The theme of this weekend’s readings is obviously prayer. We can see some familiar passages throughout the Liturgy of the Word. Let us look at the Old Testament passage, as this whole story is often misunderstood. Yet, it is all about prayer and living our faith.
Obviously, we are in the book of Genesis and this is the famous passage where Abraham is trying to prevent God from destroying the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. It highlights so much that it undermines the great amount of misinformation about these two cities and their destruction. One of the first misunderstandings is that God saw that these cities were so evil that he sought to destroy them. However, that is not what the passage says. If you look at the first line, you can see that people pleaded to God to do something about the great evil in these cities.
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.” (Gen 18:20-22 NAB)
God did not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah on his own initiative, but the evil of those cities had become
so severe that it was spilling over in other places. There is no description of how or why, but that it was happening. Maybe it was that people left the cities because they had become so evil. Maybe it was that neighboring cities were affected by the evil or even a combination of them both. However, the initial point of this story is that God is hearing an outcry against them. So we have an example of prayer, where the victims of the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah are pleading for some form of justice. If this sounds familiar, it is similar structure to what brings God into the Exodus event. It is again, the outcry of the people of God seeking justice in light of mistreatment by the Egyptians. In both cases, it is an outcry that leads God to act. This is God responding to prayer.
Yet, despite the calls of others, God then listens to the words of Abraham after he makes His decision to end this evil by destroying the cities. Make no mistake about this, the only way to end the evil perpetrated by these cities is their total destruction. Abraham is trying to find a loophole.
Now he starts bargaining with God asking if He will spare the city if there are so few as ten righteous people.
God promises that if there are ten, He will not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Again, this is an answer to a prayer. It is a promise on God’s part to be merciful, there are righteous people in the city. Remember, however, God also must think of those who have called upon Him in light of great evil that is affecting them.
So we have a clear example of God taking prayer seriously and responding.
In the Gospel, Jesus gives us a whole prayer with which to pray. He shows like in Genesis that God sometimes will seek conditions in answer to a prayer, so we need to forgive others if we are to be forgiven. Further, we see God no longer as the great powerful deity, but instead as our Heavenly Father whose justice and providence we trust and adore.
Jesus also calls us to trust in God as much as He trusts in the Heavenly Father.
Let us go back and look at a few lessons here. God at times puts conditions on His answer to prayer. As He does to Abraham and as He does to us.
He is a God who seeks justice for His people and that His people will be freed from evil. He instructs us that His Kingdom rejects evil, but that if we embrace it, we cannot be part of His Kingdom. That God works in His Time not ours, but that He does act.
Now let us look at it in another way. Our role is to pray to God that His will be done. Therefore, we remain His agent in this world. If we choose not be His agents, we risk being part of a world that is lost in its own inability to save itself although it will attempt it many times. It will crumble in on itself, as did Sodom and Gomorrah and will be not only part of this, we will be agents of that destruction as well. Remember, if there were righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah, God would not destroy it. Therefore, they were destroyed out of lack of the righteous. You and I are called to be the righteous, if we choose not to be, but to seek our own way then we become part of the inevitable self destruction of the civilization. We have an important role and one of our tools in that role is prayer and another is living a moral life.
Never forget the importance of your role and never forget your role as it affects the world around you.
Be people of prayer, and act as the agents of God’s kingdom you have been called to be. Pray for the conversion of those around be they family members, friends, enemies, neighbors co-workers etc. Pray for God’s will to be done and his Kingdom to come and know that God is acting in the world.
God Bless You,
Fr. Robert J Carr
Fr. Carr is an alliance member of the New Song Community (Canção Nova). He is the pastor of St. Benedict Parish in Somerville, MA and is the editor of this blog.
Photo Credits:
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Top: vitaliy-pyakhnyushchy
middle top: Dundamin
Middle bottom: Nruboc
Bottom: SLBogner
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament © 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner. <This statement is required by the USCCB.>