Friends, last Sunday’s first reading presents us with Abraham’s intercession for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Today in the first reading also, we see Moses playing that role of an intercessor. He prays to God in the tent of meeting to show mercy to the people of Israel. He was very careful with his choice of words. He recognized that they were stiff necked people..
We must not undermine the power of intercession. God listens to genuine intercession. Genuine intercession in the sense that we must be honest with words as Moses was. Every Christian has been called to intercede. Intercession is a type of prayer whereby we ask God’s blessings and favours on others.
Let us ask ourselves some basic questions: how often do we pray for those we consider not doing well in our lives and world? Do we just simply condemn them and that’s all? Do we pray for those who stray or we gossip them only?
Mary and Martha who were friends of Jesus in a way drew Jesus’ attention to the fact that if he was around, Lazarus wouldn’t have died. That itself was an intercession. They only did not know that Jesus was more that what they thought; he was/is the resurrection and the life.
To effectively intercede, we must believe in God, we must believe in Jesus. He asked Martha today, I am the resurrection and the life, do you believe? Let us like Martha say “Yes Lord, I believe that you are the Christ. “
The Lord be with you
