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Posted on 07/23/2022 9:48:52 AM PDT by fidelis
Who has the guts to bargain with the Divinity? Abraham, the father of the Israel, does. In the Readings for this Sunday, we find united several themes: persistence in prayer, the justice and mercy of God, the generosity of God.
1. Our First Reading is Genesis 18:20-32:
In those days, the LORD said: “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so grave, that I must go down and see whether or not their actions fully correspond to the cry against them that comes to me. I mean to find out.”
While Abraham’s visitors walked on farther toward Sodom, the LORD remained standing before Abraham. Then Abraham drew nearer and said: “Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty? Suppose there were fifty innocent people in the city; would you wipe out the place, rather than spare it for the sake of the fifty innocent people within it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to make the innocent die with the guilty so that the innocent and the guilty would be treated alike! Should not the judge of all the world act with justice?” The LORD replied, “If I find fifty innocent people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
Abraham spoke up again: “See how I am presuming to speak to my Lord, though I am but dust and ashes! What if there are five less than fifty innocent people? Will you destroy the whole city because of those five?” He answered, “I will not destroy it, if I find forty-five there.”
But Abraham persisted, saying “What if only forty are found there?” He replied, “I will forbear doing it for the sake of the forty.”
Then Abraham said, “Let not my Lord grow impatient if I go on. What if only thirty are found there?” He replied, “I will forbear doing it if I can find but thirty there.”
Still Abraham went on, “Since I have thus dared to speak to my Lord, what if there are no more than twenty?” The LORD answered, “I will not destroy it, for the sake of the twenty.”
But he still persisted: “Please, let not my Lord grow angry if I speak up this last time. What if there are at least ten there?” He replied, “For the sake of those ten, I will not destroy it.”
This Reading makes several presumptions about the nature of God and our relationship with him:
a. It is possible for the righteous to intercede with God and influence the Divine will.
b. God is fundamentally just, and justice includes not only mercy for the innocent but punishment for the wicked.
c. If there is a conflict of the claims of justice and mercy, God prefers mercy.
d. God is reticent to punish the wicked and does so only when fully justified.
These theological convictions, embedded in the narrative, have shaped Jewish and Christian understandings of the nature of God, prayer, justice, and mercy throughout history.
The sites of Sodom and Gomorrah have been discovered at Tall el-Hammam in Jordan, and are currently being excavated. They were populous and wealthy cities in their day, strongly defended and controlling important trade routes that crossed the Jordan River just north of the Dead Sea. They were indeed destroyed suddenly by an intense aerial fire burst (meteors?) that incinerated the whole area. I’ve posted on this subject previously.
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was a tremendously traumatic event in ancient Near Eastern society. This Biblical account of the destruction insists that it was the work of God’s providence and justified by the immorality and injustice rampant in the cities.
Abraham assumes that it is unjust of God to “treat the innocent and guilty alike.” Yet we all know of cases where God appears to do so. Jesus himself tells us that God “sends rain on the just and unjust,” and furthermore, that people who die in natural disasters are not necessarily more wicked than those who survive (see Luke 13:4). The fact is that often in this life we do not see obvious differences in the fate of the wicked and righteous (see Psalm 73). The “moral logic” of God and the universe only holds if there is an afterlife. Without faith in the life to come, it is not possible to justify the ways of God on earth. Critics will say belief in the afterlife is a psychological crutch. I beg to differ. Belief in a final judgment and an afterlife is a courageous affirmation the moral justice of God and therefore of all reality. It is part of a hope-filled worldview that refuses to capitulate to the apparent dominance of evil in this world. Moreover, it is based on the testimony and example of Jesus Christ, who alone among human beings has died and returned in the flesh to speak to us and testify about the reality of the hereafter to those who knew him and would perpetuate his teaching.
2. Our Second Reading is Colossians 2:12-14:
Brothers and sisters: You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And even when you were dead in transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he brought you to life along with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions; obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims, which was opposed to us, he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross.
Let’s observe the stress that St. Paul lays on the Sacrament of Baptism. This aspect of St. Paul’s teaching is sadly neglected in the view which prefers to see St. Paul as the Apostle of “faith alone” to the exclusion of the sacraments. But here in this passage, St. Paul affirms that baptism is a spiritual burial of our old nature and a resurrection to new life in Christ. There is an implicit comparison with circumcision: as circumcision marked the entrance into the Old Covenant, so baptism is the “new circumcision,” in the sense that it is the rite that marks our entrance into the New Covenant.
In this Reading, we see the mercy of God at work, even as it was in the First Reading. Our merciful God works to bring us to life even when we were “dead in transgressions and the uncircumcision of our flesh.” It is not as if we were righteous or even seeking God when he began to work in our life. It was while we were still wicked. So God shows mercy on the wicked—namely, on us. God “errs” on the side of mercy (so to speak), when mercy and justice oppose.
3. The Gospel is Luke 11:1-13:
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him,“Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.”
And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,’ and he says in reply from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’
I tell you, if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.
“And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
In this Gospel we get St. Luke’s version of the “Lord’s Prayer.” Why the difference in wording with St. Matthew’s more commonly-used form? Jesus taught the disciples about prayer on many occasions, and what comes down to us as “The Lord’s prayer” is a précis or abstract of Jesus’ teaching on the subject, which may vary a little from apostle to apostle or eyewitness to eyewitness, as they remembered it. Moreover, remember that Jesus taught in Aramaic but the Gospels are given to us in Greek—that is, with our Lord’s words translated. So the Lord’s prayer comes to us in slightly different forms. The Lord himself may have taught it with variations on different occasions.
The two paragraphs that follow the Lord’s prayer are meant to encourage us:
(1) to be persistent in prayer and
(2) to trust in God’s generosity.
One may ask, if God is so generous a Father, why does he insist on our persistence in prayer? Why not give everything immediately? Or better, why make us ask at all? Why not give us everything we want and need without our asking?
The philosopher Eleanor Stump actually tackles this issue head-on and provides some surprisingly satisfying answers. Dr. Stump points out that parents who give their children everything they ask for end up spoiling them; but on the other hand, parents who always say “no” estrange their children from themselves. God is a good parent, however, and the dialogue of prayer actually fosters relationship between God and his children, in which God permits the participation his children into his providential guidance of the universe. God is neither a “sugar daddy” nor a “scrooge,” but a Father who encourages us to make our needs and desires known, always trusting in his goodness.
The best gift of all is God’s gift of Himself through his Spirit. This is what we have received in baptism, and we continue to experience new “fillings” with the Spirit through prayer and our reception of the sacraments. St. James urges us not to waster prayers on material acquisitions for the sake of our pleasure; instead, let’s focus our prayers at this Mass on a greater reception of the Spirit, the best gift God can give us.
Pinging the weekly Sacred Page list!
God responds that He will spare the cities for the sake of 50 righteous. Abraham’s intercession continues with extended “bargaining.” It concludes with the “concession” that a mere 10 righteous would be enough for which to spare the cities. Of course, it turns out that there are only 8 righteous, and the cities are destroyed, though the 8 souls are evacuated (Lot and his extended family). It is, however, a principle of note that is revealed: the presence of the righteous preserves the lives of the unrighteous. They are salt and light. As St. James says, “The fervent prayer of the righteous avails much.” (5:16)
Great response. Thanks.
I'm only counting a possible six in Lot's household: Lot, his wife, his two daughters, and possibly the unbelieving two men betrothed to his daughters. Who am I missing?
It is, however, a principle of note that is revealed: the presence of the righteous preserves the lives of the unrighteous. They are salt and light. As St. James says, “The fervent prayer of the righteous avails much.” (5:16)
Very true. It also calls to mind:
Ezekiel 22:29-31 “The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery; they have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the sojourner without redress. And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none. Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath; their way have I requited upon their heads, says the Lord God.”
Today we are in need of holy men and women to "stand in the breach" and intercede for our wicked world. Those unknown souls who today are apostles of prayer (or "prayer warriors") may be the only thing that has kept us from total destruction thus far.
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You read it more closely than I did - I didn't catch that. I don't think we can include the two men. Gen 19:16 seems pretty clear that only Lot, his wife and two daughters were rescued. We can get to 8 if we also include Abraham, Sarah, Hagar & Ishmael. But I've never thought of them as being part of Sodom & Gomorrah. Sounds like a question for Fr. Freeman.
Yeah, I was trying to stretch it a little to get it close to eight by including the two SIL, but I do think that Abraham only had Lot’s immediate family in mind. Perhaps Fr. Freeman had in mind the eight who were preserved on Noah’s ark?
"God has willed that Scripture be that treasure buried in a field, which he has hidden under parables. We naturally preserve whatever is precious in a treasure chest: gold, silver, precious gems. God has hidden his treasure beneath the ground so that we cannot find it or unearth and possess it without great effort and diligence. The Lord speaks obscurely so that the faithful may be trained in the understanding of the Scriptures: The law of the Lord is their joy; God’s law they study day and night (Ps 1:2). In the same way God gave Joshua the book of the law that he might meditate on it day and night (Jos 1:8). The fruit of God’s word is the salvation of souls. The usefulness and benefits of the word of God are clearly infinite. The word of God purges the soul from its vices and sins. It is that clean water that washes away uncleanness: I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities. By the word of God, therefore, many sinners were turned back to God and brought forth fitting fruits of repentance, as is evident in the Ninevites.
"The word of God is the mirror for one’s conscience: If anyone is a hearer of the word, he is like a man who looks at his own face in a mirror. It is also a medicine that can heal all infirmities: Those who are healthy do not need a physician. It is a medicine like that which turned the stomach of John sour, and caused Ezekiel to go away overflowing with bitterness after he had eaten the scroll. The word of God is a sword to fight against the devil: Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. The word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword. This is the sword that Christ himself used when tempted by Satan in the desert. The word of God enlightens the mind: The command of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eye. The decree of the Lord is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple. Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path, for it gives a man knowledge of God and also knowledge of self, knowledge of the law of God and knowledge of good and evil. God’s word also inflames the mind with the fire of holy desires. The word of God adorns the soul with all the virtues and enriches it with heavenly gifts. It is food for the soul, the bread of life, and manna from heaven. It is a most sweet food. God’s word also makes the soul fruitful with good works. His word is a heavenly water that slakes every thirst."
Saint Lawrence of Brindisi
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Saint Lawrence of Brindisi († 1619) was a Minister General of the Capuchin Franciscans and preached throughout Europe. He is a Doctor of the Church.
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