[00:00:05] Hello, my name is Sally Moriarty-Flask. Welcome to: From His Word to Our Hearts, my weekly Bible Study podcast.
[00:00:13] Together we will explore the readings to be proclaimed at the Catholic Mass on Sunday, July 27, 2025, the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. This week's episode is entitled: God's Justice and Mercy, and in these readings, we are reminded that prayer is a gift meant to benefit others as well as ourselves.
[00:00:39] As we journey through the readings this week, consider the following:
Why do we struggle so much with prayer? The simple fact is that we are impatient. Our world has conditioned us to expect immediate gratification, but God doesn't operate like that. Our prayer makes no impact on God… we cannot add to his glory… we cannot lessen his greatness… we cannot change his mind… we cannot hurry him along. But prayer can impact us… it can transform us… IF we are patient and persistent.
[00:01:28] So, let's begin in prayer.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:01:34] Heavenly Father, we praise you and we thank you for bestowing upon us the gift of prayer, for that is time spent with you. Teach us in our prayer to ask rightly, to seek your will, and to knock persistently upon the gates of your heavenly kingdom, where we hope to dwell with you forever. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:02:04] Now that we've opened our hearts in prayer, let's listen to what God is telling us in the Scriptures.
[00:02:10] Our Gospel this week is from Luke 11: 1-13.
[00:02:16] “[Jesus] was praying in a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ [H]e said to them, ‘When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread; and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us; and lead us not into temptation.”
And he said to them, ‘Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him”; and he will answer from within, “Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything”? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’”
[00:04:09] This week's passage from Luke follows immediately after last week's passage… and these words are familiar, sort of. In this passage, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray what we call The Lord's Prayer, but we are actually more familiar with a slightly different version. In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus teaches this prayer in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, and we know where that took place - on the Mount of the Beatitudes overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Here in Luke, we are told that Jesus was praying IN A CERTAIN PLACE, but we aren't told where that place is. Luke does that because he wants us to focus on what Jesus is saying, not on where he's saying it.
[00:04:59] Remember, we are in the travel narrative portion of Luke's Gospel so Jesus' awareness that this is his final journey to Jerusalem overshadows everything he says and does.
[00:05:12] He knows that he has a very limited time left with his disciples… a limited time to prepare them for what will happen when they reach Jerusalem and for the new reality they will face afterward.
[00:05:30] So, with that in mind, let's break open this week's Gospel…
“[Jesus] was praying in a certain place,”
[00:05:37] Luke tells us quite often that Jesus spent a considerable amount of time in prayer, that is nothing unusual. And again, the location is not important… what happens there is.
[00:05:53] “and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’”
[00:06:02] Notice two details… first is that the disciple who asks Jesus to teach them how to pray isn't named - it could be any one of the disciples. But I think Scripture is inviting us into the scene, meaning that it could be one of us - and second, the disciple places a condition upon his request… teach us AS JOHN TAUGHT HIS DISCIPLES.
[00:06:36] By John, of course, the disciple means John the Baptist and the Bible provides absolutely no information about what John taught his own followers.
[00:06:48] However, the specific nature of this request confirms that John did teach his followers how to pray and that whatever he taught was quite well known.
[00:07:03] We often forget just how famous John the Baptist was at the time, but this is a really striking reminder for us about that.
“[Jesus] said to them, ‘When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be thy name.”’”
[00:07:23] Now, before we go too much deeper into the details of Luke's account of The Lord's Prayer, I want to point out something else. Luke's version is shorter than Matthew's version, recording only five petitions compared with the seven found in Matthew.
[00:07:44] And the first petition actually contains two very important details. Jesus begins by teaching his disciples, including us, to call God Father, which we are able to do because Jesus has revealed him to us.
[00:08:08] The next detail requires a bit more thought. I said at the beginning of this episode that nothing we can do increases God's greatness, so why does Jesus teach us to say: HALLOWED BE THY NAME?
[00:08:26] Well, because it isn't about us… it's about God. Essentially, what Jesus is telling us to do is to ask that we always recognize and are aware that God's name is sacred, so that we do nothing to profane his name.
[00:08:51] We can't do anything to make his name holy - only he can do that - but we are asking that nothing in our lives does anything to profane God's name. Or to look at it another way, we are asking that everything we do brings God glory.
[00:09:13] Saint Peter Chrysologus (5th century bishop, theologian, and Doctor of the Church) wrote: “We ask God to hallow his name, by which its own holiness saves and makes holy all creation… It is this name that gives salvation to a lost world.”
[00:09:38] Looked at from that perspective, that's a pretty impactful first petition and one to which we do not pay nearly enough attention. Next…
[00:09:53] “Thy kingdom come.”
Again, that seems simple enough… but is it? The short answer is no. It actually has a twofold meaning, even if we aren't always aware of both levels. On one hand, we are praying for the Second Coming of Jesus at the end of time - and I think that's typically what most people imagine when they say those words. But on the other hand, we are also asking that God's kingdom be manifest within the world here and now. And that reminds us that Jesus, by his Incarnation, made manifest God's kingdom in the world and that whenever the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the kingdom is present in our midst because Jesus is present in our midst.
[00:10:58] Yet we will not experience the fullness of God's kingdom until Christ comes again. Next, we hear…
[00:11:11] “Give us each day our daily bread;”
[00:11:14] That is petition number three. And it is - like the ones that precede it - not as simple as it sounds.
[00:11:23] Yes, on the one hand, we are asking that our most basic daily needs be met. But this petition also serves as a reminder of the manna in the desert - the bread from heaven that nourished the Israelites during their exodus from Egypt (and remember that manna descended every day) - that in turn, should remind us that we are also asking for the new manna of the Eucharist, the new bread from heaven - a meal we are able to receive every single day if we so choose.
[00:12:08] In fact, Saint Catherine of Siena (14th century mystic, author, reformer, and Doctor of the Church) consumed only the Holy Eucharist and water for the final years of her life (and yes, I did say years)… until she could no longer swallow at all. And she died in 1380 at the age of 33.
[00:12:39] And if that number sounds surprisingly familiar to you, it should. She died at the same age that Jesus was when he died.
[00:12:51] If you would like to read more about Catherine, I would recommend: Catherine of Siena The Dialogue, which is part of The Classics of Western Spirituality published by Paulist Press. Although I will share with you the same warning that is in the introduction of the book: “Catherine's style is not only repetitious but often grossly redundant.” And to be fair, while I am not a huge fan of the writings of Catherine of Siena, I am a tremendous fan of her as a person - of what she did, how she did it, what she was able to accomplish.
[00:13:36] She was quite a formidable woman. I do understand why people are drawn to her writings, I just am - personally – not.
Okay, getting back to the Gospel… something that Catherine would heartily approve of, we hear the next petition…
“forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive every one who is indebted to us;”
This petition is astonishing because it obliges us to meet a very strict requirement! Jesus teaches us to ask that our sins be forgiven only to the extent that that we are willing to forgive others.
[00:14:21] If we are unwilling to forgive others, then we harden our own hearts… resentment hardens our hearts… holding grudges hardens our hearts… sin hardens our hearts. And Jesus is telling us here - in no uncertain terms - that the Father's mercy and forgiveness will only be able to penetrate our hearts as far as we allow it to, until it reaches the barrier that we raise within ourselves. By the hardness of our own hearts… the hardness of heart we accumulate… the resentments we hold onto… the grudges we embrace… the sin we refuse to let go of.
[00:15:20] And let me be clear, we do that to ourselves! God doesn't do it to us, we do it to ourselves.
[00:15:29] And we are the only ones that can change that behavior. God gives each one of us free will, and we can freely nurture our slights, our anger, our annoyances, or we can just as freely let go of them and forgive others.
[00:15:54] There's a saying that has some bearing on this, and it has been attributed to any number of people, from Buddha to Nelson Mandela, and the saying goes: holding a grudge is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.
[00:16:13] That seems quite foolish when you look at it like that. But that is exactly what we are doing when we harden our own hearts, because we are holding on to sin (which is separation from God), rather than letting go of it and drawing closer to God and allowing him to draw closer to us.
[00:16:39] So again, Jesus is setting a high standard for us. And in all of that, what is the final petition?
[00:16:48] “lead us not into temptation.”
[00:16:51] Of course, God would never lead us into temptation! That is not what Jesus is suggesting.
[00:16:59] This petition is, in fact, asking God to protect us from evil, to give us the strength we need to bear whatever tribulation we must face, and resist every temptation we encounter.
[00:17:15] Then Jesus presents quite a strange parable…
[00:17:20] “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything?’”
[00:17:44] First, let me say that no traveler would ever arrive at a friend's house that late! Arriving that late would have been considered a terrible imposition.
[00:17:55] Now, beyond that, going at that point to ask a neighbor for assistance again at such a late hour would have been considered not just an imposition, but actually an offense against hospitality. But that is precisely why Jesus uses midnight, because it is outrageous.
[00:18:21] That aside, let's look at other details. The three loaves that are requested should remind us of the three measures of flour that Abraham and Sarah prepared for their guests in last week's passage from Genesis.
[00:18:38] Lastly, please do not be alarmed by the words: MY CHILDREN ARE IN BED WITH ME. That seems strange and somewhat scandalous to our modern ears, but that's because we just don't understand the context. Most houses in biblical times would have had one large sleeping room where every member of the family would sleep. The parents may have had a curtain to separate themselves from their children for a bit of privacy, but there would not have been separate sleeping areas as we would understand them today. Hopefully, that sets everyone's mind at ease.
[00:19:24] “I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him whatever he needs.”
[00:19:37] The word importunity doesn't mean simple persistence… it actually means shameless persistence. In other words, the neighbor's going to stand outside and yell and scream and bang on the door until he gets what he's asking for.
[00:19:56] Jesus is basically saying here that if the demands of friendship are not sufficient, then persistence will be.
[00:20:08] “And I tell you, Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
[00:20:28] That is another section of this passage that many people find familiar. Ask, seek, and knock, if you'll remember, were part of our opening prayer today, and they remind us to be both bold and persistent in prayer. Then Jesus presents another strange scenario…
What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?”
[00:21:11] The answer to both of those questions, of course, is none. There is no father in the world that would do any such thing. So, why does Jesus even pose that question?
[00:21:23] Well, on the one hand, it is again to recall for us the words of Moses when he said: God guided the people through the seraph serpents and the scorpions in the desert, meaning that God is a protective Father and he will always watch out for his people.
[00:21:44] But then Jesus takes that a step further because he really wants to compare human fathers with God, our heavenly Father.
[00:21:55] Because he says…
“If you then, who are evil,”
Jesus does not mean that every human father is evil. What he means is that human fathers (and not just fathers, but all human beings, let's face it), are subject to concupiscence, which is our tendency towards sin, our tendency towards evil actions.
[00:22:25] “If you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
[00:22:36] Jesus uses the phrase: HOW MUCH MORE over and over again to demonstrate the generosity of God the Father.
[00:22:45] And what is the greatest gift, other than the Incarnate Son, Jesus, that God can bestow on his people? Well, it's the Holy Spirit… and God does that at Pentecost.
[00:23:01] Remember, that hasn't yet happened for the disciples, but it has for us. So, we already know that God has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit.
[00:23:12] So what is our takeaway from this parable, its explanation, and those unusual questions?
[00:23:24] First of all, that in our prayer to God, we should present our needs to him openly, freely, and boldly, without hesitation or embarrassment.
[00:23:40] He knows us… he already knows what we're going to ask, so we should just ask! Next, it reminds us that we can be bold in our prayer because of our absolute trust in God the Father, and that perseverance and persistence in prayer are crucial.
[00:24:08] If we ask God for anything, we will receive everything that he wants to bestow upon us… because we have asked.
[00:24:18] He will bestow the Holy Spirit, he will bestow the gift of the Eucharist - the body and blood of Jesus, the true bread from heaven - he will bestow eternal life in the kingdom, every good thing that he created us to have, he will bestow upon us… as long as we are ready, willing, and able to receive those gifts.
[00:24:51] This passage also reminds us that prayer cannot and does not change God, but it can and should change us… if we are patient.
[00:25:10] That takes us to our First Reading, which is from Genesis 18: 20-32.
[00:25:17] “[In those days] the LORD said, ‘Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomor’rah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry which has come to me; and if not, I will know.’ So the men turned from there, and went toward Sodom; but Abraham still stood before the LORD. Then Abraham drew near, and said, ‘Will you indeed destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?’ And the LORD said, ‘If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.’ Abraham answered, ‘Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?’ And he said, ‘I will not destroy it If I find forty-five there.’ Again he spoke to him, and said, ‘Suppose forty are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of forty I will not do it.’ Then he said, ‘Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.’ He answered, ‘I will not do it, if I find thirty there.’ He said, ‘Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.’ Then he said, ‘Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.’”
[00:27:35] This passage begins just ten verses after where we left off last week. Remember, Abraham had provided a lavish banquet for his three guests.
[00:27:49] What we didn't hear was that after they had eaten, Abraham offered to guide his guests toward Sodom and Gomorrah.
[00:27:58] Another detail we miss in those 10 verses is, essentially, God's internal struggle… or the struggle between the angels who accompanied God and God himself (if we look at this from the Jewish perspective)… but that struggle as to whether or not to share with Abraham the fate that is in store for those two cities.
[00:28:26] This passage then focuses on the relationship that is continuing to develop between God and Abraham.
[00:28:39] Abraham is progressing from one who is quietly obedient to God's will (as he was when God instructed him to leave his homeland) to one who is passionately just and protective - essential qualities for a man destined to be the father of many nations.
[00:29:05] So, let's break open this passage…
[00:29:09] “[In those days] the LORD said, ‘Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomor’rah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry which has come to me; and if not, I will know.’”
The author of Genesis is, of course, anthropomorphizing God. He's making God human… giving him human characteristics. This happens over and over in the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible) where God is depicted as having everything from a face and white hair, to hands and arms, to even a range of human emotions.
[00:29:54] God is pure spirit and possesses none of those human characteristics. But so often, in our own misguided attempts to understand God, we often try to make him over into our image (something we do understand) since we cannot possibly comprehend the totality of God. So, that is what the author is doing there.
[00:30:26] “So the men turned from there, and went toward Sodom; but Abraham still stood before the LORD.”
Looking at this sentence from the Jewish viewpoint, the two men that went to Sodom would have been the angels that accompanied God, while God, of course, stayed with Abraham.
[00:30:49] And that is certainly valid Jewish theology.
[00:30:53] That, however, does not preclude Christian theologians from interpreting that in a Trinitarian manner. Remember, the Holy Trinity is three separate persons, all sharing one divine essence. So, two members could have gone to Sodom while the Father stayed with Abraham.
[00:31:20] And whatever those two members learned, the Father would automatically know, because they do share one divine essence.
[00:31:34] “Then Abraham drew near, and said, ‘Will you indeed destroy the righteous with the wicked?’”
[00:31:41] Abraham is asking God if he is really so callous that he will treat the righteous and the wicked the same way. A bold question, to be sure, but one that Abraham does not hesitate to ask as he is growing into his new role.
[00:32:01] Then Abraham presents a series of what-if scenarios. He says…
“Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?’”
[00:32:31] Abraham is attempting to lay a very human guilt trip on God - and he's shoveling it on pretty thick. But what is really happening is that Abraham is learning how to bargain, or negotiate, with God - not for his own benefit, but for the benefit of others.
[00:33:00] Or at least that's what we may be tempted to assume… but this isn't really pure altruism on Abraham's part.
[00:33:11] Lot and his family (remember Lot? Lot is Abraham's nephew)… Lot and his family are residents of Sodom.
[00:33:22] This section not only teaches us about God's justice, which sees both the righteous and the wicked, but also about God's mercy, which, as we will see, is willing to spare the wicked for the sake of the righteous.
[00:33:48] So, let's listen a bit further in on these negotiations….
[00:33:52] “And the LORD said, ‘If I find at Sodom and fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.’”
[00:34:03] That's a wonderful promise. But since Abraham has already achieved some measure of success, he decides he's going to press his advantage.
[00:34:16] “Abraham answered, ‘Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?’”
[00:34:32] I know we can all do the math, but Abraham is essentially saying, what if there aren't fifty, but only forty-five?
[00:34:40] “And [God] said, ‘I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.’ Again [Abraham] spoke to him, and said, ‘Suppose forty are found there.’ [God] answered, ‘For the sake of forty I will not do it.’ Then [Abraham] said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.’”
Abraham is upping the ante and laying even more guilt - human guilt, by the way - upon God, which God cannot feel.
“[God] answered, ‘I will not do it if I find thirty there.’ [Abraham] said, ‘Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.’”
Throughout these negotiations, every time Abraham starts one of his statements with some form of self deprecation, I hear an echo of the abbreviation IMHO in his words.
[00:35:51] Now whether you read that abbreviation as: “in my humble opinion” or “in my honest opinion” (and let's face it, humble and honest are two very different things) but regardless, I fear that many opinions offered in that manner are neither humble nor honest.
[00:36:17] And let's face it, Abraham himself is being neither humble nor honest in this situation. He is shamelessly attempting to flatter God, hoping to get the results that he wants.
[00:36:38] “[God] answered, ‘For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.’”
[00:36:44] What we are learning from these negotiations is that every time Abraham wins some small concession from God, he is then emboldened to go even further.
[00:36:57] “Then he said, ‘Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.’”
[00:37:12] I think Abraham finally reached the minimum number he was looking at… because, I think in his head, he was calculating how many people he would need to get to to cover Lot and his family and his immediate servants. So, ten was probably the minimum number he could think of that would work. And shortly after this passage, we learn just exactly how wicked the men of Sodom are - not to mention Lot himself (Lot is not without guilt or fault). And we like to whitewash the wickedness Abraham references in this passage, but we shouldn't.
[00:38:03] If you've never read Genesis 19, or if it's been some time since you've done so, it is gut churning… it truly shows the depth of human depravity. And as I said, Lot is not faultless in any of this, nor is his family.
[00:38:28] But despite the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah, despite the evil, despite the depravity, God is still just and merciful. Yes, in his justice he destroys the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, but in his mercy he spares Lot and his family.
[00:38:53] That may not have been a good thing in the end, but even that is left to God's judgment. But what about us? What do we take away from this passage?
[00:39:06] First, it is a good reminder to us that prayer cannot be solely for our own benefit. Not that it's wrong to pray for our own intentions, it isn't, but we need to pray for others, too.
[00:39:23] And keep in mind, Abraham was trying to convince God to spare both cities entirely, or at the very least, to spare Sodom entirely - and that didn't happen. So, from that we also have to learn that our prayers may not be answered in the way we expect or as quickly as we hope.
[00:39:53] But remember, prayer isn't intended to influence God… prayer is intended to transform us.
[00:40:05] That brings us to our Responsorial Psalm, which is Psalm 138, and the refrain is:
“Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.”
[00:40:15] And here are the verses:
“I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart; [you have heard the words of my mouth.] [B]efore the angels I sing your praise; I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name.”
“[In] your mercy and your faithfulness; you have exalted above everything your name and your word. On the day I called, you answered me. my strength of soul you increased.”
“[T]hough the LORD is high, he regards the lowly; but the haughty he knows from afar. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies.”
“[Y]our right hand delivers me. The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your mercy, O LORD, endures for ever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.”
[00:41:15] This Psalm is an Individual Prayer of Confidence in God - altogether appropriate for this week.
[00:41:24] This Psalm clearly expresses the Psalmist's confidence in God's faithfulness, his divine assistance, his justice, and - most of all - his merciful love and compassion.
[00:41:42] One thing I want to point out… in the first stanza, we hear the phrase YOU HAVE HEARD THE WORDS OF MY MOUTH. That phrase is found in a few translations of the Bible, but not in others - the age of the translation doesn't seem to make any difference - whether it's a more modern or a more ancient translation - and I am truly at a loss to explain the discrepancy. I haven't been able to find any reason for this difference.
[00:42:19] What I can say is that while these words are not in the NAB (the New American Bible) - the translation upon which the Catholic Lectionary is based. They are found in the Grail Psalter, which is a 1963 English translation of the Book of Psalms, which is becoming the preferred text for liturgical use.
[00:42:52] There's one other thing I would like to spend some time on before we go to the Second Reading, and that is the word mercy, which appears twice in this Psalm. The word mercy is translated from the Hebrew word: hesed.
[00:43:11] Hesed is a complex and multifaceted attribute that belongs solely to God. It encompasses a number of qualities like kindness, constancy, and mercy, but it is also loyalty and faithfulness beyond human feelings or emotions, it is immeasurable and eternal divine love and fidelity, it is graciousness and compassion to all of creation, and it is an enduring commitment to the covenant he established with mankind in the face of mankind's repeated rejection. It seems that in an episode dealing, at least partly, with God's mercy, we should develop a better understanding of what that means.
[00:44:21] That then takes us to our Second Reading, which is from Colossians 2: 12-14.
[00:44:30] “[Brothers and sisters:] [Y]ou were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”
[00:45:11] This is the third of four passages we will hear from Colossians this summer. In this passage, Paul develops a very vivid metaphor for the forgiveness of sins.
[00:45:24] It's hard for modern Christians to fully understand Paul's imagery because most of us regard circumcision as a medical procedure rather than an outward symbol of a Covenant relationship. But, as a faithful Jew, Paul fully grasps the significance of circumcision as an outward sign of an inward reality, as an expression of the deep and abiding relationship the Chosen People have with God through the Covenant.
[00:46:04] Now, some of you may be wondering if this is a change of heart for Paul, because didn't he just say to the Galatians that NEITHER CIRCUMCISION NOR UNCIRCUMCISION COUNTS FOR ANYTHING?
[00:46:19] Well, kudos on having good memory, if you thought of that, and yes, he did say that. But he was using that phrase to clarify that the Mosaic Law and all the works of the Law cannot save a person, especially if those works are done out of empty habit rather than sincere faith.
[00:46:45] As Christians, we are not able to view circumcision from the Jewish perspective, but Paul begins with another image to which we can all relate… and that is burial!
[00:47:02] So, let's hear what Paul has to say….
“[Brothers and sisters:] [Y]ou were buried with Christ in baptism,”
[00:47:11] That is a central theme throughout Paul's baptismal theology. The waters of Baptism, Paul likens again and again to a tomb that the unbaptized enter - fully encumbered by their failings, faults, and sins.
“in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God.”
Meaning that the newly Baptized - the Neophytes, as they are called - emerged from the waters of Baptism, raised as new creations, washed clean from all their impurities by the mercy of God.
“who raised him from the dead.”
The Neophytes are raised from the water as new creations, just as Jesus was raised from the tomb.
[00:48:13] “And you, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,”
[00:48:19] The Neophytes, those who are newly Baptized, before their Baptism were dead because of sin, certainly. But by uncircumcision, Paul is saying, not only were they in sin… they were wallowing in sin! That's what Paul means by the uncircumcision of the flesh.
[00:48:47] And in Romans 2, Paul writes: “real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal” - meaning that true circumcision is a total spiritual transformation, much more so than a simple physical procedure.
[00:49:18] “[you] God, made alive together with [Christ], having forgiven us all our trespasses,”
We are made new creations as we emerge from the waters of baptism… and the Sacrament of Baptism washes away sin!
“having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands;”
[00:49:50] That is something else that takes a bit of explanation for us to understand. A bond was a legal document granting possession of a slave. Paul is comparing the bond of slavery with the demands of the Mosaic Law.
[00:50:15] Even Jesus himself said in John 8: “everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” And being in slavery to sin is a common theme for Paul, but he continues…
“this he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”
[00:50:37] These are powerful words that describe how Jesus made peace with the world through his sacrifice on the Cross. Is Paul saying that Jesus negated the law? Absolutely not! Jesus himself said in Matthew 5: “I come not to abolish the law but to fulfill it.”
[00:51:05] Instead, what is being negated is the condemnation that is inherent in the Mosaic Law. People are no longer stoned or shunned for committing sin - thank heaven for that, because we are all sinners, but now we can approach God's mercy in the Sacraments of the Church and receive healing and forgiveness rather than condemnation.
[00:51:41] God's justice demands that we still be held accountable for our sins, and we will have to give an accounting of ourselves when we meet Jesus at the end of our lives. Catholics, of course, believe in the concept of purgatory which allows for anything that still separates us from the love of God to be burned away by the fire of God's love before we enter the kingdom of Heaven.
[00:52:15] Now, we don't know exactly what will happen when we meet Jesus at the end of our lives, nor at the Second Coming at the end of time. Regardless of what happens or doesn't happen after we die, we have a lot to concentrate on and much work to do while we are still alive.
Part of that work involves prayer… prayer for ourselves, prayer for others, prayer for our world. In a society where we have been conditioned to expect immediate gratification, prayer can, and should, teach us patience and perseverance.
[00:53:06] Our prayer cannot add anything to nor take anything away from God, but it can impact us, it can transform us… as long as we can learn to be patient!
[00:53:30] If you would like to reach out to me with questions or comments, send me an email at
[email protected]
Thank you for spending this time with me and until next we meet, may God shower his blessings upon you like a soft and gentle rain and may he hold you, safe and secure, in the palm of his hand.
From His Word to Our Hearts is produced by SFS Audio Solutions.
The content of the show was assembled by me, Sally Moriarty-Flask.
Our music was composed by Jimmy Flask and is used with the permission of the composer. All rights reserved.
Information regarding references used in preparing the exegesis of this podcast is available upon request.
Thank you for listening and God bless.
