Keeping on Praying
(The Prayer of Petition)
Exodus
17:8-13 II Timothy 3:14-4:2
Luke 18:1-8
To the church in
the diaspora[1]
& to the
church of the unchurched[2]
Alleluia,
alleluia.
A reading from
the holy Gospel according to Luke.
Glory to you,
Lord.
Jesus told his disciples a parable
about the necessity for them to pray always and not lose heart. He said,
"There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected
any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, 'Render
a just decision for me against my adversary! For a long time the judge was
unwilling, but eventually he thought, 'While it is true that I neither fear God
nor respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall
deliver a just decision for her; or else she will keep on coming and wear me
out!’” Then the Lord said, "Notice how this dishonest judge behaved. Will
not God then, patient as He is, see that justice is done to his chosen ones who
call out to him day and night? Will He be slow to answer them? I tell you, He
will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when I, the Son of
Man, come, how many will I find who have faith and are praying?”
The Gospel of
the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus
Christ.
----------------
Introduction
A parable about
not losing heart in prayer
On
the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time (
The parable that Sunday used the quaint and amusing imagery of God as a father
in bed with his kids. The door has
already been bolted for the night, and all are snuggly tucked under a nice warm
quilt. Suddenly a neighbor is persistently
knocking at his door. He needs three
loaves of bread because a visitor has suddenly come upon him, and as a good
host he wants to offer him the hospitality of food. His persistent knocking pays off.
It wears the poor man down. He gets up, unlocks the door and hands the neighbor his three
loaves. He does so not so much out of friendship but simply to get rid of the
man and get back to sleep.
The
parable ends with Jesus’ exhortation, “Ask and you will receive; seek and you
will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Jesus backs up his
exhortation with a reminder of how earthly fathers act. “What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a
fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are
wicked, know how to give good things to your children, how much more will the
Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him” (Luke 11:1-13)?
Another parable about not losing heart in prayer
On this 29th
Sunday of Ordinary time (
The four kinds of prayers
The catechism
lines up four kinds of prayer. There is the Prayer of Adoration -- the prayer
of one who feels the mystery of God and gives God silent adoration. Then there is the Prayer of Thanksgiving --
the prayer of one who feels grateful for his many blessings and gives God
heartfelt gratitude. There’s also the Prayer of Forgiveness -- the prayer of
one who feels his waywardness and gives God painful but joyful repentance. But
then there is the Prayer of Petition. It’s the prayer of one who gives God
nothing but needs something from God. It’s the prayer of one who suddenly needs
three loaves of bread from a neighbor or who sorely needs justice from a
corrupt judge.
The
problematic Prayer of Petition
The Prayers of Adoration,
Thanksgiving and Forgiveness which give God something present no problem; they
are simply what they are. The Prayer of Petition, however, which asks for
something from God, is problematic. Sooner
or later we all find ourselves earnestly begging God for something, and our
prayer doesn’t seem to be heard despite Jesus’ words, “Ask and you shall
receive; seek and you shall find; knock and the door shall be opened to you.” We
pray that a mountainous burden be lifted from our backs and cast into the sea,
but we’re still heavily laden. We pray for the cure of a loved one. Oh how many
of us prayed earnestly for the promising and compassionate Dr. Colette Cameron,
but she died! We remember and can never forget that six million Jews prayed
that God would deliver them from the concentration camps of
Sometime, however, we do
deal with it frankly. Not long ago a friend with his wife and daughter together
with others dropped in the day before he was going to undergo quintuple heart bypass
surgery. They brought their (and my) lunch along. The food helped to lighten up the somber
occasion. The day before heart surgery always needs some lightening up. But the
gravitas of such a moment inevitably broke through the small talk, and soon we
found ourselves not very pious at all and dealing rather frankly with the problem
of prayer. Soon we found ourselves wondering out loud whether asking God for a
happy outcome to an imminent heart surgery can actually influence God to change
his immutable mind. It was a frank discussion about prayer.
Good things
or the Holy Spirit?
Luke’s parable about the neighbor who late at night
knocks persistently at the door of the father in bed with his kids and asks for
three loaves of bread ends with a bottom line: “If you fathers,
who are wicked, know how to give good things to your children, how much more
will the Father in heaven give the Holy
Spirit to those who ask Him.” That always puzzles me. I always wonder
where in the world did the Holy Spirit come from in the first place. One
has asked for a fish or a loaf or an egg but not for the Holy Spirit (Lk
At the present moment I am forced to leave the house which has been my
comfortable home for twenty-eight years and seek a safer location and a more benign
atmosphere in which to live out my last years. In my prayer these past few
months I have been asking the Father in heaven for this good thing: a clean and comfortable apartment on the first
floor, two bedrooms, a workroom, garage, washer and dryer, safe surroundings,
location close to the lake (if possible) and, above all, room for my cat and
dog. I have been asking the heavenly Father for this good thing because Matthew
tells me that He, just like all earthly fathers, gives good things to his
children who ask for them. (Mt 7:11). If at this moment I should not get the
good thing I ask for but just the Holy Spirit, I know I shall be quite
disappointed!
The parallel passage from Matthew is
not so puzzling. It reads a bit differently and more the way we might expect it
to read: “If you fathers, who are wicked,
know how to give good things [like a fish or a loaf or an egg] to your
children, how much more will the Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him” (Mt 7:11). In our Prayer of Petition do we
get the good things we prayed for, or do we get the Holy Spirit?
Conclusion
Keep on knocking
At the end of the day,
whatever might be our theology of prayer, we keep on knocking at the door of
God as the man in need of three loaves kept knocking at his neighbor’s door, or
as the little old lady in need of justice kept knocking at the door of the
corrupt judge. We keep on knocking because Jesus says we should. "Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto
you." And if, when the door is
opened, we are, indeed, given the thing we asked for, i.e., the loaves or the
justice or the relocation we seek, that's fine. Praised be God! If, however,
when the door is opened, we are not given the thing we asked for but are given
the Holy Spirit, that is to say, we are given power from on high (Lk 24:49),
that perhaps is better yet. With the Holy Spirit we then have the power not to get the
things we want but to want the things we get. With the Holy Spirit we even have
the power to forgive God for not giving us the thing we asked for. That’s great
power, indeed. It fits us for the arduous journey that lies ahead.