ANSWERED PRAYER

ANSWERED PRAYER – 17^th Sunday Ordinary time, Year C

            Experience tells us that we have to go back from time to time and learn again a few basics on prayer, which Jesus taught. We have the experience of forgetting some of the basic truths, which can motivate us to pray. We need to remember the basics because the conditions under which we are to pray can be discouraging. Some things seem “beyond prayer”. There are just some conditions that seem at least for the time being unchangeable from our perspective. And the conditions may indeed be unchangeable in the immediate future. But other things can happen through prayer, which in the long run may be better.

            Jesus teaches us what to say when we pray. He tells us to pray first for the Father’s needs. “Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.” We know that the Father’s name is not hallowed by all. We know that the Lord’s kingdom in its fullness is yet to come. So even when we are praying for the Lord’s needs, they may not come about in their fullness for centuries. Among the first lessons we have to learn in praying is that we have to leave the time and how the prayer is to be answered to the Lord. That can be very hard to do. We may want and need the Lord to answer the prayer this very minute, as we see it! And sometimes He does! Other times He doesn’t answer the prayer on our time schedule. Perhaps later we see why He didn’t. Perhaps if the Lord did, it would not have been good. We see that something else better for us or others was made possible because the Lord didn’t answer our prayer according to our will and vision, but His far greater vision.

            Prayer keeps us aware of our dependence on the Lord. The circumstances of our lives keep us aware of this, and we have to pray “Give us our daily bread”. That means, give us what we need in our life today. Sometimes what we pray for is not what we receive, because what we see as our daily bread may be different than what the Lord sees as our daily bread. What we need and want may be different. What we want may be harmful to us or others.

            Since we are sinners, we have a constant need for forgiveness. Since others are sinners too, we have a constant need to offer forgiveness. So we pray: “Forgive us our sins for we too forgive all who do us wrong”. As long as we are in this world, we are going to be subject to temptations and trials from our own flesh, the world opposed to God, and the devil. So we pray: “And subject us not to the trial”. We are praying that the Lord will always give us power over any evil. We cannot avoid passing through temptations, but we can avoid being subjected to them by the Lord’s grace.

            The prayer of Jesus covers far more in life than we might realize. It’s a powerful prayer. It tells us what to say when we pray, which needs to be daily. Besides knowing when and what to say when we pray, we have to learn how to pray under trying conditions and persistently. Jesus tells us to do so. He told of someone going to a neighbor in the middle of the night for some bread and disturbing a man and his family. The man answered his need not because of friendship, but “because of his persistence”.

            Among the greatest lessons we can learn about prayer is the one Jesus gives us. “Ask and you shall receive; seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you.” We will receive, find, and it will be opened to us. It may not be what we asked for, sought, or hoped to find. The Lord will make it something we need or is better for us or others. Jesus said a human father would not give his son a snake if he asked for a fish. A human father answers the requests of his children based on what is best for them. We can trust the Lord to do even better than our human fathers. Jesus said, “how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him”.

            We have to be careful not to ask for too little! Abraham learned this as he pleaded for the city of Sodom and Gomorrah to be spared destruction, because of their tremendous sins. The Lord agreed to spare the city if Abraham could find just ten just people. The Lord is more willing to answer prayers than we are to pray!

Divine Mercy Reflection #860

“There are times in life when the soul finds comfort only in profound prayer. Would that souls knew how to persevere in prayer at such times.”