Readings for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time can be found at http://usccb.org/bible/readings/072416.cfm
In many societies around the world, bargaining for a good price is the customary way of doing things. You are never expected to pay the price that is written on the price tag. You are expected to haggle over the price to bring it down. The merchant knows what you are doing because he or she knows that this is a normal way of doing business. Only in the United States, and perhaps a few other countries, are you expected to pay the list price. Bargaining isn't the US way of doing business.
When Abraham began bargaining with God, he wasn't haggling over the price of a piece of merchandise. There was something far more serious involved. God was preparing to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Although Abraham knew that and the sins of the city, Sodom was also the home of his nephew, Lot, and his wife and family.
At this point of time and history, Abraham did not yet fully trust God. Abraham didn't fully know him in the way he would later on. So he is a little insecure in his attempts to talk to God out of his intended destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
As we heard in our first reading Abraham begins negotiating with God with a question: "Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty?" In essence, Abraham is playing with the idea that God wouldn't destroy the innocent. So Abraham appeals to God's sense of fairness.
As the story continues, Abraham almost sheepishly, yet boldly whittles the number of innocent from 50 down to 10. And God agrees, if there are ten innocent people, he will not punish these two cities.
The irony is that there are less than 10 people in Sodom, for Lot and his small family are the only innocent people living there. But God is greater and more generous than Abraham imagined.
Today's Gospel from Luke makes much the same point: God is greater and better than we can imagine. I know if a friend came to me in the middle of the night to give him food for his friends arriving from a journey, I'd be pretty upset. But I know with persistence from my friend, I'd give him what he needs just to get rid of him. In effect, persistence wins out in the end.
Jesus turns this story into a lesson about perseverance in prayer. He draws on human kindness and goodness and points out that even we who are sinners know how to care for one another and be good to one another. How much more will our heavenly Father care for us and willingly do good? God is always there for us in all our needs and knows our needs before we even ask.
Because God doesn't need us to tell him what we need, prayer is not about informing God of our needs. Prayer is more for us than for God. God knows our condition better than we know it ourselves, but wants us to express our faith and confidence in Him through persistent prayer.
Like Abraham, we are to approach God with a degree of confidence and trust -even when our our confidence and trust leaves much to be desired. God can use whatever little trust we have to bring us to greater faith and confidence. God is better than our wildest imagining. He will not be outdone in generosity and goodness.
When we approach the altar for the Eucharist, we confidently express our faith in the goodness of God who laid down his life so that we might have eternal life. There is no greater gift than the Eucharist. We are receiving the Body & Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. It is God's generosity and goodness at it's very best. May we use this opportunity to increase our faith and confidence in God as we make known our needs and petitions to him.
I LOVE the first reading about Abraham, the first Jewish lawyer! In reading the Gospel I realize that JESUS tells us that we will receive when we ask but doesn't tell us what we will receive, that we will find when we seek but doesn't tell us what we will find, and that a door will open when we knock. SO we will definitely receive what God wants to give us--not necessarily the exact thing for which we asked. We will definitely find something God wants us to have--not necessarily what we thought we were seeking. A door will be opened when we knock--not necessarily the same door. We need to trust that God's answer will be what is best for us--and that's easier said than done. A cursory look at the Gospel would seem to fit the "name it and claim it" mentality--and I often wish it could be so. But God's ways are not our ways. We will definitely be the recipient of good things, and, better than that, we will receive the HOLY SPIRIT, the best gift. Trust isn't easy, though.
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