Abba, Father

Monday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, "Abba, Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him
so that we may also be glorified with him.  Roman 8:14-17

The Lord said to him in reply, "Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for watering? This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?" Luke 13:15-16

Piety

“Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess.  You have given all of me.  To you, O Lord, and I return it.  All is Yours.  Dispose of it wholly according to Your will.  Give me Your Love and Your grace, for this is sufficient for me.” (Suscipe, St. Ignatius of Loyola)

Study

Jesus has fairly contentious relationships inside the Temple.  Simeon proclaimed this troubling prediction when Mary and Joseph presented the young Jesus in the Temple:  Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted.”  (Luke 3:34)

After that, things pretty much went south in almost everything that concerned the Pharisees.  Upon emerging from the desert to proclaim the Nazareth Manifesto, it was only a few more passages later in the story before – at the very outset of his public ministry – the people in the Temple tried to kill Jesus.  Whenever he went back to the Temple to pray, Jesus seems intent upon doing something which would upset the existing power structure. Today’s healing of the woman was no exception.

However, Jesus (most of the time unsuccessfully) tries to cultivate exactly the opposite kind of relationship. Rather than sticking his thumb in their eye, Jesus wanted to people to connect with God as a family figure, a Father figure.  In the first reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans, we learn that we are encouraged to address God in the familiar term of the father of the family or “Abba, father.” Daddy.  

The notes in the NABRE explain how and why we can use such familial intimacy to address God: “Christians, by reason of the Spirit’s presence within us, enjoy not only new life but also a new relationship with God, that of adopted children and heirs through Christ, whose sufferings and glory we share.” 

Action

Where is your relationship with someone lacking?  How can you repair that relationship with better communications and understanding?  Be the first person to take action that will mend the fences of division and obstacles.