(Seventeenth Sunday of the Year (C): This homily was given
on July 24, 2016 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond
Suriani. Read Genesis 18: 20-32; Luke
11: 1-13.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Seventeenth Sunday 2016]
Was Abraham’s prayer answered?
He prayed for the people of Sodom in today’s first
reading, asking the Lord to spare the city in spite of the great wickedness and
evil that was present there. But, as we
all know, the place eventually got “torched”: fire and brimstone came down from
heaven at God’s command and annihilated the city—as well as everyone who lived
there.
Now some might read the story of these events in
Genesis 18 and 19 and say that Abraham’s prayer—his intercessory prayer for
God’s mercy—was not answered.
But I would disagree with that. I would say that God did in fact answer
Abraham’s prayer, even though the intention of that prayer (the saving of
Sodom) was not fulfilled.
You see, there’s a difference between a prayer
that’s answered and a prayer that has its intention “fulfilled.”
In this we can learn something about the
intercessory prayers that we offer up for people each and every day—especially
the prayers we offer up for the conversion of members of our own families.
Abraham’s desire in this story—you might say his
“deepest prayer”—was that at least 10 people in the city of Sodom would respond
to the grace of God in a positive way—by repenting of their sins and resolving
to live in a state of righteousness before the Lord. Now he no doubt wanted the whole city to
repent and get right with God, but he had been in Sodom long enough to know
that that wasn’t likely to happen. So he
engaged in a brief dialogue with the Lord, getting him to agree that if he could
find just 10 innocent people in Sodom he’d spare everybody else.
So Abraham’s prayer was answered—God’s powerful
and merciful grace was offered to all
the citizens of the city—but, unfortunately, less than 10 of them allowed that
saving grace to transform their lives.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
The lesson here is that when we pray for the
conversion of other people—our relatives, our friends, even people we don’t
know—God always offers those individuals the grace they need to say yes to him
and change their lives.
In that sense, he always “answers” our prayers.
But, like the people of Sodom, the men and women
we pray for can say no to that grace. And,
sadly, they often do. There’s a
principle that you learn when you study theology: “Grace perfects nature.” Grace doesn’t negate or override nature. And so, because God gave us a free will as a
part of our human nature, his grace will never “force” us to do anything. It may prompt us to do or say certain things;
it may inspire us to do or say certain things, but the grace of God will never
overpower the precious gift of freedom that our Creator has given us.
I know a 25-year-old young man who has parents who
have been have been on their knees for years, praying that he’ll get serious
about life and start practicing his Catholic faith again. (This a very typical situation that I’m sure
many of you can identify with.) We’ll
call this young man John (although that’s not his real name). Now I am absolutely certain that every single
time John’s parents have said a prayer for him God sent that boy a special
grace. In that sense, the Lord has answered
ALL their prayers. But for a long time,
just like the people of Sodom, John said no to the grace he was given—until the
last few months, when he’s finally begun to say yes to God’s grace and move in
a positive direction. One big reason for
the change is that the Lord brought a really nice girl into his life who’s
motivating him to be more accountable and more responsible. It’s like the boy Bishop Sheen wrote about in
one of his books. Sheen wrote, “[This
young man] would not comb his hair, wash behind his ears, clean his
fingernails, or come to the table with clean clothes. And when he went out the door, he always
slammed it. [But then] one day he came
down, hair combed, clean clothes, hands well-washed, and clean behind the ears. And when he went out the door, he closed it
gently. His parents could not understand
it. They had begged, coaxed, pleaded,
and bribed to no avail. [What they did not realize was] he had met Suzie.”
This is why I tell parents, “If you are praying
for your son’s or daughter’s conversion to the faith, or for their return to
the faith, make sure that you ask the Lord in your prayer time every day to
send your child a good, Catholic friend—or several of them! Like or not, the fact of the matter is that
young people today will very often listen to their friends before they listen
to their parents. That’s not a good
thing, but it is the way it is. It’s
reality. So go with reality! If your child strikes up a friendship with
another young person who is Catholic, caring and moral, then that young person
will probably do your work for you. He
or she will motivate your child and challenge your child in a way that your
child will probably be open to and responsive to—which will make it much more
likely that your child will say yes to the grace God is offering him or her in
response to your prayers.”
One of the reasons why many of the people of Sodom
did not say yes to God’s grace was because the culture there was so corrupt. Practically speaking, this means that, if you
were a person living in Sodom at the time of Abraham, in all likelihood ALL your
friends (or at least the vast majority of them) were corrupt. That’s a reasonable presumption given the
fact that there weren’t even 10 righteous people in the entire place. With all those negative influences, it’s
obvious that repentance and conversion were highly unlikely—even among those
who otherwise would have been open to change.
And so, in spite of the prayer of a great saint like Abraham, the grace
that God offered out of his great mercy was rejected.
His prayer was answered, but its intention was not
fulfilled.
We’re living in a culture right now that in many
ways is exactly like the culture of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah: hedonistic,
violent and ungodly. This is the culture
our young people are growing up in: almost everything they see and hear during
the course of their day is pointing them away from God. Thankfully, however, they do have one very
big advantage: they have more opportunities—many more opportunities—to find
good, godly friends than the people of Sodom did just before their city was
destroyed. The experience of John and
his new girlfriend makes that fact crystal clear.
Which, of course, is great news.
But we need to pray—faithfully and persistently
(as Jesus indicates we should in today’s gospel)—that the Lord will help our
young people TO FIND good and godly friends and TO BE INFLUENCED by those friends
in a positive way.
Then our prayer will be answered like Abraham’s
was (because God’s grace will be given), and the intention of our prayer will
in all likelihood be fulfilled (which Abraham’s intention for Sodom was not)
because the person we love and are praying for WILL say yes to God’s grace and
change their life for the better.
