Cycle C - Year I:

28 July 2019: Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

(Liturgical Color: Green)

Readings:

First Reading: Genesis 18:20-32

Second Reading: Colossians 2:12-14

Gospel: Please Read Luke 11:1-13

God's true face...our Father!

Overheard two young boys in animated conversation. One asks the other, "Are you related to anyone famous?"

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

The Gospel this Sunday relates to the above conversation. Because God's true face is revealed to us. For He is Creator and Savior, and above all God is Father! Our Lord Jesus Himself wants us to call God as our Father.

On the Gospel narrative, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. In response, Jesus gives them the prayer of the "Our Father".

Now we know that the "Our Father" is such a beautiful prayer that comes from our Lord Jesus Himself. It has all the essential elements of a prayer as we are taught, such as "adoration of God" (in the words "Hallowed be Thy name"), "contrition or repentance for the sins committed" (found in "Forgive us our trespasses"), and then "supplication", when we request God to give us the food we need to sustain our body (when we say "Give us this day our daily bread"). Thus, it is a complete and essential prayer.

And it is with confidence and boldness that we can approach God as our Father because our Lord Jesus Christ has opened the way to heaven for us through His death and resurrection.

So in the words of the "Our Father", Jesus teaches us to call God our Father and a true Friend. And 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.

And when we ask God for help He fortunately does not give us what we truly deserve, sinners that we are, but instead God responds with grace and mercy. God is truly our Father!

That is why we can pray with expectant faith because our heavenly Father loves us and treat us as His children. He is the Father who so loves the world that He sends us His only Son Jesus Christ. And He has freely pour out the blessing of His Holy Spirit upon us that we may be filled with the abundance of His provision.

So now in practical life, we can pray in one of two ways: as a trusting child or a persistent friend. And either way believe that God to Whom we are speaking will listen we continue speaking with Him and believe that God has our best interest in mind always. Remember that God answers all our prayers, not the way we want sometimes, but always what is best for us. When we pray, do we approach our heavenly Father with confidence in His mercy and kindness towards us?

Today is also Fil-Mission Sunday. Let us include in our prayer and Mass intention all Filipino priest-missionaries of the Mission Society of the Philippines (MSP), especially because of greater dangers and persecutions faced by Christians around the world.

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam!