17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C (2025)
17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Genesis 18:20-32
Psalm 138:1-2, 2-3, 6-7. 7-8 (3a)
Colossians 2:12-14
Luke 11:1-13
July 27, 2025
Jesus teaches us how to pray. When we pray, what do we ask for? Jesus says, “What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?” Sometimes we ask for something that seems good but isn’t. It is then that we trust that God will not give what is not good for us.
What should we be praying for? Who should we be praying for?
Sodom and Gomorrah were known as cities of sin. Their sin was so grave that it called out to Heaven. So, our Lord went to “see whether or not their actions fully correspond to the cry against them.”
Abraham is aware of the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. Knowing their sins, some people would have called for their destruction. Abraham does not. Instead he intercedes to our Lord, “Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty.”
Do you wish condemnation on sinners or do you intercede for sinners?
Before you rush to condemn other sinners, you would do well to examine your own conscience.
Abraham is so bold in his prayer that he puts a number to his prayer. First, he asks God if He will spare the city if there are fifty innocent people there. He makes it sound like it would look bad for God to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if there were fifty innocent people there.
When God agrees to not destroy the city if there are fifty innocent people there, Abraham is bold enough to say what if there are forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, lowering it to just ten.
God is merciful. He agrees to not destroy the city even if there were just ten innocent people there.
Sadly, there must not have been ten innocent people there for God did destroy the city…
Is the world any better today? How many innocent people are there in the world today?
Abraham interceded for the city. Do you pray for the world today? The world needs prayer.
We are all sinners. We are all dead in our transgressions. Yet, there is hope. God knows we are sinners but He does not want us condemned. That’s why He sent Jesus to die for us on the Cross.
We are dead because of our sins. In Baptism we hand our lives over to God, dying to the things of this world. Through Baptism, we are raised up with Christ, raised to eternal life “through faith in the power of God.” Jesus brings us to life as He forgives us our transgressions as He nails our sinfulness to the Cross.
We hallow God’s name when we speak of his mercy, his forgiveness, offered through Jesus’ death on the Cross for us.
It is not easy to follow God’s way. To do so, we ask him, “Give us this day our daily bread.” We know we, and all his people, need God’s grace every day.
We ask our Father to “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass us against us.”
If we want to be forgiven, we must forgive others. If we forgive them, then we should intercede for them, praying that God is merciful and helps them become who He means them to be.