henri Pranzini was to be executed for murdering three people. The shocking crime and subsequent trial had been followed through the press by all of France, including Thérèse, who’d heard that Pranzini was not sorry for having committed the crime.
Fearing he’d be lost for all eternity, Thérèse began, as she recalled in her Story of a Soul, to offer the “infinite merits of Our Savior and the treasures of the Holy Church” for him to repent for what he had done. On the last day of August, as Pranzini made his way to the guillotine, his bravado faltered as he saw his impending death and he asked the nearby chaplain for a crucifix, which he kissed three times. From the newspaper accounts of the execution, Thérèse heard of this and knew her prayers had been answered.
We all know that there is always an intention for which the priest is offering the Mass for, however, how many of you know that each of you can also have an intention for Mass? In fact, the “Opening Prayer” which the priest says after the Gloria is actually called the “Collect” because the priest is collecting all the intentions we bring to Mass, and presenting them to God.
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you identify the one intention that is nearest and dearest to your heart right now. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you explore your motivations for asking for that intention, and don’t be afraid to change it if that is what God is calling you to do and you know it will benefit others. Remember that Jesus teaches us that everyone who asks will receive, and everyone who seeks will find. When we keep that in mind, we will always persevere in our prayer.