AIM: To explain
prayer of petition and intercession.
Why do we ask God for things in
prayer? Are we trying to get God to change his mind? And why ask at all if God
already knows our needs before we pray?
Which of us has never wondered about questions like these? What better
time to consider them than on this Sunday, when two of our readings are about
asking God for things in prayer?
In the first reading Abraham bargains
with God over the fate of Sodom
The gospel mentions Jesus= own prayer, and follows this with
his disciples’ request: ALord, teach us to pray...@
Jesus responds with what scholars believe is the earliest form of the
Lord=s Prayer. The version we use is
longer B the result of expansion and
embellishment by the Church in the first Christian generation. The Achanges in the liturgy@ which upset some people today began
very early!
The story about the friend coming at
midnight which follows Jesus= model prayer B the only one he ever gave us B emphasizes two things: the need for
persistence in prayer, and God=s readiness to hear us: AAsk and you will receive, seek and
you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.@
Our first reading shows Abraham=s persistence. Abraham was out to
win. He The story about the friend coming at midnight which follows Jesus= model prayer B the only one he ever gave us B emphasizes two things: the need for
persistence in prayer, and God=s readiness to hear us: AAsk and you will receive, seek and
you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.@
Abraham refused to take No for an
answer. When we pray, are we as persistent as Abraham was? We lack persistence
(though we probably don=t realize it), if we pray only when we=re in a jam. Those of us who are old
enough to remember World War II recall the saying: AThere are no atheists in the
foxholes.@ In times of mortal peril, almost
anyone will pray. To continue praying when the crisis has passed requires
persistence, and faith.
Continuing to pray when God seems to
answer only with silence increases our desire and strengthens our faith, as
physical exercise strengthens the heart, lungs, and muscles. St. Gregory the
Great, who was Pope from 590 to 604, wrote: AAll holy desires grow by delays; and
if they fade because of these delays, they were never holy desires.@ Persistence in prayer is undermined
by lack of faith. That is why Jesus tells us in Mark=s gospel: AWhatever you ask for in prayer,
believe that you have received it, and it will be yours@ (Mk 11:24).
To illustrate his teaching about
prayer, Jesus reminds us that God is our loving heavenly Father, and we are his
children. God is more loving, however, than the even best human father or
mother B and wiser. Hence he will not always
answer our prayers in the way, or at the time, that we think he should. When
God refuses something we pray for, it is always in order to give us something
better.
Jesus discovered this when he prayed,
the night before his death: AAbba (O Father), you have power to do all things. Take this
cup away from me. But let it be as you would have it, not as I@ (Mark 14:36). Jesus= Father responded to that agonized
prayer not by taking away the cup of suffering, but by giving his Son strength
to drink the cup to the dregs. The Father crowned this gift by raising Jesus
from the tomb to a new life beyond death.
That was better than the deliverance Jesus had prayed for in advance. It was
possible to see that it was better, however, only in retrospect. At the time,
Jesus seems to have thought his prayer had gone unanswered, as we learn from
his dying cry on the cross: AMy God, my God, why have you forsaken me?@ (Mark 15:34).
Jesus= experience shows that prayer does
not change God. Prayer changes us.
Each time we place our needs before God in prayer, we are opening
ourselves to the action of God in our lives. This helps explain why Jesus
teaches us to pray for our needs, even though God knows them in advance.
Whenever we pray we are acknowledging our dependence on God.
God does not need that reminder. We
do, however. When the sun shines on us and everything seems to be going well,
it is easy to forget our need of God.
Such forgetfulness is often the prelude to a humiliating fall. The best
insurance against such falls is to keep on placing our needs before God in
prayer, in good times and in bad.
The late Archbishop Fulton Sheen told
a story about a little girl who prayed, before Christmas, for a hundred dolls.
She didn=t get even one. Her unbelieving
father, who had taunted both her and her mother for praying at all, couldn=t resist saying on Christmas day: AWell God didn=t answer your prayers, did he?@ To which the child gave the
beautiful answer: AOh yes, He did. He said No!@ In my own eighty-ninth year, I am
grateful to have lived long enough to be able to thank God for answering some
of my prayers, Not yet; and others, No.
Even when we have done our best to
explain and understand prayer, however, it remains a mystery: not in the sense
that we can understand nothing about prayer, but that what we can understand is
partial only. We can no more explain Ahow prayer works@ than we can explain how the human
mind works, or the human heart. Even someone as experienced in prayer as the
apostle Paul confessed that much about prayer remained a mystery to him. AWe do not know how to pray as we
ought,@ he writes in his letter to the
Romans. ABut the Spirit himself makes
intercession for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in speech. He who
searches hearts knows what the Spirit means ...@ (Rom. 8:26f).
Above all, therefore, we need to ask
for the gift of God=s Holy Spirit. That prayer will always be answered. Jesus
promises us this at the end of today=s gospel: AIf you then, who are wicked, know how
to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?@
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