OMELIE / Omelie EN

26 ott 2025

26/10/2025 - 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

26/10/2025 - 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

First reading Sir 35:12-14, 16-18 from Psalm 33 Second reading 2 Tim 4:6-8, 16-18 Gospel Lk 18:9-14

Reading 1 SIR 35,12-14.16-18 Psalm 33 Reading 2 2TM 4,6-8.16-18 Gospel LK 18,9-14

«The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest till it reaches its goal, nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds»! These words encourage us to continue on our journey of faith, and not to abandon our faith in prayer, despite the many sufferings we face that would tend to discourage us, depress us, take away our strength, and strip us of hope. There are sufferings, all those presented in the book of Sirach, and those endured by Saint Paul, and then there are many more that cannot even be defined.

The apostle was abandoned by some disciples he counted on: they preferred to return to worldly life and deny their faith. There could be no greater suffering for someone who lives completely devoted to Jesus. He thus saw many labors he endured and hopes he nurtured disappear into nothing.

When someone abandons the faith, it is as if he dyed: you can no longer confide in him, you no longer find support and comfort in him. This is true, because those who abandon Jesus and distance themselves from his Church no longer have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of communion that makes us brothers and sisters for one another. Today, this suffering of the apostle’s is shared by many parish priests, and, perhaps more intensely, by many parents and grandparents.

What should we do? Humble prayer, the Lord himself tells us in various ways. Continue to pray, that is, continue to turn to the Father, because he has no evil plans; on the contrary! It is from prayer that Saint Paul draws strength to continue his witnessing in prison, now supported by only a few faithful disciples. He can affirm, with freedom and confidence: “But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the proclamation might be completed and all the Gentiles might hear it.” With this confidence, he offers us hope: men can abandon us, but God never does.

Continuing to pray is the apostle’s secret, but also Jesus’ teaching in today’s Gospel. What should prayer be like? Jesus never stops teaching us how to pray, because we, in our relationship with God, are never able to reach Him. Today, his school of prayer is enriched by an important detail. Sometimes we believe that, to be heard by God, we must be saints, and we are tempted to think that, since we are sinners, God cannot hear us.

Here is what Jesus says: God, the Father, is pleased to see sinners before him, and he makes them righteous when they recognize their need for his mercy. He therefore shows us two people in prayer. We immediately understand what he is thinking: it is not enough, and unnecessary, to put together beautiful sentences to address God. What matters is the heart, because God continues to look at the human heart. If there is accusation and condemnation of others in the heart, the prayer that comes from that heart is not prayer, but arrogant pride that strikes God’s heart in the same way as blasphemies do.

When we pray, let us pay attention to our hearts. Do we desire what the Father desires? The Father desires to see in us the same love he has for humanity, a tender, compassionate, and merciful love.

First of all, in true prayer we realize that we are still distant from God, and therefore we ask that he himself may draw near to us with his forgiveness: “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” We can ask the same thing for our brothers and sisters, even those who clearly seem distant from the obedience to the commandments and the communion of God’s people.

If our prayer does not make us grow in humility and love for those far away, those who criticize and despise us by saying that prayer is a waste of time are right. Moments of prayer will be occasions in which our awareness of our sinfulness grows, and our mercy toward all men matures: then our prayer reaches the heart of the Father, and we will be heard, that is, transformed, and we will enter into a true and holy communion with the Father and his Son!

True prayer, in fact, converts us: it transforms our hearts, making us loving and lovable, merciful and humble, just as Jesus would want us to be, just like Mary, his Mother, who lives the most beautiful and luminous humility. Her humility is an open window, which allows us to contemplate the beauty of God the Father and the Son, meek and humble of heart.