May continuous effort and humility flourish in our daily spiritual prayers!
Selvaraj Soosaimanikam : Vatican
(Texts I. Num. 18: 20-32 II. Col. 2: 12-14 III. Luke 11: 1-13)
Today we celebrate the 17th Sunday of Lent. Today’s texts show us the strength and power of prayer. In our daily spiritual life, we cannot take any shortcut to receive the blessings of God. Instead, we need three main characteristics: deep faith, perseverance and humility. Today’s first text presents Abraham as a great example of this.
The boss of a large company decided to hand over the responsibility of the company to a talented person working for him as he was getting old. He ordered everyone to come to his room. When everyone arrived. “One of you must take charge of my company, so I’m going to challenge you. “Whoever succeeds in that is the next manager,” he said. “Now I have many seeds in my hand and I will give one to each person. You should plant it in a pot at your house, water it with compost and grow well and bring it next year and show it to me. He said that he whose plant grows well should take charge of my company. Everyone bought a seed each. Rafiq, who works in that company, also bought a seed. He told his wife everything the boss told him. His wife helped him to plant the seed by giving him the tank, fertilizer and water. After a week everyone in the company started talking about the plants in their pots. But the seed in Rafiq’s tank never germinated. Even after a month the seeds did not germinate. Days passed. It’s been six months. Even then the seed in the pot never germinated. At that time, Rabeeq began to lament, “Have I wasted the seed?” However, he did not stop watering the plant daily. He didn’t tell anyone in the office that the plant wasn’t growing in his pot.
A year passed and everyone brought the tanks to show the boss. Rafiq told his wife, “I will not take the empty tank.” His wife reassured him and said, “You did what your boss told you for a whole year. You don’t have to worry about the plant not growing. You have been honest in your actions. So take the tank and show it to the boss,” she said. Rabi also took the empty tank to the office. The boss looked at everyone’s tanks. Different plants were at different heights. Everyone started laughing when they saw this tank. The boss called everyone to his room and said, “You all have grown the plant beautifully. He said that one of you is going to take over as manager today. Once again he visited everyone’s plant. Rafiq was standing in the last row. He invited him to come to him.
The boss asked Rafiq, “Where is your plant?” Rafiq told him that the seed had been planted and fertilized and watered. The boss said, “Everyone sit down except Rafiq.” Then Rafiq put his hand on his shoulder and said, “This is the person who is going to take over the management of our company.” Rafiq’s only shock was that the plant never grew in his pot and then he was confused as to why he was giving us this responsibility. “Last year I gave each of you a seed to grow, wasn’t it? They were all boiled seeds. Because those seeds are sown, they will not germinate. All of you have planted another seed instead because the seed I gave you did not germinate. But Rafiq was the only one who was honest and said that he alone is fit to manage my company.
Abraham’s conversation with God to save the righteous living in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah makes us mesmerize. His conversation with the mighty God, beginning with the fifty men and 10 men, shows his high mind that the innocent and righteous should not be unjustly punished. We can also call this conversation of Abraham as the conversation of God. At the end of this conversation, Abraham’s continuous effort can be seen to be successful. In today’s Gospel, Jesus was praying to God somewhere. When it was over, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciple.” He said to them, “Say this when you wish to God.” Jesus teaches us to pray by saying that. This prayer is very, very simple. But at the same time, it covers all the elements. We say this prayer at all stages of our Christian life. Today’s Gospel contains two main ideas. First, there must be constant effort in our worship. Second, we should humbly raise our prayers.
Matthew the evangelist illustrates this same passage in another context. That is, Jesus himself says that he teaches to pray voluntarily. The main reason for this is that pride, arrogance, and mere words ran rampant in the prayers raised by the Pharisees. That is why Jesus comes forward and teaches them how to pray. “When you want God, don’t be angry like other people; They think that their prayers will be heard because they keep pouring out more words. Don’t be like them. Because your Father knows your need before you even ask. So you pray to God like this” (Mat 6:7,8) He teaches this prayer. Also, Jesus strongly condemns the hypocritical spiritual practices of the Pharisees. They do what they want people to see; widening their cryptic textual bands; They enlarge the tassels of the robe. They love the prime seats at banquets and the prime seats in prayer halls; In the marketplaces people like to salute them and call them Rabbi. (Matthew 23:5-7)
God does not always like our prayers that are full of arrogance, pride and selfishness. A great example of this is Jesus’ parable of the ‘Pharisee and the tax collector’. Look at the Pharisee praying. The Pharisee stood and prayed to the Lord: ‘God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people, such as robbers, dishonest, adulterers, or like this tax collector; I fast twice a week; I give one tenth of all my income.‘ (Luke 18:11, 12). Meanwhile, the tax collector prays brokenhearted. But the publican stood at a distance, not daring to look up to heaven, and beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner.'” (Luke 18:13). In today’s first reading, Abraham’s conversation with God shows the lowliness seen in the tax collectors.
Once the sea was thinking about what trees were coming to it. “When the rivers flood they bring all kinds of trees. The great banyan trees and the royal trees have no escape from them. But, so far no river has ever brought me the neer nochi tree. What would be the reason?” thought that. The sea could not come to any conclusion. Then he called all the rivers and said, “You bring all kinds of trees and add them to me. Among those trees, I have not seen only the water nochi tree so far. That tree is a small tree. It has no power to stand against you. Why don’t you bring those trees? Did they help you at all? Don’t you just grab them thanks to that? I called you to know the reason!” said. It is one of the largest rivers. “Sea king! All the trees we hauled are bragging rights. Played with arrogance and arrogance. They stood against us by their strength. So we uprooted them and dragged them. The watery trees see us coming in flood, and humbly bow to us. Then they stand upright. They are humble and neither destroyed nor humiliated. Don’t you know this?” That said. “What you say is true. No one can destroy the humble!” is the sea. The appearance of the mountain is as big as the mountain (Kural 124). Valluvar Perundagai says that the humility of one who does not change in any situation is greater and higher than a mountain. Therefore, let continuous effort and humility flourish in our daily spiritual prayers. Let’s ask the Lord for blessings on this day.