Homily: July 24, 2022, Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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 We heard from the first reading: “Suppose there were fifty innocent people in the city; would you wipe out the place rather than spare it for the sake of the fifty innocent people within it?”

Abraham was bargaining with God, to save Sodom.

Then we heard the example Jesus used in the gospel: “I tell you if he does not get up to give the visitor because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.”

That friend was persistent in begging for what he needed.

What can we understand from these readings?

How many of you buy stuff from Facebook? I do. I would search Facebook sellers for what I need and if I see something suitable, I will make an offer. When I first began FB shopping, I would counter-offer starting at just a slightly lower price. So, if the item was $50, I would ask for $40. When the seller agreed to it easily, I wondered if I could have gotten it for $20!

Over time, I became smarter. I would counter-offer starting from the lowest possible price, and sometimes it works! Because some Facebook sellers are just eager to get rid of their stuff, and I get my best deal.

That’s how the Asian way of bargaining works too. If you go to India or Thailand, you will have to bargain with street sellers. You should always start from the lowest possible price. But be forewarned, if the seller finally agrees with your price, then you must buy it. If you don’t, the sellers will curse you madly! And loudly!

If Abraham was Indian, he would have begun the bargaining starting at 10, and not 50. That would give him more room to bargain even lower, right?

But Abraham knew what he was asking for. Sodom was a city full of evil and sin, there may not even be one single innocent person. But Abraham’s nephew, Lot was living in Sodom with his wife and daughters so Abraham wished they would be saved, that God would be merciful not to destroy the whole city, for the sake of a few righteous people.

Isn’t that our salvation story too? That God would be merciful to the whole sinful world because of one holy and sinless man.

It is interesting to observe how God responds to Abraham’s bargaining, He does not rebuke him but allows him to persist in asking.

What kind of relationship is shown here?

If you had a real need, a troublesome matter, would you persist in begging someone you do not trust, someone you are not close to? I don’t think so. You may fear being rejected, you would not want to test a weak friendship because it may just turn nasty. There is no confidence in such a relationship.

But if you had a close friend whom you trust, whom you know would not break the friendship, just because he was annoyed by your pestering, then you would be free to knock on his door anytime of the day, you would be brave to disturb his sleep, even if it meant facing his grumbles. You are confident that the friendship will remain despite the test.

God is this kind of friend with Abraham. Abraham trusts that God will not reject him, he is confident that God will not break the relationship because he bargained and bargained until he is satisfied.

This is the beauty of God’s love for us. He is this kind of friend with us. We can approach Him like a real, close and trustworthy friend. A friend we can count on for honesty, compassion and faithfulness, forever, even though we are sinners.

And our God wants us to pester Him day and night. He welcomes us to ask and beg and bargain. We may wonder why this omniscient God who already knows all our needs, would still want us to ask. Can’t He just give us what we need without our asking?

There is a wonderful study done by Eleonor Stump, a Christian philosopher, who concluded that if God gives us everything we need without us asking, that life and relationship with God would be very passive. Indeed.

A relationship with one totally passive party would become very unhealthy. The passive party would, over time, lose confidence and feel insecure in the relationship which he does not participate in actively, where his actions or behaviour have no effect, no value.

God wants us to play an active role in this relationship with Him. God gives us the freedom to approach Him comfortably and bargain with him confidently, to seek His attention and to ask of Him for our needs.

And to what extent would God give us for our good?

Jesus concluded today’s teaching, “…how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

Who is the Holy Spirit? The third person of the Holy Trinity, who is the giver of life, who is the power of love, who is the healer of souls, who is God.

Yes, God would willingly give of Himself to us, if we only have the confidence and faith to ask. Build up your relationship with God and you will know how to ask, beg and bargain with God for what you need, anytime of the day or night. Amen.


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Homily: February 27, 2022, Eight Sunday in the Ordinary Time

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Homily: September 26, 2022, Monday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time.

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We heard in the Gospel today: "Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me." We all have been to grocery stores. You see shelves and shelves of everything you need, rows and rows of vegetables and meat, packed, weighed and priced in advance, so you can just pick up what you want.  Back in my childhood, there were no grocery stores in the local village. So to buy vegetables, we go to the vegetable market on Sundays. For meat, we go to the butcher. Every Saturday, they would slaughter a buffalo and sell the meat. Once, my mummy sent my brother and I to buy some meat from her regular butcher. We didn’t know how to choose the best meat but we thought, the butcher would help since he knew my parents very well. Instead, he cheated on us, and packed bad quality meat for us to bring home. Mummy was very upset. The butcher knew we went to buy on behalf of our mummy, his regular customer, but he did not respect that. When he
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Homily: March 23, 2022, Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent.

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