OMELIE / Omelie EN

23 ott 2022

23/10/2022 – 30th Sunday in O. T. – year C

23/10/2022 – 30^th Sunday in O. T. – year C

Reading 1 SIR 35,12-14.16-18 Psalm 33 Reading 2 2TM 4,6-8.16-18 Gospel LK 18,9-14

“The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds”! These words encourage us to continue our journey of faith, despite the many sufferings which are trying to discourage us, depress us, take our strength away. There are sufferings, all the ones described in the book of Sirach, and those Saint Paul has endured, and then even more we cannot even describe.

The apostle has been abandoned by some disciples of his, who have preferred to go back to a worldly life and reject the faith. There could not be a greater suffering for those who live all revolves around Jesus. He has seen in this way many efforts made and hopes going to waste. When someone abandon the faith is like when they die: people cannot confide in them anymore, they cannot find in them support and solace anymore. Even worse, people cannot expect from them any spiritual help, and often neither material. People cannot trust them anymore completely.

This is true, because those who abandon Jesus and distance themselves from His Church do not have the Holy Spirit anymore, the Spirit of communion which makes us all brethren for each other. There will not be in them anymore the fruit of faithfulness, nor of mercy, nor of meekness. Today, this suffering of the apostle is shared by many parish priests, and, in a maybe more intense way, by many parents and grandparents. What can be done? Humble prayer, today the Lord is telling us in many different ways. Continue to pray, continue so to be focused on the Father, because He does not have evil plans, on the contrary! From prayer Saint Paul receives the strength to continue his testimony in prison, supported only by a few faithful disciples at this point.

How does the prayer need to be? Jesus cannot stop teaching us how to pray, because we, in our relationship with God, cannot ever reach Him! Today His teaching on how to pray is enriched by a very important detail. Sometimes we believe that, in order to be heard by God, we need to be perfect, or holy, we believe that, since we are sinners, God cannot or does not want to listen to us.

This is what Jesus says: God, the Father, is happy to see in front of Him sinners, and He meets them just when they recognise they need His mercy. In order to help us understand this, He gives us an example in which He is showing us two different people praying. Right away we understand what He thinks: it is not enough to say nice lines addressed to God, because what truly matters is the heart. God continues to look at the man’s heart. If in the heart there are accusation and condemnation of others, the prayer which leaves that heart is not a prayer, but pride which hurts God’s heart in the same way as blasfemy. If in the heart there is a desire of boasting, showing off, being noticed, that heart is disgusting for God. When we pray, let us pay attention to the heart. Do we want what the Father desires? The Father desires to see in us His own love for men, a merciful and sympathetic love.

First of all, in true prayer we can see that we are still very far from God, so we ask that He Himself may come closer to us with His forgiveness. We can ask for the same thing for our brothers as well, even for those who are clearly far from observing the commandments and from the communion of God’s people.

When our prayer does not make us grow in humility, the people who are criticising and despising us are right by saying that praying is a waste of time. The times for praying will be occasions in which the realisation of being sinners, and, consequently, our mercy towards everyone, grow: then our praying reaches the goal, our transformation and our communion with the Father and His Son!