Thursday of Week 27 of Ordinary Time – First Reading
Commentary on Galatians 3:1-5
Paul now zeroes in on the Galatians for allowing themselves to be led astray by the Judaising ‘missionaries’ who had been working among them. “Who has bewitched you?” he asks them. Are they out of their minds? It is not that they were incapable of understanding, but they had failed to see the falseness of what they were being led into. Are they not aware that the foundation of all their beliefs is their having been saved by Jesus Christ who died publicly on the cross and rose again? This is not a secret, but a well-known fact. There are echoes here, perhaps, of the bronze snake that Moses displayed on a pole and which saved the lives of all those who looked on it.
Was it through carrying out the external requirements of the Law (e.g. by circumcision and dietary practices) that they had received the Spirit, or rather because they had committed themselves in faith and trust to the message of the gospel which had been proclaimed to them? (Paul will mention the Spirit 16 times altogether in this letter.)
Are they silly enough to reduce their reliance on the Spirit to the mere observance of some external ritual actions? Have they exchanged the guidance of the Spirit for dependence on things of the “flesh”—mere human entitities? Trying to achieve righteousness by works, including circumcision, was a part of life in the “flesh”. What can these actions achieve by themselves—nothing! Has all Paul’s preaching been for nothing?
Have they experienced the Spirit and seen the working of miracles among them because they practise the Law, or because they have submitted completely in faith to the gospel which was proclaimed to them? As in the Letter to the Romans, Paul will emphasise here, again and again, that it is only the work of the Spirit within us that produces worthy actions.
In the verse following our reading, Paul reminds the Galatians:
Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness”… (Gal 3:7)
Abraham, against all common sense, was ready to sacrifice his only legitimate son, the only person who could carry on the family line which Yahweh had promised him. Once that trusting faith had been tested, the son was spared. In his Letter to the Romans, Paul will have much to say about Abraham as a model of trusting faith in God’s word.
We cannot ‘earn’ God’s love by the fulfilling of self-initiated activities, even by the observance of moral or religious laws. That was the mistake of the Pharisee whom Jesus describes ‘praying’ in the Temple: “See how good I am Lord; I deserve everything you can give me in return.”
God is not in us because we are good; we are good to the extent that we open ourselves to let God work in and through us.
The fourth Weekday Preface conveys this idea so beautifully:
You have no need of our praise,
yet our desire to thank you is itself your gift.
Our prayer of thanksgiving adds nothing to your greatness,
but makes us grow in your grace
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Thursday of Week 27 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Luke 11:5-13
Jesus continues his instructions to his disciples about prayer. Today the lesson is one of perseverance.
Jesus gives the parable of a man coming to a neighbour in the middle of the night looking for some food to provide hospitality to an unexpected visitor. The neighbour is not willing to get up and disturb his wife and children who are sleeping with him (which would be very common in a one-room house). But says Jesus, if the man persists, the neighbour, simply to get some peace, will eventually get up and give the man all he needs. If a grumpy neighbour will listen to an inconvenient request, how much more will a loving God pay heed to the needs of his children?
In another example, Jesus asks if a father would give his child a snake instead of a fish, or a scorpion instead of an egg. If even a very ordinary father would not think of treating his children so callously:
If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!
Of course, a very pertinent question comes to mind: if God is such a loving and caring parent who will only give good things to us, why do we have to persist in asking? Why do we have to ask at all? The reason is not because God needs persuading (like the sleepy neighbour). Persistence in prayer is for our benefit.
There are a number of ways of praying persistently. One is to keep begging God to give us something we want or that we think we need. Another is to think that somehow we can manipulate God or put him under some kind of obligation by asking him repeatedly. So, if I do a nine-day novena and say certain prayers each day, I may expect that God or some saint somehow is under an obligation to give me what I am asking for. In some kinds of novenas or other devotional exercises, there are people who would tell us that “satisfaction is guaranteed”. This, in fact, is very close to superstition—if not heresy.
The kind of prayer that Jesus is talking about is really something quite different. He seems to presume that what we are asking for is the gift of God’s Spirit:
…how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!
Is that what we normally ask for? To ask for the Spirit is to ask to have the same Spirit that inspired Jesus in his life and work. It is a Spirit which is totally at one with the will of the Father. In the parallel text in Matthew (7:11), it is “good gifts” which the Father will give. What could be more of a “good” thing than the very Spirit of God?
The other types of asking can be a subtle way of asking God to do our will, instead of submitting our will to God as Jesus does:
Father…not my will but yours be done. (Luke 22:42)
Whatever form our prayer takes, ultimately it must be to be like Jesus, so that we may grow in the likeness of the Father:
To know him more clearly, love him more dearly, follow him more nearly.
One way of moving in this direction is to make this the constant theme of our prayer. The more we pray for this, the more likely it will become a reality in our lives. And it is inconceivable that God should refuse to hear this prayer.
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