PRAYER: LANGUAGE OF LOVERS, A BOND BETWEEN US AND GOD

Will not God then secure the rights of 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.

Luke 18:1-8 

The Gospel of Luke, that we have been reading this year, may have more of Jesus teaching on prayer than any other gospel. This gives me a chance to highlight four of his most basic messages about prayer in a nutshell.

(1) WE DON'T HAVE TO BEG AND CRAWL TO GET WHAT WE NEED FROM GOD. This week we read about a corrupt judge and a persistent widow. It is a parable of contrast. Other parables are parables of similarity. So instead of teaching us today about what God is like, he teaches us today what God is not like! By that I mean that in today's parable, Jesus teaches us that we don't have to be like a poor widow who had no power other than persistence before a corrupt judge who is used to being bribed. God doesn't need to be begged and hounded by our prayers. No, he already wants us to have what we need and is willing to give it to us at a time that is good for us. When Jesus tells us to "pray constantly," he is not telling us to recite endless prayers until we wear God down, but simply that we should never stop our intimate conversations with God who is already on our side. 

(2) WE DON'T PRAY TO INFORM GOD ABOUT WHAT HE NEEDS TO DO. In the Letter of James (4:3), we are told, "You ask, but do not receive because you ask wrongly." Here, I am reminded of something I read a few years back. It is a prayer that many of us pray, in various versions, all too often. "Lord, use me! Use me in some advisory capacity!"  When we pray like that, we pray as though God needs our advice, that we know best what needs to be done and that our plans are better than his!

The older I get, the more I realize that sometimes what I prayed for, and didn't get, was the best thing that ever happened to me. I prayed that I would be assigned to a nice Louisville parish as my first assignment as a priest. What I got, was an assignment to the southern Kentucky missions! As it turned out, I was happy not getting what I thought I wanted! I always prayed that my mother would outlive my father so I could spoil her. As it turned out, my mother dying first cleared the way for my being reconciled with my father - something that would not have happened if I had gotten what I imagined. The internet is filled with stories of people who had their lives ruined by winning the lottery that they thought would bring so many blessings! I could go on and on, just from personal experience!  

(3) WE CAN NEVER USE PRAYER TO REMIND GOD THAT HE OWES US SOMETHING NO MATTER HOW GOOD WE HAVE BEEN.  Those of us who are serious about doing what God asks of us are sometimes tempted to use the good we have done as a way of making God indebted to us. When we do that, our prayer tends to become like those of King Louis XIV of France after he suffered a serious military defeat by his troops. "God," he prayed, "how could you do this to me after all I have done for you?"  When we pray like this, we pray as if we are owed something because of all our pious efforts and good works. In reality, we can never make God indebted to us. When we do that, we may pray like the Pharisee in next week’s gospel who went up to the Temple to pray. Instead of humbly comparing himself to God's goodness, he proudly compares himself to a tax collector he spots in the back row. The Pharisee brags about how good he has been, what he has done for God and how much holier he is than most other people. The tax collector, on the other hand, compared his own sinfulness to God's goodness and simply beat his breast and asked for forgiveness.  No matter how much good we do, if it leaves us arrogant and prideful and self-righteous in our prayer, our prayer is bound to be ineffective.

(4) PRAYER FORMULAS AND METHODS ARE NEVER MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHAT'S IN OUR HEARTS. At times, we may dismiss the prayers of others simply because they do not use the right formula or posture.  This, too, reminds me of an old story.

There was a Shiek who heard about a holy man who prayed constantly. The Shiek decided to visit this simple fisherman on  his secluded island. When he arrived, the Shiek was shocked that the holy man's manner of saying prayers was all wrong. The Shiek corrected the holy man, who listened very patiently to his corrections.

As the Shiek left to go home, he was proud of the fine service he had done the poor fellow. As he looked back at the island, he was astonished to see the holy man walking on water toward the boat. When he got within hearing, the old fisherman yelled, "Excuse me, Sir, but I have forgotten some of your fine instructions on how to pray properly. Could you run them past me again?"

The Shiek could not believe his eyes when he saw the holy man walking on water. "No, no," he called out. "Forget what I taught you. Just go on praying as you are used to doing." 

Truly, when it comes to prayer, "Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart."  (I Samuel 16:7) In reality, prayer is impossible without an intimacy with God and that intimacy with God is strengthened by constant prayer. Prayer is the language of lovers - God with us and us with God.  If intimacy with God is really there, prayer will flow freely from our hearts, we will pray as we should and our prayer will strengthen our intimacy with God even more.