Communicating with God Honestly, Intimately and Confidently

In today's first reading, Gen 18: 20-32,  God tells the people that He must come down and check out the information he is hearing about Sodom and Gomorrah.   Are the people as evil as He is hearing that they are.  "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so grave, that I must go down and see whether or not their actions fully correspond to the cry against them, that comes to me. I mean to find out." As Abraham and companions are approaching Sodom, the Lord stands next to him. So Abraham asks the Lord whether He will spare the city if he find 50 innocent people there and God says yes. Abraham goes on until he asks God if He will spare the city if he find just 10 innocent people there and, again, God says yes.

Abraham is not afraid to approach the Lord and to be honest with Him. God welcomes Abraham's requests and is pleased that Abraham speaks honestly and shares intimately and confidently with Him his concerns about Sodom and Gomorrah.

In the Gospel, Jesus teaches us to also approach God confidently, to be intimate with the Lord, calling God Father, praising the Lord, seeking what, daily, we need and desire of Him as well as asking for protection and forgiveness for ourselves and others. In Abraham's sake, he is asking for protection of the innocent people who live amidst evildoers in Sodom.

I think of the world in which we live today. It, too, is filled with evildoers, as was Sodom and Gomorrah, a world filled with people engaged in wicked deeds--human traffickers, sexual predators, those involved in slave labor camps--world leaders who are violating basic human rights of its citizens, exerting control and power over others in a variety of devious, oppressive, deceptive ways; those bent on making billions at the expense of the poor, at the cost of lives, jeopardizing even Mother Earth; those seeking revenge, who take other people's lives as they vent their built-up anger and jealousy upon others, sometimes total strangers.

Lord, have mercy on the innocent while you bring justice to evildoers.  Lord, as we pray in today's responsorial psalm, "the lowly you see, and the proud you know from afar"--[evildoers will be brought to justice]. And, we thank you,  Lord, that, "though [we] walk amid distress, you preserve us; against the anger of our enemies you raise your hand.  Your right hand saves us. You will complete what you have done for us; your kindness, O Lord, endures forever; forsake not the work of your hands" (Psalm 138).  Let us not succumb to the evil that we see others doing but cling to what is good and just and admirable in your sight!