Reflection for the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C
The lectionary translation of the readings for this Sunday can be found HERE
1st Reading:
Genesis 18:20–32
Our first reading is a dialogue between Abraham and God. It is a conversation which is Abraham’s prayer for the righteous people. Notice that sounds like a conversation between two friends. This coincides with Jesus’ teaching, in today’s Gospel selection, that our prayer should be the expression of an intimate relationship with God.
2nd Reading:
Colossians 2:12–14
In our second reading Paul portrays us as dying with Christ in Baptism and rising with him to new life. Baptism by immersion in a pool of water is a ritually way of acting out this teaching. When Paul talks about nailing the legal claims against us to the cross, he is talking about freedom from our transgressions against the mosaic law; the freedom that comes from faith in Christ.
Gospel:
Luke 11:1–13
He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread…” Lk 11:2-3
Setting & Parallels:
The prayer we typically call The Lord’s Prayer occurs here in Luke and also in Mt 6:9-13. Mark does not give the prayer as such.Lk has only five petitions (hallowed be…, thy kingdom come…, daily bread, forgive us… and spare final test). Mt has seven petitions (he adds your will be done and deliver us from the evil one). Only Lk gives the parable about going to the neighbor for bread late at night.
Verse by Verse:
Lk 11:2 “…when you pray…” | Jesus presents this teaching as the mode of all prayer, not just an example of one way we can pray.
Lk 11:2 “…Father…” | Luke’s Greek is the equivalent of the Aramaic “Abba” which is what Jesus called God the Father. (See Mark 14:36; Gal 4:6; Rom 8:15) The AYB commentary points out that the “Aramaic ʾabbāʾ in its origin may be a child’s word, expressive of family intimacy.” This is how Jesus referred to God the Father, as his “papa” or “dad”. This is how he is teaching us to refer to God the Father, as our dad. God is not normally referred to with such intimacy in Scripture. In fact, the introduction to the Our Father we use at Mass picks up on that hesitance where it says “we dare to say…” Jesus is teaching us to have an intimate and tender one-on-one relationship with God.
Lk 11:3 “Give us each day our daily bread” | The Greek translated here as daily bread is epiousios (over-substance) bread. Jerome translated it once as supersubstantialis (super substantial) and at another time quotidianus (daily) into the Latin. Epiousios occurs only here and in Matthews version of the Our Father. It is not found outside of Scripture. Scripture scholars have varied opinions on its meaning. NAB says it may mean daily or future bread. It says the later would conform better to the eschatological tone of the whole prayer. My favorite explanation is that it refers to the manna given daily to the Israelites in their desert wanderings toward the promised land. That reminds me of God’s help on our journey to eternal life.
Lk 11:4a “…forgive us our sins…” | Luke utilizes the Greek hamartia meaning, literally, missing the mark. It means being imperfect. And, it seems to me that, it implies trying to achieve perfection, otherwise how could you miss. The UBS Handbook says that, because of the Greek tense of the word translated “forgive”, it is talking about forgiveness in the final judgement at the end times.
Lk 11:4b “ we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us…” | The choice of the Greek word for “debt”, here, corresponds to the Aramaic term for ‘sin’. It seems to mean that we forgive those who have wronged us.
Lk 11:4c “…to the final test.” | The NAB says that Jewish apocalyptic writings speak of a time of sever trial before the end of the age, sometimes called the “messianic woes”. This petition asks that the disciples be spared that final test.
Lk 11:5 “…Suppose one of you has a friend…” | The term used for “friend” here implies the closeness of a friend to whom you would go if you are in need.
Lk 11:6 “for a friend of mine has arrived…” | The term used for “friend” here does not imply the same kind of closeness as in vs 5.
Lk 11:7 “…the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed…” | The process of locking up the house and getting everyone in bed was quite involved, so much more than locking up a house today. Opening the house up again would be extremely disruptive.
Lk 11:8 “…will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.” | The word translated “persistence” should normally be translated “shamelessness”. I find it difficult to connect persistence with friendship but find it easy to imagine a friendship that was so great it allowed the shamelessness of going to the other late at night. Most scripture scholars, even granting that the word means shamelessness, still believe this is a parable about unwearied prayer. I certainly don’t deny that but I understand a friendship that allows the shamelessness of not only going late at not but also of not taking no for an answer.
Lk 11:13 “…give the Holy Spirit…” | This doesn’t immediately appear to be the answer to the requests mentioned above it. Luke Timothy Johnson, in The Gospel of Luke, points out that later in Luke’s Gospel, this promise is made more clear and then fulfilled.
What the 1st hearers heard:
I think they would have been touched, maybe even shocked, by the intimacy, the humility and the humanness of Jesus’ prayer example. I think they would have been moved to trust in a day-to-day prayer life by the first parable. I think they would have expected the result of that day-to-day prayer life to be life in the Spirit.
What would change if our community really heard this Gospel?
People would be moved to working on a close relationship with God.
What is the good news in this Gospel?
God wants to give us the fullness of life in the Spirit if we would only open ourselves to him.
Gospel Reflection
Papa
There is a lot to like about Utah, but what I like best is that my grandchildren live here. My oldest grandson used to like to sit really close and he now shares his video games with me. He calls me grandfather and we talk about serious things but I just really like his closeness. My oldest granddaughter is similar. When she was younger, she liked to lay her head on my fat belly. She called it her pillow.
My other grandchildren call me “papa Ron”, which I like. The youngest has a thing with Spanish so he likes to call me “potato”; you know, because of “papa”. They’re my greatest joy, in Utah. I now live close enough that we can deepen our relationships with each other. I like the familial intimacy.
That is what Jesus is teaching the disciples about prayer life. He uses the term “abba” which we translate as “father” but which means, more closely, something like “papa”. It is an intimate and respectful term for father that kids use. And notice that, in Luke’s telling, Jesus is teaching the disciples to pray to God individually. He doesn’t use the communal “our father” but the singularly intimate “Dad” or “Papa”. This is the way Jesus spoke to God the Father and it is the way he is teaching us to pray to God.
A child’s relationship with his or her father is completely different from the rule-giver God we often conceive of. We like to think of ourselves as “sinners” who broke some rule. But Luke reports Jesus using the term “hamartia” which doesn’t emphasize how bad we are; it speaks of our imperfections. It literally means “missing the mark”, not being perfect. Jesus is saying, when you pray to Dad ask him to forgive your imperfections. And remember, you can’t expect other people to be perfect either.
Are we afraid of that kind of closeness? Are we held back because we are not otherwise close to God? Do we think we are not worthy of the intimacy? Well… get over it! That intimacy is what God wants and he doesn’t want our imperfections to get in the way of it. That is why Jesus came, God in human flesh. Wow!
A small Christian community I was in, some thirty years ago, included a lady who prayed with that kind of intimacy. I loved listening to her prayer and I learned so much from her. Listening to her, taught me to pray. She talks to God just like we talk to a friend whom we go to for help with any kind of need. That kind of relationship with God opens us to feeling his presence, feeling his arm around us, feeling his love. It makes us relate to him as a person… and, like I said, that is what Jesus was all about… introducing us to a God who wants closeness.
Praying the communal Our Father, as we do at Mass, is wonderful. But, in our individual prayer life, we should pray as Luke reports that Jesus taught. Pray to the God who loves us like a grandparent loves their grandchildren without ever seeing their imperfections. Trust that your prayer will always be answered with love; but, that’s another homily.
And one other thing, at the end of the first parable, Jesus, when talking about the neighbor who was already in bed, says, “I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.”
The word We translate as “persistence” can also be translated as “shamelessness”. I like that so much better: the neighbor will give you your bread because the closeness of your friendship allows you to be shameless enough to ask so late at night.
Let’s be shameless in our prayer lives.
God bless you all…
Personal Reflection:
He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread…” Lk 11:2-3
Question:
What words or phrases attracted your attention during the Liturgy of the Word on Sunday? What connection do those words or phrases have to your day-to-day life? (Why do you think they attracted your attention?) What might God be trying to say to you through these words or phrases? What response should you make? What action should you take?
Alternative:
Reflect upon/Share about what your prayer life is like. When does you prayer include the familial intimacy that Jesus is teaching about? What can you do to make your normal relationship with God more intimate?
