7-27-25 - 17th Sunday Ordinary Time
In ancient times the understanding of reality and the forces that can change the world of mankind varied from one culture to another. In ancient Greece for example the people tell the story of Pandora. Pandora is a beautiful woman whom the God’s of Greece hold in high esteem. One day Zeus, the chief of the Gods, was going on a trip and stopped by Pandora’s house. He gives her a beautiful box to hold for him and that he will pick up on his return trip. He instructs her to never to open the box, or else dreadful things will happen. She puts the box on a mantle and goes about her business. Every day she sees it but tries to pay no attention to it. But, one day she cannot resist opening the box. When she does all sorts of evils and temptations, like greed, avarice, cheating, making of wars, robbery and murder fly out of the box and out of her home. She fights mightily to close the lid of the box and finally succeeds. Frightened by her actions she vows never to look in the box again. But each day as she passes it she hears a small tinkling sound. One day she cannot resist opening the box again to see what the sound is. When she does, she sees one little creature smiling back at her. She asks its name to which the creature responds, “my name is Hope” and with that hope flies into the world. And so, we see that even in the pagan world of Greece with its belief in a myriad of Gods and Goddesses, in spite of all of man’s struggles and wars with one another, there is a wisdom which knows that as bad as things can get at times, there is always HOPE. In the first reading this weekend, which is a continuation of last week’s first reading where Abraham entertains the 3 strangers, one of whom eventually tells Abraham and Sarah that in a year Sarah will bear a son. This weekend, Abraham has continued walking with the 3 strangers and they arrive at the wicked city of Sodom. Two of the strangers have moved on to begin the terrible things God will impose on Sodom for its sins against God and humanity. Realizing what God’s intention is, Abraham seeks to intercede on the part of all the people of Sodom. We see in the multiple questions Abraham asks of God, God’s willingness to spare the people in Sodom. With each question that Abraham asks we hear of a growing generosity and mercifulness on the part of God to grant forgiveness. God even agrees if he can find but 10 just people in the city of Sodom, among all of its hundreds, that he will spare the whole city. And in the gospels, Jesus, who represents through his life, miracles and resurrection, the culmination of God’s hope for all humanity. We glimpse through Jesus ’s words and actions, God’s willingness to forgive even the most serious of sinners. If people are but willing to Seek, Knock, Ask, then the door of God’s mercy and grace will be open to them. There is no escaping the reality that there are times in our lives when unwelcome events close in on us. There are times in our lives when our own guilt or failings seek to convict us and bar our way from reaching out in prayer to God. The Good News in all of this, the beautiful Good News, is that while God loves us in an infinite number of ways, he never loves us more clearly, more beautifully, than in times of suffering and pain, times of desperation, times when we feel trapped by events over which we feel we have no control and from which we feel there is no escape. In those moments, we can discover that the door we thought was locked for us has always been open. God is not absent. Love is not gone. Hope has not vanished, but we perhaps have forgotten how to reach for the door handle.1 Jesus in the gospel and Abraham in the first reading, point out that God is not a vengeful God, but rather our God, is a father who waits for his children to return to him. And all He asks is that we are willing to knock on his door and he will open it to greet us. He will open the door to show that there is always, no matter what we’ve done, hope. There is always hope for us, even and especially when we might not feel that we warrant such a great gift. It is at times like those we find that the amazing grace and mercy of God is ours too, just for the asking; like the asking Abraham did for the city of Sodom. When, through prayer, we find the door that we had stood in front of for years but were too proud or afraid to knock, we find a response that we have sought for a long time but feared we would never know. In the world today, there are probably many places whose sinfulness may even surpass that of ancient Sodom. Places where all the vices of mankind greed, avarice, war, prejudice; where all the “isms” of mankind, racism, fascism, are planted between peoples in order to control, to judge, and to debase peoples, with the result being that they are imprisoned into a sense of hopelessness. . And it is for these reasons, that it is so important for us, as Christ’s disciples, to be that people, those messengers, of hope. We need to be brave like Pandora, to open the box a second time and give hope a chance. Open the box of prayer, knock on God’s door and see what the response will be. And you may be amazed to discover His love and mercy are for all and that His door is never, never, locked.
“Life without God is life behind a locked door
— not because He has shut us out, but because we’ve forgotten how to knock”2.
1.SundaySermons.com
2. Ibid
