Roman rite
XVII Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C – July 24, 2016
Gen 18.20 to 32; Ps 138; Col. 2.12 to 14; Lk 11,1-13
Ambrosian Rite
X Sunday after Pentecost
1 Kings 3.5 to 15; Ps 71; 1 Cor 3.18 to 23; Lk 18,24b -30
Foreword:
Etymologically to pray means to ask, to ask for help and to express the desire to get something and, above all, turning to God to receive life.
Among the many definition of “prayer” I’d like to propose the followings: Prayer is “elevation of the mind in God” (St. John Damascene) and “request to God for honest things (Id.), “impulse of the heart” (Santa Teresa of the Child Jesus), the gift of self. It is also the request to be helped to fulfill the purpose of life.
As St. Thomas says, prayer is the expression “of the desire that man has of God.” This attraction to God, that God himself has placed in man, is the soul of prayer, which is expressed in many forms and ways according to times and history.
Every human being carries the desire for God. We all carry in us a thirst for the infinite, a longing for eternity, a quest for beauty, a desire for love and a need for light and truth that pushes us towards the Absolute. To this Absolute we turn in prayer, which is the most realistic and true attitude of man before God, the Meaning of life that we want to know and see.
This desire has been always in the human being as it is demonstrated by the prayer of a blind Egyptian who lived thousands of years ago, and that attests something universally human, the pure and simple prayer of those who are suffering. This man prays “My heart desires to see you … you, who have made me see darkness, create light for me. That I see you! Bend over me your beloved face. “
“That I see you, O God” is the heart of prayer, because “the desire to know God, indeed to see the face of God, is innate in every man, even in the atheists” (Benedict XVI)
2) Praying with life.
This desire to see God is achieved by following Christ and begging him not only when we are in need or when there is time in our daily occupations, but with the whole of our existence. It is our whole life that must be oriented to the encounter with Him, to the love for Him and to the love of Him.
In this love has its place the love for the neighbor which, in the light of the Cross, enables us to recognize the face of Jesus in the poor, the weak, the suffering. This is possible only if the true face of Jesus has become familiar to us in the listening to his Word, and of course in the Mystery of the Eucharist that is the great school in which we learn to see the face of God, and where we enter into intimate relationship with God and with our brothers and sisters in humanity.
There is an anecdote that may help us understand this. It is said that a nun, a Daughter of Charity, wrote to the Founder, asking, “What should I do if, while I am doing the adoration, a poor man knocks on the door of the convent.” St. Vincent de Paul said: “You do not leave God, if you leave God for God.” This Law of charity requires the listening of the heart, a listening done through an obedience not as slaves but as children, confident and aware of being loved by the Father. Listening to the Word is a personal encounter with the Lord of life, an encounter that must be translated into concrete choices and become journey and discipleship. When asked what to do to inherit eternal life, Jesus shows the way of the observance of the law and tells how to bring it to completeness: “One thing you lack, ‘Go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come! Follow me “(Mk 10:21 and similar). To fulfill the law is to follow Jesus, to go on the road of Jesus, in the company of Jesus, who in today’s Gospel teaches us to pray, saying to the disciples of then and now: “When you pray, say ‘Father'”. A word to pronounce not only with the mouth but with our entire life.
3) To pray with Christ and in Christ.
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church recommends “To seek to understand his prayer through what his witnesses proclaim to us in the Gospel is to approach the holy Lord Jesus as Moses approached the burning bush: first to contemplate him in prayer, then to hear how he teaches us to pray, in order to know how he hears our prayer “(n. 2598). We can find a clear answer to how Jesus teaches us to pray in the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “When Jesus prays he teaches us not only the Our Father but is already teaching us how to pray. In this way, in addition to the content, he shows us the attitudes necessary for every true prayer: purity of heart that seeks the Kingdom and forgives his enemies; bold and filial faith that goes beyond what we feel and understand; and watchfulness that protects the disciple from temptation “(n. 544).
From the Gospel it emerges that Jesus is partner, friend, witness and teacher for our prayer.
In him is revealed the novelty of our dialogue with God: the filial prayer that the Father expects from his children.
From him we learn how constant prayer helps us to interpret our lives, to operate our choices, to recognize and welcome our vocation, to discover the gifts God has given us, and to do every day His will of loving Father, the only way to realize the truth of our existence.
With Him let us say the Lord’s Prayer, which is a prayer of communion not only because we pray with the others, but especially with Him who is the brother who gave his life for us. If we say: “Father” with our lives, more and more we will be true sons in the Son: true Christians.
With St. Francis, who followed Christ so deeply as to deserve to physically resemble Him thanks to the gift of the stigmata, let us pray:
“O Most Holy Our Father: Creator, Redeemer, Consoler and Savior.
Who art in Heaven: in the angels and in the saints, enlightening them to the knowledge, because you, Lord, are light, inflaming them in love because you, Lord, are love, placing your dwelling in them and filling them with happiness for you, Lord, are the supreme eternal good from whom all good comes and without which there is no good.
Hallowed be thy name: let become luminous in us the knowledge of you so that we may know the breadth of your benefits, the extent of your promises, the sublimity of Thy Majesty and the depth of your judgments.
Thy kingdom come: that thou may reign in us by grace and make us come unto Thy Kingdom, where the vision of yourself is unveiled, the love of you is perfect, the communion of Thee blessed, and enjoyment of Thee endless.
Thy will be done as in heaven so on earth: to love you with all our hearts, always thinking of you; with all our souls, always desiring You; with all our minds, orienting all our intentions to you and seeking Your glory in all things; and with all our strength, spending all our energy and sensitivity of the soul and of the body in the service of your love and of nothing else; so that we can love our neighbors as ourselves, dragging everyone with all our power to your love, enjoying the good of others as ours, suffering together with them and not bringing any offense to anyone.
Give us this day our daily bread: give us today Your own beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in memory, understanding and reverence of the love he had for us and of everything that He said, did and suffered for us.
And forgive us our trespasses: for your ineffable mercy, through the power of the passion of Your beloved Son and through the merits and intercession of the Blessed Virgin and all your saints.
As we forgive our debtors: what we do not know fully forgive, Lord, makes us fully forgive, so that for love, we truly love our enemies and devoutly intercede with you, not returning evil for evil to anyone and committing ourselves in you to be beneficial to all
And lead us not into temptation: hidden or obvious, sudden or persistent.
But deliver us from evil: past, present and future. Amen“.
4) The fruitfulness of Consecrated Virgins of prayer in the world.
To the women who give themselves to Christ through consecrated virginity, it is asked, as a primary and fundamental duty, to engage into prayer (see Rite of Consecration of Virgins, Introduction, n. 2). In giving the book of the Liturgy of the Hours, the Bishop will appeal to the consecrated woman with these words: May the prayer of the Church resound continuously in your heart and on your lips as constant praise to the Father and live intercession for the salvation of the world ‘ “(RCV, n. 48)
To the prayer of the consecrated women it is well appropriate what St. Cyprian wrote saying that prayer must be peaceful, simple and spiritual (De Oratione, I, 4, CC I, 541B)
Peaceful in the sense of “expression of peace” and “request for peace.” Prayer must on the one hand express and manifest our being at peace with everyone and on the other must ask to beg for being at peace with God (Ibid 538AB)
Spiritual because it is the expression of the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of unity, harmony and peace.
These women are called to pray with Jesus, their Bridegroom, through a ” prayer peaceful, simple and spiritual” that can in no way be a sterile prayer but a fruitful one (Pope Francis).