Commentary to the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

PRAYER: recognizing God in our history

The Bible never says that Abraham entered into a shrine to pray, and yet he is considered not only as the father of believers, but also as a model of the man who prays. It is necessary to believe in order to pray and to believe one needs to pray. His whole life is marked by prayer; he initiated things only after he heard the word of the Lord; he took steps after having received from his God an indication of the way.

His story is marked by a constant dialogue with the Lord. “The Lord said to Abram: go…then Abram departed” (Gen 12:1,4). “The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision … and Abram said: Lord, what will you give me?” (Gen 15:1,2) “Then the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre and he bowed down to the ground” (Gen 18:1-3). “God put Abraham to the test … and Abraham answered: Here I am!” (Gen 22:1) This dialogue has fueled the faith of Abraham; it prepared him to accept the will of God. It made ??him believe in his love despite appearances to the contrary.

Many events of our life are enigmatic, incomprehensible and illogical and seem to give reasons to one who doubts whether God is present in and accompanies our history. In these moments our faith is put to hard test and we would naturally cry out to the Lord and implore: “Listen to our voice, understand our lament.” He always listens to our voice though it is difficult for us to perceive his voice. “Make us listen to your voice O Lord”; it is the invocation that we must address to him: to open our hearts, help us to renounce our longings, securities and plans and instead make us welcome Yours. This is the faith that saves.

To internalize the message, let us  repeat: “Make us listen to your voice, O Lord”