DAILY HOMILY FOR THURSDAY OF THE 11TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME CYCLE I (1)
DAILY HOMILY FOR THURSDAY OF THE 11TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME CYCLE I
THEME: THE LORD’S PRAYER …. “Your Father knows what you need, even before you ask him”
BY: Fr. Emili MARLÉS i Romeu
DAILY HOMILY FOR THURSDAY OF THE 11TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME CYCLE I
THEME: THE LORD’S PRAYER …. “Your Father knows what you need, even before you ask him”
BY: Fr. Emili MARLÉS i Romeu
HOMILY: Today the Lord wants to help us grow in a main issue of our Christian life: the prayer. He warns us not to pray like pagans trying to convince God about what they want. Many times we try to achieve what we want through insistence, being “annoying” to God, believing that we will be heard with our verbosity. The Lord reminds us that the Father is constantly solicitous of our life and that he knows what we need before we ask him at all times, (cf. Mt 6,8). Do we live with this kind of confidence? Am I aware that the Father is constantly washing my feet and that he knows better than anyone what I need at all times (in big things and small things)?
Jesus opens for us a new horizon of prayer: the prayer of those who address to God with the conscience of being children. The type of relationship I have with a person is determined through the way I ask for things to that person , and also what I can expect from him. From a father, and especially from the heavenly Father, I can expect everything and I know that he takes care of my life. For this reason, Jesus, who always lives as a true son, is telling you: “not to be worried about food and drink for yourself” (Mt 6.25). Do I really have this son’s consciousness? Am I addressing God with the same familiarity as I do with my father or mother?
Later, Jesus opens his heart to us, and teaches us what his relationship / prayer with the Father is like so that we also make it ours. With the “Our Father” prayer Jesus teaches us to live as children. Saint Cyprian has a well-known comment about the “Our Father”, telling us: «We must remember and know that, when we call God “Father”, we have to act as his children, in order for him to be pleased with us, as we are pleased to have him as Father ».
Fr. Emili MARLÉS i Romeu
(Sant Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain)
