30TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME C

HOW POWERFUL IS YOUR PRAYER?

A housemaid decided to buy a lotto ticket just before Christmas last year.

For the first time before leaving the house, she thought of approaching her master’s altar.

There she touched fervently the image of the Risen Christ and prayed.

She then bought the lotto ticket.

Days after, she was a millionaire!

Now, so many people are lining up outside her former master’s house to touch the image before buying going to the lotto store!

God is close to the poor, the weak and the oppressed, that’s on record.

But does he love them so much he created many of them on the earth?

Does he not listen to the prayers of the million others who want their dreams to come true?

The readings guide us to enter deeper into the heart of the Father.

The first reading tells us that the “prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds… and the Lord will not delay.”

God is not looking at the situation of poverty…God is searching for the humility of the heart!

The full trust, the total surrender, the expression of great hope in him and in him alone!

There are so many people, poor and rich alike, whose hearts are not totally focused on the Lord.

Our hearts lean towards our strength, our possessions, our opinions, our pride, our anger, and our sin.

If there is something else that serves as our security besides God, then we are not the lowly ones the Scripture speaks of.

Take a look at the Gospel.

The Pharisee was very religious and very prayerful.

But he was also overflowing with self-assurance and pride.

The tax collector (considered impure by Jews because of their job) clearly believed only in God

and relied only on his mercy, “O God, be merciful to me!”

No wonder, the Lord was attracted to the sweet incense of prayer from the tax collector and but was repelled by the stink of the Pharisee’s hypocrisy.

I do not know why the housemaid won the lottery that day.

Maybe it was not just because she was poor and in need of help.

Maybe because when she grabbed the hand of the Risen Christ image, she totally entrusted to him all of her life.

There are so many other stories I have heard of people who experienced great graces because they have allowed only the Lord to fill their hearts.

Go now and do likewise.

There is a jackpot, maybe in a different form, waiting for you today!

don't forget to share with a friend...

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