In today's readings, Jesus proclaims God as Father, and instructs us how we are to pray to him. He uses imagery of a door and knocking on that door. He asks us to knock -- to seek God in prayer -- and to keep on knocking until we find what and Who we are looking for. The church in this year of Mercy presents the image of God the Father as our Merciful Father, coming to us, reaching out to us -- beckoning that we might open our hearts and receive the mercy of God the merciful Father. This is the Father Jesus prays to and asks that we pray to in the beautiful prayer the Our Father we recite at every Mass. God sent his Son Jesus Christ, the visible face of his invisible love and mercy, to save us from our sins by his death and resurrection. He instituted a Church and the Sacraments to bestow this love and mercy upon us. That's why Paul in our second reading to Colossians sees Baptism as so important. Baptism unlocks the door that allows us to encounter our loving God's unconditional love and mercy. God the Father has been knocking on our door, and in faith, we respond, we knock back, we open up to Him. Many of us, if not all, have been baptized. The door was unlocked, and there is no need for anything to come in between us and our Merciful Father, not sin or separation. But we do fall, we do sin, we freely turn from our Father, shut the door, and miss out on his loving Mercy. Sin happens. I sin, not that I want to, but I do. We must keep praying. We must keep knocking, asking for God's mercy. We see this in the Penitential Rite at every Mass, praying that God have mercy on us. Here's the good news! There is another door we can knock on, another door that our Merciful Father is behind, waiting for us to come to him that we might receive mercy and forgiveness. That door is the door of our Reconciliation Room. We are always welcome to come here and and meet our Merciful Father who's been waiting for us to hear Him, to knock back in response, to open up to Him. In this miraculous room, we trade our sins and guilt for the refreshing shower of God's mercy. Behind this door we can meet the Merciful Father, who knocks, waiting for us to knock back, to open, and to receive His marvelous mercy.
In the gospel, Jesus was praying by himself. The disciples observing Jesus at prayer then asked Jesus to teach them to pray. Jesus responds by giving us a brief catechism on prayer. Jesus lives in a rhythm of prayer and action, swimming in both the waters of God and the waters of the world. He knows when he must turn toward God and when he must turn toward the incessant demands of the world. In the rhythm of our spiritual life, we seek this balance. We too seek to swim in the waters of God and in the waters of the world; we seek greater awareness when to turn toward God in prayer and when to turn in service to the many needs that surround us in the world. Without any doubt, all of us seek to connect with God in our lives. This is the purpose of our prayer. Indeed any time we gather liturgically, we pray the Lord’s Prayer. In prayer, we recognize the awesome holiness of God who wants to share his life with us. It’s not about us, it’s about God. Jesus came to proclaim the reign of God, and he calls his disciples to realize it. Jesus invites us to the Eucharistic table where he is the bread of life. As we ask God to nourish us, we must be ready to nourish our hungry brothers and sisters. We come to the Eucharistic table confessing that we have sinned and asking God and our brothers and sisters to forgive us.
Today’s readings tell us two different meal stories. In the first Scripture reading, Abraham spares absolutely nothing in welcoming strangers to his home. Abraham’s story reminds us that we never know in what guise God will show up. Abraham’s servants were tasked with hospitality rather than security. The first reading is about strangers being entertained and the people didn’t know that the Lord was visiting them. When we open our heart and home to the stranger and the neighbor we are receiving God into our lives. God may be coming to us as the one in need. How often have we turned God away and failed to experience the generosity He wants to bestow on us. Abraham shows us that the welcome we offer to the stranger is the welcome we offer to God. Christ is received in every guest. In the Gospel account, Jesus, was welcomed into a house. There one sister, having to get the meal, complained that the other sister just sat and listened to Jesus; and Jesus says that this second sister, named Mary, had chosen the better part, and it is not to be taken from her. In our discipleship of the Lord Jesus, there is a place for service, and there is a place for prayerfulness. We spend a lifetime seeking the balance between the two ways of discipleship. I invite your prayer for that balance in the spiritual life. Lord, we pray for parents today. Let them not fall into the trap of worrying and fretting about doing many things for their children, then complaining no one is helping them. Remind them that the only essential thing is to sit down at the feet of their children and listen to them. Lord, there is a Martha and Mary within each of us; a part of ourselves which is busy and active, and another part which sits at your feet and listens trustingly to your word. Jesus is not telling Martha that her work is not important, nor is he commending Mary for doing nothing. He is simply reminding his followers that if we want to serve Him, we must first listen to Him. We need to be people of prayer before we are people of action. Going and doing, sitting and listening are complementary aspects of authentic discipleship.
Gospel according to Luke 10:1-12, 17-20 The Kingdom of God is at hand. A Kingdom of Love and Mercy here, and Eternal Growth in Love and Knowledge of God, experiencing all that is good, true, and beautiful in heaven. Lesser Kingdoms are not worth the time or the trouble. And May we open our hands, and open our hearts to experience this Kingdom here and now as we cooperate with God and seek salvation, life in heaven. We are all recipients of this struggle for freedom from oppressive Kingdom. And while we are calledto be active and faitful citizens of these United States.Those who are baptized and live the faith of their baptism are dual-citizens so to speak. Our citizenship is in heaven, for as Jesus says in the closing line of our Gospel, our names are written in heaven if we are in the state of grace, meaning we have been baptized and live our Catholic faith, forgiven from any grave sin in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. My brothers and sisters, on this July 4th weekend, we can rejoice in the reality of the Kingdom of God, come in our midst. Not fully present, but presence ever since the ministry of Jesus Christ in Palestine over 2000 years ago. Jesus reminds us in the Gospel, the Kingdom of God is at hand! Jesus, Himself fully God, came down from heaven to start a wonderful revolution. If we cooperate with Jesus, if we live our faith in our daily lives, coming to Mass weekly, we will begin to see the Kingdom of God spring up in our midst. Our God is supremely poetic. Our God has a sense of humor. His Kingdom is not seen in earthly power, great displays of. Although satan fell from heaven like a huge firecracker, the Kingdom of God comes into our midst in a very humble, very simple way. It is always this way with love and mercy. Pray and sacrifice. Open our hands and our hearts to the love and mercy of God. Open our hands and hearts to love and be merciful to those around us, especially those we dislike. The Kingdom of God is at hand.
I would not be surprised if after hearing the first few words of today’s Gospel you may have said to yourself “I’ve heard that story many times”. Maybe you even finished it in your mind before I got to the end. It is a familiar story. But our Lord is repeating it to us this morning and He wants to hear it with new ears and hearts. It is important because it is about “gaining eternal life”. This is not a story about the past. It’s about today and it is about you and me. We are somewhere in this story. We are one of the characters. Our world today is a world where there are many victims. They are people who have been robbed by greedy, selfish individuals, or by governments and corporations. The violence done may be physical, verbal or emotional. The latter may be more common in our circles; putting people down with our sarcasm or silent treatment. Or it may be by refusing to offer forgiveness. There are many ways of putting people down and leaving them for half dead. Are we in some way victimizers? The Samaritan man puts himself at risk by stopping and goes out of his way to do all that he can to help. By describing the Samaritan as neighbor not the victim, Jesus really makes his point. We are to BE neighbors not only have neighbors. Can the meaning be any clearer? This is not just a story. It is a command from Jesus “Go and do likewise.” We really don’t have to look far for those who need our help and healing. Some are very close – members of our family or circle of friends, people who need our time or our forgiveness or presence when they are down and out in some way. The Good Samaritan did what he could. That is what God expects of us, to do what we can with what he has generously gifted us. Let us pray that we may go from here glorifying God by being neighbors, not passersby’