July 24, 2016, / 17th Sunday, Year
C /
[Genesis 18:20-32, Psalm ___,
Colossians 2:12-14, +Luke 11:1-13 ]
Title: “Surrender”
[__00__] We read
about the persistence of certain individuals in the Book of Genesis, about
Abraham, about the persistence of Abraham before God, negotiating, praying for
the people of the city of Sodom.
We read also about the persistence, the
perseverance, of a person showing up in the parable, at midnight, to ask his
friend for 3 loaves of bread.
This persistence, these individual negotiations
have implications for all of us. They remind us, in the case of Abraham, that
Abraham is praying for all the people of the city.
This reminds us to pray for others, to pray that
God’s grace will be given to others, even to pray for the person we might be
jealous of. Why not pray that God bless him or her even more?
[__01__] In the
parable, a visitor goes late at night to see a friend. It is dark, it is midnight, his friend is
asleep. Will this request be
granted?
What if were to receive such a
visitor, caller? Someone is calling at
the door, on the phone, should we listen. Or, silence this caller, ignore?
[__02__] Would
you, would I, wish to wake up…or to be disrupted – day or night – by such a
last minute request?
Of course, this request causes
discomfort and inconvenience.
And, discomfort and inconvenience are reasons we might use to
justify a rejection. We might screen
this call, this caller, drop the call, or ignore the text or email.
Sorry…I did not get your message in
time.
[__03__] Yet, in the Gospel,Jesus offers reasons to
receive the call, open the door, open the email and respond in the affirmative,
to respond YES, positively.
[__03.01__] The first reason is, perhaps, easy, simple,
obvious.
FRIENDSHIP.
We__surrender__ due to our own desire to maintain and bolster the friendship.
For some people, we are pleased to
help. They may even, in the future,
reward us, pay us back.
[__03.02__] The second reason is the challenge to you and
to me. The second reason is different.
How do we regard the persistence, the
perseverance of certain requests?
Of
course, there are some –many – situations where NO is the loving response.
[__04__] On
the other hand, there are times when YES would be the loving response.
Consider the person from whom we have
been hurt by some trespass… they have trespassed against us.
The late-night or last-minute request
may be one of repentance, of admission of guilt. This person may have, in fact,
waited until the last posible moment to apologize, to admit wrongdoing.
The
eleventh-hour request may be for pardon.
Also,
we may discover in the darkness – literally or figuratively – that forgiveness
is the only for you or for me to go back to sleep.
Surrender
is Good News.
[__05__] Or
… consider the compromise we are asked to make for our spouse, a child,
with Mom
or Dad, with a friend, for a person who is ill, in advanced age.
Do
we always equate surrender with defeat?
For
example, isn’t it true that we can lose without being completely deprived?
I think we would admit –accept that in
a compromise… someone gains something..and someone loses something. This is reality.
For example, in marriage or family
life, one person is called to give in, to surrender for the good of the other.
[__06__] And, in marriage – husband and wife – the 1
man and 1 woman make promises not only out of friendship, out of affection, but
also as an act of surrender and of perseverance, of persistence.
Through
this parable, then, we read that Jesus is not only giving us an example of 1
individual giving something privately and invisibly to others. Rather, could we not also say that many
of the things we do – privately, individually, as spouses, as parents are being
performed to benefit, to build up not only our home at our our address on Eagle
Rock Ave, Valley Way, up the hill or down the hill, but rather we also do
things in private for our children, for our spouses, because we believe it will
benefit all of society.
In
a recent essay about marriage, Professor
Robert George and his collaborators observes that marriage serves not only a
private good but a public good … it serves this goods better than the
government can.. for this reason, we pray for its protection.[1]
[__07__] In the Good News of surrender, we
are trying to keep in mind the love of God, the love of the other person…which
rather than creating a division or competition, unites us in communion
(communion) …and helps us gain a greater victory.[2] [__fin__]
[1] Sherif Girgis, Ryan T.
Anderson, Robert P. George, What is
Marriage? New York: Encounter Books, 2012
[2]
FYI - [2] William of Thierry
quote..in breviary, page 1764 __ let your question be a prayer, an expresión of
love,and self-surrender to God.
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