Cycle C - Year II:  

24 July 2016: Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

(Liturgical color: Green)

Gospel: Please read  Luke 11:1-13

God, our Father!

Two boys were conversing. One asks the other, "Are you related to anyone famous?"

The other boy replies, "I don't want to brag, but I heard Dad calling God his Father!"

In the Gospel this Sunday, God's true face is revealed to us. He is Creator and Savior, but above all He is Father.  Jesus Himself wants us to call God, our Father.

The disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. In response, Jesus gives them the prayer of the "Our Father".

The "Our Father" is a beautiful prayer that comes from Jesus Himself. It contains all the essential elements of a prayer, like adoration of God ("Hallowed be Thy name"), our contrition or repentance for the sins we have committed ("Forgive us our trespasses"), and our supplication, that is, we request God to give us the food we need to sustain our body ("Give us this day our daily bread").

We can approach God our Father with confidence and boldness because Jesus Christ has opened the way to heaven for us through his death and resurrection.

In the words of the "Our Father", Jesus teaches us to call God our

Father and a friend. Jesus explains what "fatherhood" means. It means having the best interest of his children in mind and knowing how to meet them. God as a friend means we can approach Him with any need we have at any time.

Because when we ask God for help, He fortunately does not give us what we truly deserve. Instead, He responds with grace and mercy.

So we can pray with expectant faith because our heavenly Father loves us and  treats us as His children.

Jesus used an illustration from the hospitality custom of His time to show how God is always ready to treat us with the best He has to offer.

God gives us the best He has, He freely pours out the blessing of His Holy Spirit upon us that we may be filled with the abundance  of His provision.

In practical life, we can pray in one of two ways: as a trusting child or a persistent friend. Either way, believe that the God to Whom we are speaking will listen when we continue speaking with Him, and believe that God has our best interest in mind, always.

Do you approach your heavenly Father with confidence in His mercy and kindness towards you?

During this Year of Mercy, let us pray persistently, for ourselves, our families, especially our country, and for the whole world. Let us not get tired knocking until the door of heaven is opened to us.

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!