I took up this theme for my homily this week. Prayer is not a task, it is a relationship!
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Homily:
17th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle C
When I was still a student studying for my engineering
degree, I worked at a small manufacturing plant that makes bumpers for
semi-trucks. Whenever I needed to get
some maintenance work done I had to submit a “work order” that described what
needed to be done and when it needed to be done by. What I quickly found out, however, was that
the maintenance crew was overloaded and that my work orders often sat on a pile
of other work orders that weren’t getting completed and that the crew worked on
whatever the shop-floor supervisor told them was most important for the
day. Frustrated by this, I would often
forego the whole process completely. If
I could just do it myself, I would. If I
couldn’t then I would document it and move on to the next thing.
I think, sometimes, we can see prayer kind of like a
“maintenance work order” system. We fill
out our form and submit it to God and he is supposed to put his crew to work to
take care of it for us. When it works,
we feel satisfied. God is there for us
and we can rely on him. When it doesn’t
seem to work, we feel frustrated. God is
unreliable and so if we want this to be taken care of we either need to do it
ourselves or just accept that we’ve been dealt a bad hand and that there’s
nothing we can do about it. Of course
there’s more to prayer than just making requests of God, but I think you’d be
surprised to find out how many people turn away from God on account of feeling
like God had let them down when they felt like they most needed him to
respond. In today’s readings, we are
given a model of this type prayer that can help us understand it more deeply,
which is good; because when we understand it more deeply, we are less likely to
become frustrated by its results.
In our Gospel reading, Jesus’ disciples observe him in
prayer and, probably quite innocently, ask him, their teacher, to teach them
how to pray. As Jesus often does,
however, when he’s given an inch, he takes a mile and he not only teaches them
how to pray (i.e. the correct words and manner in which to pray), but he
teaches them the pre-conditions for prayer as well.
As presented to us today, prayer in which we ask something
from God has three basic characteristics: 1) be humble; 2) ask for a just
thing; and 3) be persistent. First: be
humble. As Jesus taught his disciples
and as Abraham shows us today, our first task is always to recognize who it is
we are addressing and what our relationship to him is. Abraham was bold, but before he pushed God on
the issue he first acknowledged that God knew better than he and so would
submit to his judgments. When we pray as
Jesus taught us and say “Our Father…” we too acknowledge our relationship to
God: that is, that he has wisdom and authority that is far greater than ours
and so deserves our deference to his judgments.
Second: ask for a just thing. Abraham was a righteous man and so he could
see the inherent conflict in the notion that God—who purports to be the just
judge—would destroy innocent people for the sake of punishing those who are
guilty and so he pleads, in a sense, for the lives of the innocent who live
there by testing the limits of God’s justice.
In the example that Jesus gives, the man, though he comes at midnight,
asks for a just thing: some bread to feed his friend that had just arrived from
a journey, which, on account of the customs surrounding hospitality in the
ancient Jewish culture, was something that he was expected to provide.
Third: be persistent.
Abraham rightly saw that if God would withhold his wrath for the lives
of fifty innocent men that justice would demand that he do the same if the
number were as low as ten; and so he asked again and again, not presuming he
knew better than God, but so as to see if God’s idea of justice lined up with
his. His persistence produced a commitment
from God to spare the city (of, presumably, thousands of people) if even ten
innocent persons were found there. In
Jesus’ example, the man, because he asks for a just thing, and because his
friend is, also (presumably) a righteous person, receives what he asks for even
in spite of the inconvenience he has caused his friend. Notice that there was no conflict with what
was asked for; because what was asked for was a just thing. Part of being humble, however, means
acknowledging that what we are asking for may not necessarily be the just
thing. Therefore, we must always be open
to being shown that what we’ve asked for is not what is truly needed and so be
open to receiving a different response in its place.
Be humble, ask for a just thing, and be persistent. These are the three characteristics of
prayers of petition. What is not often
acknowledged in this lesson on prayer, however, is the necessary pre-condition
for making this type of prayer. Simply
stated, this type of prayer requires a pre-existing relationship.
I have a very good friend, named Joe, who I used to work
with when I worked as an engineer. We
used to car-pool to work together and through that and our work our
relationship grew. To this day I am very
close with his family and am godfather to his oldest son. Over my years in the seminary, I called on
him multiple times, usually when he was not expecting it, to ask for some sort
of help. I never had any fear calling on
him because I knew that what I was asking for was a good thing and that,
because of our friendship, he’d be very willing to offer his help. Even if he was resistant, at first, I knew
that I could push on him for it because he could be relied upon to respond if
he was able; even if it would be inconvenient for him or his family. I could only do that, however, because I had
built a relationship with him first.
The same applies to our prayers of petition. When we’ve spent time with God, building our
relationship with him, we become much more apt to turn to him with our needs
and also to trust that, even if his response seems to be long-delayed, that he
will respond and give us what it is that we need (even if that isn’t exactly
what we asked for).
There’s a saying that states that God responds to prayers
of petition in one of three ways: “Ok”, “Ok, but not now”, and “Ok, but I have
a better idea”. When we build a
relationship with God through spending time with him in the sacraments, in
private prayer, and in reading the Bible, we become both bold in bringing to God
all of our needs and also open to hearing which of these three responses he
offers us when we turn to him.
My brothers and sisters, our Good God wants us to turn to
him with all of our needs, big and small, because he truly is our Father who
loves us dearly. Like any good father,
however, he wants even more to be in a close, intimate relationship with us, so
that we may learn to trust that, even if he does not appear to respond
immediately or in the way we desire, he will nonetheless respond: in the way
and at the time that we truly need it.
Let us, then, renew our commitment to draw close to him today and to
turn to him for all of our needs; for his promise to remain near to us—the
sacrifice of his Son—is already here at hand.
Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport , IN
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