This week’s first reading from Genesis begin with chapter 12 and the time of the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. They represent “a forward step in the divine plan to bring about recognition of the divine blessing promised to the world, if only humanity would obey and honor God.”   (BG 66. Catholic Study Bible)   

The Old Testament stories can be puzzling, sometimes unjust by our standards. Think about the sacrifice of Isaac and Sarah’s cruel treatment of Hagar. It’s hard for us to see this period as “a forward step” and realize that “the overall purpose of Genesis 12-50 is to carry forward God’s promise “despite all obstacles.” (BG 70)

Psalm 33, read on Monday, insists God’s promise is to make Israel that step forward and a blessing for all the nations: “Blessed the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he has chosen for his own inheritance. From heaven the LORD looks down; he sees all mankind.”

Our gospel readings from the Sermon on the Mount end this week. Jesus goes down to the plain, the real world, where he meets a leper and then a paralyzed man. (Saturday). His “real world” was like the world of Abraham and the Jewish prophets. He brought it a step forward to the Kingdom of Heaven God promised.

Still, it’s hard to see his times as a “step forward”, isn’t it? But, can we see our times now as a “step forward”? Yet they are.

We’re celebrating this week the Birth of John the Baptist (Tuesday) and feast of Sacred Heart. (Friday)

The miracle of the loaves and fish that Jesus worked for a crowd of people by Sea of Galilee is one of his most important miracles. All four gospels report it. Mark reports it twice.

Jesus takes five loaves and two fish and feeds more than five thousand people, according to Luke’s Gospel.  They not only have enough, they have more than enough.

Why does Jesus work this miracle? The reason the gospel gives is that the crowd he’s talking to is hungry. They’re far from where they could buy food for themselves and they’re hungry.

So, the first reason Jesus works this miracle is not to prove he has divine power, but because people are hungry. They need to live, and to live you need to eat. 

But their hunger– which is also our hunger– is for more than food and drink.  We want a place to live, we want a life where we can flourish as human beings. Their hunger, like ours, is for more than eating and drinking.

Luke’s gospel today begins by saying that Jesus was speaking to the crowds about the kingdom of God and he healed those who needed to be cured. He gives meaning to their search for meaning and he restores life to them.

 He renews the promises of God, beginning with the good things of creation, signified by the bread and the fish. Bread from the land; fish from the sea. Bread stands for everything, all the blessings this life can bring. The fish stands for the blessings the waters bring. 

Yesterday Pope Leo addressed representatives of over 80 nations and spoke to them of the blessings the world is hungering for today. He spoke of their responsibility to listen and to defend the vulnerable and the marginalized.” This means working to overcome the unacceptable disproportion between the immense wealth concentrated in the hands of a few and the world’s poor,” he.said.

“Those who live in extreme conditions cry out to make their voices heard, and often find no ears willing to hear their plea…This imbalance generates situations of persistent injustice, which readily lead to violence and, sooner or later, to the tragedy of war.” 

Today Leo spoke of the hunger for peace. “Today more than ever, humanity cries out and pleads for peace,” he said. The cry for peace “demands responsibility and reason and must not be drowned out by the roar of weapons or by rhetorical words that incite conflict.”

Pope Leo urged every member of the international community to take up their moral responsibility to “stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss.”When human dignity is at stake, he said, no conflict is distant. “War does not solve problems,”the Pope note. “On the contrary, it amplifies them and causes deep wounds in the history of peoples—wounds that take generations to heal… No military victory can ever compensate for a mother’s pain, a child’s fear, or a stolen future.”

The Pope expressed his hope for the din of arms to fall silent.“Let diplomacy silence the weapons!” he said. “Let nations shape their future with works of peace, not through violence and bloody conflicts!”

We pray today to Jesus Christ, who recognized the hunger of the crowd. May he recognize our hunger for justice and peace. He is present in our world, as the presence in the Eucharist assures us. He can reach places we cannot. He can speak to those we cannot. He can move hearts and minds beyond us.

We hunger for peace. Grant us peace, Lord.

“This is how you are to pray: Our Father…….”

Gerhard Lohfink in his recent book “The Our Father” notes that ancient Near Eastern prayers always carefully address the god one wished to approach. An Akkadian prayer, for example, begins: “God of heaven and earth, firstborn of Anu, Dispenser of kingship, Chief Executive of the Assembly of the gods, Father of gods and men, Granter of agriculture, Lord of the air”.

“One senses that the forms of address had to be precise; otherwise the god would not listen. It’s not a simple matter to speak to him without making a mistake. Correct language and competence in praying are required. Above all, one must know the deity’s proper name.

Nothing of the kind in the Our Father! ‘Abba’ that’s the only address. It’s familial.”

The creed and other Christian prayers keep that address as first. “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.” The Creator is our Father. The creed tells us what we as God’s children have received from our Father and what we are promised. 

“We would not dare claim such a name in prayer, unless God himself had given us permission to pray this. And so, we should remember that when we call God our Father, we must live as his children.” (St. Cyprian)

It’s not in family or friends, some government agency or business that we find our the ultimate security we look for, but in God who gives us more than we ask for.

Where do we pray?

Jesus taught that we should pray “in secret.” Some may say that means pray in congenial places like the setting above. But St. Cyprian suggests that space may be wherever you find yourself. God is everywhere.

“The eyes of the Lord are everywhere.” So God is ready everywhere to engage us. Praying in secret testifies to the “everywhereness” of God. We can’t limit prayer to one place or time or some favored words..

What about the prayers we pray? Have they just become memorized words? “God hears our heart, not our words,” Cyprian says. God heard Anna who prayed for a child and the publican who prayed for forgiveness. They were not praying words, they prayed from the heart.

Prayer begins, not with yourself, the way the self-absorbed Pharisee prayed in the parable Jesus taught. Prayer begins with God. You are in the presence of God, everywhere. Be like the publican who knew he was a creature of the earth, waiting to the raised up. 

“Rejoice in the Lord” our psalm at Mass says. You are God’s children who call out “Abba.” And God hears us.

When we pray, we never pray only for ourselves. Here’s St. Cyprian: “Above all, the Teacher of peace and Master of unity did not want prayer to be made singly and privately, so that whoever prayed would pray for himself alone. We do not say My Father, who art in heaven or Give me this day my daily bread; nor does each one ask that only his own debt should be forgiven him; nor does he request for himself alone that he may not be led into temptation but delivered from evil. Our prayer is public and common, and when we pray, we pray not for one person but for the whole people, since we, the whole people, are one.”

You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on [your] right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile,* go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.

Retaliation is often built into our legal systems and the way we think. “You do this, and you’ll get that.”  “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” 

Jesus asks for something more than getting back at someone. God is merciful. He turns the other cheek, he walks more than a mile with us, he opens the door when beggars like us knock. 

Jesus offered an example of this when he suffered and died at the hands of others. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” 

I have Tissot’s picture of Jesus teaching on most of the blogs these days. Those listening to him are not a picked group; everybody’s represented there. Some are still coming to hear him. Jesus does not wait for the perfect moment or the perfect audience. He teaches, continually. The Sower scatters seeds, even on uncertain ground.

We continue this week reading from the Sermon on the Mount, a summary of the teaching of Jesus found in chapters 5-7 in Matthew’s Gospel. After promising beatitudes (Mt. 5:1-16),  Jesus calls for addressing anger, lust, vengeance and our tendency to lie more deeply than we may like,  We must go beyond the scribes and pharisees in keeping God’s law, Matthew says. (Mt. 5:21-27) The Sermon on the Mount was considered the basic catechism of the Church from earliest times. It’s still teaches what we believe and hope for.

Jesus warns against giving alms to be seen and teaches prayer in chapter 6. The great prayer, the Our Father, is found in the Matthew 6: 7-15, read this Thursday. We will be quoting from S.t Cyprian, one of the greatest commentators on the teaching of Jesus on prayer.

We’re reading from the Sermon on the Mount until Friday of the 12 Week of the Year. On that day, Jesus comes down from the mountain. He enters a world that’s “troubled and abandoned.” There, people are “like sheep without a shepherd.” Even though a number of feasts interrupt the continuous reading from the Sermon on the Mount, it’s important to reflect on this important part of Matthew’s gospel.

The Nativity of John the Baptist is celebrated this Saturday.