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Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Fr. Joseph Gifford, Associate Pastor July 28, 2019

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the other day I was in the office here at the parish talking with the lady behind the front desk and while I was there this young mother and a little boy came walking in he couldn't have been more than about two years old but very verbal Ames all he wanted to do was come in and meet the new priest he want to meet the new father and so he started asking questions lots of questions oh hi what's your name where you from what are your parents names were they from were they right now so on and so forth and you just had his one train of thought that you wanted to follow through the entire conversation and there's something about this conversation a conversation that struck me it was so characteristic of children their innocence and of their trust and I think that there's something that each one of us can learn from this young boy how to be a child again because as Christ reminds us in our gospel and as St Paul alludes to in his weather this morning we are adopted children of God and as adopted children we should be living from that adoption knowing full well and trusting in God's love and his Mercy Envy should be embodied in how we pray in what we ask God and how we ask it of him two characteristics then from this little boy that I think we all can learn AR persistence and boldness persistence this little boy he just wanted to follow along he's train of thought no matter what I had to say no matter what his mother said to try to steer him towards one topic or another away from certain touchy questions quote on quote he was persistent this is what he wanted we look at our first reading today with Abraham as God is looking at Sodom and Gomorrah with impatience and judgment Abraham is there and in Abraham's mind he sees what's going on he knows what's coming with Sodom and Gomorrah but he also knows that he has loved ones there his nephew lot and it's and so Abraham takes up persistence he asks God okay if there are fifty righteous people there will use Sodom and Gomorrah God says yes for love of you if there are 50 people there that are righteous I will spare the cities now Abraham knew that he was stretching it and so he lowered the number 45 God again said yes Out of Love of You I will spare the cities and again Abraham Bill knew there's not much difference between 45 and 50 and so he kept lowering the number down down down until you got to 10 people there only ten righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah would God spare the cities and God said again of course out of love of you I will spare the cities we know what happens next in the story but are reading this morning cut it off there because God wants us to learn from Pam's example example of persistence Abraham knew his place as a Son of God and not simply as kind of this over all children of God sort of Fuzzy's I no he had this confidence to ask God I would have loved him this mutual love that they shared to spare Those whom Abraham loved this persistence is something we all can learn from I have an uncle who recently had a tragic accident an ATV that he was on flipped over and landed on his chest Crush most of his ribs and some of his vertebrae and that situation has been an opportunity for my family an opportunity for them to show persistence since this accident my family has been non-stop day-in-and-day-out praying to God asking for healing for my uncle now we do not know as of yet whether God will choose to heal him miraculously or through ordinary mean or simply to welcome him into his kingdom at this time but my family remains and that is simply because of the other aspect of what we can learn from this child that boldness because of the relationship that my family has with God we know of our spiritual adoption in God and that spiritual adoption gives us hope and gives us the confidence to be bold to ask for miracle 2 Austin these days we think Miracles will not happen but they can't happen but there are things of the past but this is not the case circles can and do happen now we simply have to be bold enough to ask for them Austin what keeps us from asking for miracles is a we don't want to go her hopes up and this is such a deprived understanding of Hope if only our Hope was grounded in if this miracle happens and I will have hope then I will have faith then yes it will shatter them when God chooses to act otherwise but if our is in eternal life with God if our hope rest in the love that God has shown us then we can boldly we can ask God for miracles every day because what is extraordinary for us is ordinary for him so we can ask boldly in Our Gospel today Christ teaches us the Lord's Prayer there's one part in there I'd like to look at real quick Valley kingdom come thy will be done by saying that I think too often we pass over it with really thinking but to truly ask for God's kingdom to come here on Earth Here and Now in our lives this is truly a bold statement a baldric that has the things of Heaven become wedded to the things of Earth heading comes crashing down into our lives charged with its spiritual energy to fill us with the spirits of God so that the kingdom of God May Come into our lives into our hearts into our families our church City and world by Kingdom Come is truly a bold statement we are adopted children of God because of our baptism so be persistent and be bold

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Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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