July 2016

Jesus says to His disciples: “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” We serve a generous and merciful Father. Today’s first reading is dramatic. God loses patience with a sinful city, and is about to obliterate it, wipe it off the face of the earth. But then Abraham comes along and pleads with God. The whole point of the passage is the power of prayer. A good person storming heaven with prayers works wonders. In the book of Exodus, Moses fulfills the same role. The Israelites in the desert are not true to God, they worship false gods, they stop trusting the true God and complain about the lack of food and water. Moses’ main job, once he has escaped the clutches of the Egyptians, is to intercede with God for his unruly mob of followers. He becomes a professional man of prayer. Again and again he softens the heart of God, until he has brought his quarrelsome tribes to the verge of the promised land. Prayer works, is the message. It works, because God cares.

It works, but in a context of love and trust. Abraham and Moses were loving sons of the Father, they treated him with profound respect, they were prepared to be patient. When Jesus talks to His friends about prayer, He is presuming that we too respect and cherish God as our Father, that we trust His judgment. If you know a family where children rudely demand expensive presents, and shout and scream if they are frustrated, you may think to yourself, “I hope the parents don’t cave in, I hope they stand firm.” Willful infants can treat their parents like vending machines: insert the demand, receive the goods. God the Father is not about to be treated like that: after all, we already owe Him so much. What He wants of me is my heart, my confidence, my patience. My relationship with Him is far more valuable than the gifts He might give me. To Him we can say, in the words of psalm: “You stretch Your hand and save me, Your hand will do all things for me.”

Hospitality – opening our homes, and sharing our food with others – is a basic, practical, bodily doing of love. For Abraham and Sarah their hospitality to the mysterious visitors marks a turning point in their lives, as the gift of the child they thought they’d never have is promised. For Martha, however, the great gift of receiving Jesus into her home has a different kind of blessing – one of a challenge. The challenge comes from Jesus himself. He suggests that Martha is fussing about too many things. What are we to make of this challenge to Martha’s hospitable instincts and hard work? When we cook for guests, when we welcome people into our homes and share a bit of our lives with them, it is an act of practical loving not a performance of our own expertise. A simpler meal offered with care, which leaves room for the conversations of friendship, is more enabling of the doing of love than the extravagant feast that leaves some people exhausted and resentful, and can actually get in the way of real personal sharing.

Our world today is one where hospitality is a practice of love that is much needed. We are not called to grand gestures or lavish actions that we can take some pride in as the giver or the brilliant host. Rather, our giving is always, like Mary’s, to be centered on meeting the person whom we welcome. We need to learn to sit still with those we are called to care for, and listen to them know they are heard. In the week ahead let’s recognize the moments of hospitality that are opened up to us: buying a coffee for a workmate – and then spending some time chatting over it with them; inviting someone new to our homes – and getting to know them better; giving some food or money to the rough sleeper – and stopping to talk and listening to his or her story. If our generosity keeps the love of that person central, these moments of generosity will surely also be moments of meeting God.

As a child we are told that we lack musical talent, or that we are a liability to a sports team. It is true that not all of us will be great musicians or talented at sport, but with the right encouragement, training and opportunities it is amazing how far we can progress. In all these cases we exclude others from being part of our world and seek to build a world only for those whom we judge to be of worth. The kingdom Jesus Christ builds is one in which all are welcomed, and in welcoming others we grow in our humanity.

Jesus challenges us to examine our own attitudes towards others. In the parable of the good Samaritan He presents us with two ways of living. The first is that chosen by the priest and the Levite who pass by on the other side of the road to avoid the beaten man lying there. Jesus doesn’t tell us why they pass the man by. The shock to Jesus’ audience is increased when they hear that it is a Samaritan who comes to the aid of the man. It is the Samaritan who chooses the path of compassion, the path that leads to eternal life. The Samaritan sees a human being, someone who is like him, and he responds in compassion. In our lives do we look on others as threats, as obstacles to avoid, or do we look upon them as neighbors? The first path leads to a society in which pride and fear are the ruling forces, whereas the path chosen by the Samaritan is one in which humility and love rule. This is a challenge for each of us individually, but also for us collectively as a society.

In the parable of the good Samaritan Jesus Challenges us to examine our own hearts and to see how we are living according to God’s laws. Who is my neighbor? Those we know in our communities are most obviously neighbors to us, but do we always see them as human beings? Have we come to see them as obstacles to our own happiness? In opening our hearts to others, each of us battles against pride and fear. No one is beyond God’s love, and when we allow that love to enter our lives He will open our hearts to love others. This is why all our efforts to love our neighbor must start with prayer, in which we turn to God, knowing that without God’s healing love all our efforts will be in vain. God has loved us and accepted us, so that we can love and accept others.

At this time of year, many of us are likely to be looking forward to holidays. Some of us leave everything to the last minute, of course, resulting in a frantic dash, trying to remember where everything is: tickets, passports and so on. Whatever one’s view of when and how to prepare for a journey, in today’s world adequate preparation for travel is a necessity rather than an option.

It is surprising therefore, when we read in the Gospels that Jesus not only sent out disciples in a state that we could describe as unprepared, but He expressly forbade them to make adequate preparation. Today Jesus appoints 72 others – not numbered among the 12 – and sends them out in pairs to places that He himself will visit. If they meet with hostility they are to move on, first wiping from their feet the very dust of that town. Shaking the dust from their feet was a sign of rejecting anything unclean before entering God’s land. This journey is not a holiday. Disciples must not delay the start of the journey preparation, and they must not worry about what to take. They are embarking on God’s work as Jesus’ emissaries: God will provide them with everything they need.

Today’s Gospel may seem remote from our world, yet on reflection we may see that despite the peculiarities of Jesus’ instructions, they are timeless. As disciples, we are called to reflect on our own eagerness to proclaim the kingdom of God to those around us. Our hesitations, faults and failings can be barriers to the announcements that the Kingdom of God is at hand. Likewise, we can always find excuses to think we can’t be the bearers of the God News. Yet, our lives, if they are Gospel-based, are automatically proclamations of the kingdom. We don’t need passports, tickets, luggage and currency to be disciples: we do, however can take the Good News of Jesus himself.