DAILY- HOMILY

JULY 25, 2010
17TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – C

GENESIS 18:20-32
Then Yahweh said, 'The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great
and their sin is so grave, that I shall go down and see whether or not
their actions are at all as the outcry reaching me would suggest. Then
I shall know.' While the men left there and went to Sodom, Yahweh
remained in Abraham's presence. Abraham stepped forward and said,
'Will you really destroy the upright with the guilty? Suppose there
are fifty upright people in the city. Will you really destroy it? Will
you not spare the place for the sake of the fifty upright in it? Do
not think of doing such a thing: to put the upright to death with the
guilty, so that upright and guilty fare alike! Is the judge of the
whole world not to act justly?' Yahweh replied, 'If I find fifty
upright people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place
because of them.' Abraham spoke up and said, 'It is presumptuous of me
to speak to the Lord, I who am dust and ashes: Suppose the fifty
upright were five short? Would you destroy the whole city because of
five?' 'No,' he replied, 'I shall not destroy it if I find forty-five
there.' Abraham persisted and said, 'Suppose there are forty to be
found there?' 'I shall not do it,' he replied, 'for the sake of the
forty.' Abraham said, 'I hope the Lord will not be angry if I go on:
Suppose there are only thirty to be found there?' 'I shall not do it,'
he replied, 'if I find thirty there.' He said, 'It is presumptuous of
me to speak to the Lord: Suppose there are only twenty there?' 'I
shall not destroy it,' he replied, 'for the sake of the twenty.' He
said, 'I trust my Lord will not be angry if I speak once more: perhaps
there will only be ten.' 'I shall not destroy it,' he replied, 'for
the sake of the ten.'

COLOSSIANS 2:12-14
You have been buried with him by your baptism; by which, too, you have
been raised up with him through your belief in the power of God who
raised him from the dead. You were dead, because you were sinners and
uncircumcised in body: he has brought you to life with him, he has
forgiven us every one of our sins. He has wiped out the record of our
debt to the Law, which stood against us; he has destroyed it by
nailing it to the cross.

LUKE 11:1-13
Now it happened that he was in a certain place praying, and when he
had finished, one of his disciples said, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as
John taught his disciples.' He said to them, 'When you pray, this is
what to say: Father, may your name be held holy, your kingdom come;
give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we
ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us. And do not put us to
the test.' He also said to them, 'Suppose one of you has a friend and
goes to him in the middle of the night to say, "My friend, lend me
three loaves, because a friend of mine on his travels has just arrived
at my house and I have nothing to offer him;" and the man answers from
inside the house, "Do not bother me. The door is bolted now, and my
children are with me in bed; I cannot get up to give it to you." I
tell you, if the man does not get up and give it to him for
friendship's sake, persistence will make him get up and give his
friend all he wants. 'So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to
you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to
you. For everyone who asks receives; everyone who searches finds;
everyone who knocks will have the door opened. What father among you,
if his son asked for a fish, would hand him a snake? Or if he asked
for an egg, hand him a scorpion? If you then, evil as you are, know
how to give your children what is good, how much more will the
heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!'

REFLECTION
In today's first reading, Abraham acts as intercessor, one who stood
between the people and their God. By his persistent prayer he tried to
turn God's wrath away from the people, even if they deserved to be
punished. And perhaps we can also see Abraham as an early image of
Christ, who would actually call down the destruction upon himself so
that the people, you and I, might be spared in spite of their sin.
Also from this story we see the great scope of God's mercy and
patience. Because of Abraham's prayer, God agrees to temper His anger
with justice. Only ten good people would spare all the rest. As the
hymn says, "There's a wideness in God's mercy, like the wideness of
the sea."

Perhaps we should take it as a warning. When a culture is saturated
with evil, where it is allowed to exist, evil spreads out and infects
even the innocent. Sin is never more contagious than when the mindset
of a culture has given itself over to sin's lies and seductions.
Consider the way evil continually spreads and gets extended more and
more deeply into the mindset of the people.

Evil in the world has reached a point where we are faced today with
moral dilemmas that we could not even have imagined years ago. And
unless we work harder than we could have imagined, the children of
this generation will find it nearly impossible to sort out right from
wrong when they grow up. Finding ten innocent people could be a lot
harder than it seems.

This ancient story lays the foundation for a basic spiritual
principle. The very existence of good people in the world has the
power to save the world from destruction. If we had been in Sodom and
Gomorrah, could we have been counted as one of the ten who could spare
the city? How about today? Are we struggling to lead a good, virtuous
and God-centered life? By virtue of our very willingness to struggle
against evil while in the midst of an evil age, are we doing far more
good for the world than we will ever realize?

PRAYER REQUESTS
We pray …
… for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the unborn.
… for the speedy recovery and healing of
- Alfonso Purugganan
- Atty. Anthony Aparte
- Don Calvo
- Rita P. Cuerva
- Ely Lara
- Boji Barlis
- Msgr. Timothy O'Donovan
- Anaesthasia Rodrigues
- Susan
… for the personal intentions of
- Arnold Cabatingan and Maricar
- Mylene Lingad
- Cris and Raymund Davis
- Titong V
- Vera Yap
- Raffy
- Atrero Family
… in Thanksgiving:
- Davis Family, Correa Family
- Aviles family
- Rex Sison Cortez II
… for good health: Atty. Jose O. Cortez, Nikolai Cortez, Aydin Cortez,
Karl Cortez, Maureen Cortez
… for the eternal repose of the souls of
- Alberto Atrero
- Sister Tim Karaski
Eternal rest grant unto them and may perpetual light shine upon them.
May they and all the dearly departed rest in peace.
… for all the prayer intentions in the MTQ Dailyprayer Diary.
- Birthday: Florence C. Santos
- Birthday: Fr. Santiago Leon, S.J.
- Wedding Anniversary: Rodney & Kim Uy Yu
- In Memoriam (+): James O. Lim
- In Memoriam (+): Eustaquia Mendoza Go
… for world peace and reconciliation.

Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers
and for those who need our prayers the most.

Have a good day!

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