Words to reveal

Study of the texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary using a mind map approach could show many different words which are connected to these passages. Chutzpah is a word which Friar Jude Winkler attaches to the nervy dialog of Abraham with God about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. This walking and talking with God is a feature of the style of the Yahwist Source of the Book of Genesis. The theme of sin-punishment-grace in the revelation of God to His creatures is part of the style of this source. Father Larry Gillick SJ also finds revelation about God in the texts today through the acronym A.S.K. (Ask, Seek and Knock). He compares the Love of God to parental love and he identifies the tension between what we would ask, seek and knock in a selfish, independence seeking motivation with what a loving parent gives, that which is best for us, and which may reveal to us that we are children or creatures who are very dependent on God for Life. The Holy Father in Rio this week, on the occasion of the feast of Saints Joachim and Anne, addressed the deeply important role of family love, particularly the love of grandparents for their grandchildren as a powerful and deeply human means to transmit faith, wisdom and confidence in the revelation of God to children. We add to the mind map of love words the forgiveness proclaimed by Paul from God for those who are baptized into the life of Jesus which gives us the Spirit to overcome the movement toward sin and as Friar Jude notes, the extinguishing of a part of the Life as Creatures of God. Perhaps all the words which come from the texts today lead us to the position of thanksgiving presented by the psalmist and in this attitude we are preparing well, comments Father Larry, for the Eucharist when thanksgiving centres around becoming what we are, the Body of Christ!