17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C, July 27, 2025)
“Jesus said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Our Father…” (Luke 11:2)
What is the one thing that most delights the heart of God? What brings the creator of the universe joy and the laughter born of love? In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us the answer. A disciple asked Jesus to teach him how to pray and Jesus responded with what we now call the Our Father. So what is it that most delights the heart of God? Prayer. And what is prayer? It is a loving relationship with our Creator whose name is Father. OUR Father! We translate the word Jesus gave us to address God ‘Father’. Abba, what Jesus called his father, is a nickname for him. It means ‘Daddy.’ That is how Jesus introduces us into prayer: through a tender and trusting relationship.
We usually think of the Our Father only as a prayer to recite but it is so much more. It is a journey into the heart of the Father and it leads us, if we really believe what we are asking, to relationship with God, one another and ultimately, the person God created us to be. When we truly pray, not only with words but with our being and our actions, we are transformed from one who is praying to actually becoming prayer. We become a relationship with God, others and ourselves. In the Our Father, Jesus tells us exactly how to do that. It’s not a question of method but of a deep , enduring relationship with God who identifies himself with our neighbor and with us.
What does that look like in our ordinary life? It’s living from the inside out. It’s letting this loving but hidden God into the nooks and crannies of our being. It’s making these nooks and crannies, not something to hide from, but a point of encounter with the tenderest of loves. Of yielding to this love in the day to day living out of the gospel. Of trust, that there is nothing that will be asked of us today that will not be an encounter with this God who heals. Of extending love and caring to all with whom we relate this day. Everything can become a point of encounter with God. And here it is that we can become prayer.
Have you ever met someone who has lived a lifetime of the ups and downs, ins and outs of life and who has become a human being fully alive? They are usually people who have been on this journey for many years and are unaware of the transformation that God has brought about in them. But they are getting closer to becoming prayer. Of walking open-hearted into the adventure of each day into the presence of God, and finding there a union in love, service, joy, forgiveness and the peace that comes from being at rest in the heart of Abba, Father. Becoming prayer.