From prayer to the terrible question: "When the son of man returns, find faith on earth?»

Father Gabriele

Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

PRAYER FROM THE TERRIBLE QUESTION: "WHEN THE SON OF MAN WILL RETURN, HE WILL FIND FAITH ON EARTH?»

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In life everyone has or has had deep friendships, and depending on how much time we spent with our friend, of what we shared with him, our love for him or her increases. He wrote the philosopher Aristotle: "Friendship is a soul dwelling in two bodies, a heart that lives in two souls ".

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Author:
Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, o.p.

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Dear brothers and sisters,

Salvador Dali: Girl at the window

in this XXIX Sunday of ordinary time, the liturgy offers us considerable food for thought [see Liturgy of the Word, WHO]. In life everyone has had, of hectares, deep friendships and, depending on how much time we spent with our friend, of what we shared with him, our love for him or her increases. He wrote the philosopher Aristotle:

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"Friendship is a soul dwelling in two bodies, a heart that lives in two souls ".

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This being as one It is therefore made possible by an open and sincere dialogue that believers becomes possible for us making us one with the Lord through the most lively and fruitful dialogue: prayer. Just this tell us about the songs today. Let's start from the first reading Old Testament:

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"Moses said to Joshua,: "Choose us some men and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill, with the rod of God "in hand" [Is 17,1]

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The Jewish People It is supported by Moses while fighting the Amalekites, one of the armies of the most aggressive and therefore quite hard to defeat. Moses joined army Jewish, for which invokes God to support them.

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For us prayer thus indicates a union with those in spiritual warfare, but also it is wanting in a test phase. Praying can mean continually invoke the strength and support of God towards those who suffer and can be a moral fatigue, physics, spiritual. Prayer is therefore first call upon God as support for those we love. It's intercession as almost get in the middle between God and his people. This is why Jesus himself asks his disciples never to stop praying, as explained the Gospel passage:

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"During that time, Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to pray, tirelessly " [LC 18, 1].

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In the parable of the Lord ago so see how the widow turns continually to the judge gets tired of hearing it kick, and eventually fulfills. With this provocation of Jesus to the disciples becomes evident: the judge who has no relationship with the widow, can not resist the constant complaints. The Lord instead has an intimate relationship with us, if we ask the right thing by prayer, We will hear us. The unceasing prayer, at the same time he teaches us to ask the Lord, but at the same time to learn to ask what is needed for us.

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That final question of Jesus: "When the son of man returns, find faith on the earth " [LC 18,1] also shows a connection between faith and prayer. Faith feeds the prayer and at the same time the prayer is nourished by faith. Even a dying faith or underactive through prayer rediscovers life, because all our life of faith finds nourishment in prayer and in the sacraments.

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At this point then we see how they pray unceasingly. He says St. Paul speaking to Timothy: please ceaselessly if we pray with the word of God:

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"But you keep balance in what you have learned and are convinced, knowing from whom you learned it and that from childhood you know the Holy Scriptures: They are able to instruct for salvation, which is obtained through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, to convince, correcting and training in righteousness, That the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work " [2 TM 3, 14-16]

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The word of God is God and it helps to do good works, especially works of charity that help us become saints. If we pray with the Word of God, It becomes a continuous way of praying. There are many ways to pray, therefore, with the word of God, such as read a short passage from the Gospel day, before going to work. Or to make a longer prayer there is lectio divina, as reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation of God's word.

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The German Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: "To pray is to catch your breath before God; pray is to rely on God ".

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We ask the Lord to help to ensure the vital oxygen our prayer becomes day by day, and united to the sacraments, both the lungs with which to breathe a life of joyful faith, satisfaction and fullness of himself.

Amen.

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Rome, 19 October 2019

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3 replies
  1. Domenico Sasso
    Domenico Sasso says:

    If poor Christ ever descends to Earth, paraphrasing Dostoevsky, he would find the swampy inquisitor Ariel di Gualdo who would face him with words:” Why have you come to disturb us?”. The Christ, mute, would smile at him, he would kiss him on the forehead and be disgusted, without uttering a verb.

    • father ariel
      Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo says:

      … and since, Christ, one day he will return to glory to judge the living and the dead, she also knows who will judge and how she will judge them?
      She realizes that affirming what Christ will do and how he will do it, it is a real blasphemy? Nobody can know what Christ will do and how he will do it, save to be a god more god than Him.

      What to tell her, certainly to the right and left of Christ, which will initiate the parousia at the neocatechumenal Domus Galiaeae, Kiko and Carmen will be there to tell him: “This yes, This no!”
      In conclusion, to his Vicar on earth, the diva Carmen interrupted him publicly twice in order to correct the wrong things that the Supreme Pontiff had said.

      And remember: Christ, of his priests, he is never disgusted, not even of those who damage their soul and end up in Hell, anyway because, even in Hell the priests of Christ end up with all their eternal priestly dignity not recognized by you in the name of one, unique and heretical priesthood, since to say about Kiko “we are all priests”.

      And remember: “the inquisitors”, in the derogatory sense in which you mean this office, they are your mega-catechists. This is proved by the fact that I, as confessor, never ever would I allow myself to ask those delicate and invasive questions that lay practitioners like your ignorant mega-catechists dare to ask the poor sectarists during those public confessions called ballots.

      And try to say that it's not true.

    • orenzo
      orenzo says:

      If I say to the wicked: You will die! and you do not feel it and do not speak because the wicked desist from his perverse and living conduct, they, the wicked, he will die for his iniquity, but I will ask you for an account of his death.
      But if you admonish the wicked and he does not stray from his wickedness and his perverse conduct , he will die for his sin, but you will be saved.
      Like this, if the righteous turns away from his justice and commits iniquity, I will place an obstacle before him and he will die; since you will not have warned him, he will die for his sin and the righteous works he has done will no longer be remembered; but I will ask you for his death.
      But if you have warned the righteous not to sin and he will not sin, he will live, because he was warned and you will be saved ". (This 3. 18-24)

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