17th Sunday C 2025
July 27, 2025 St Ignatius 12:00 p.m. Mass
"Swimming in the Ocean of God's Love."
Today’s bible passages tell us something about how to pray. We tend to talk about “saying prayers.” We are often told, “Be sure to say your prayers when you get up and before you go to bed.” We get the impression that we have to make the effort to get God’s attention. It’s like tapping the numbers in on your phone and saying “Hello. God? I’ve got some things I need to tell you.”
No, prayer does not mean reciting some words to focus God’s attention on us. It’s more like focusing our attention on God. God is always there, always here for you and for me. It’s more like radio or TV. The sound and the images are always there. All we have to do is tune in, just switch ON. We are completely surrounded in God’s loving embrace. We are swimming in the ocean of God’s love, completely surrounded by him. And it’s a vast ocean, with lots of room for all the other people God has made and loves.
Did you notice that the prayer Jesus taught in today’s gospel is much shorter than the Our Father we always recite? In today’s Gospel, according to Luke, Jesus simply begins by saying, “Father.” We usually use Matthew’s form: “Our Father, who art in heaven.” I don’t want to criticize a very holy prayer, but when we say, “who art in heaven,” it makes it sound like God is far away, up above the sky, perhaps, and we have to make an effort to make contact. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus simply says “Father,” because God is always present to us. God is always “right here,” and Jesus simply turns to him and says, “Father.”
Whatever we mean by “heaven,” it’s not some remote place in the sky. I mentioned being surrounded by God as if we’re swimming in an ocean. God is all around us. Heaven is where God is, and God is right here, surrounding us, embracing us all, keeping us alive, and bringing us together. And Jesus is not far away from us, sitting on some throne to judge the world. No, Jesus is right beside us, walking with us and showing us that God our Father is right here, so that we can just switch ON and say “Father.”
So much depends on our image of God. Abraham had an image of God as a stern businessman that he had to bargain with. Even St Ignatius, our parish patron whom we celebrate today, sometimes seemed afraid to approach God directly, but appealed through Mary and through Jesus before speaking directly to God. He was trained in a noble, courtly setting and knew how difficult it was to approach the king or some other man on top. But in one of the final prayers of his Spiritual Exercises, he sees how close God is to us. He has us “consider how God dwells in all creatures, giving existence to the elements, giving life to the plants, sensation to the animals, and intelligence to human beings, and finally how he dwells also in myself, giving me existence, life, sensation, and intelligence.” And “I will consider how God labors and works for me in all the creatures on the face of the earth… giving all of us our existence.”
So when we come to church, we join with everyone in reminding ourselves that Jesus is always with us, even though he is with us in a special way here in church. And we remind ourselves that we are close to God as Father, but more importantly, that God is close to us, not only here in church but in every moment of our life when we go back into town and return home. God is there for us, especially when we need him most—when we are confused or depressed, lonesome and tempted, when we have trouble at home or at work, or are critically ill. Let us continue to pray now in the loving presence of God our Father.
By Fr. Robert Chiesa, SJ