Readings: Gen 18:20-32; Col 2:12-14;
Lk 11:1-13
Jesus Prayed, the More Reason You Too
Should Pray
In
my second Philosophy while studying for the priesthood, I worked as a
seminarian in a parish in my home diocese of Calabar. It was customary for
seminarians to stay with a family within the mission church during their tour. I
was given accommodation with the catechist - Patrick. I returned from church
one evening, exhausted, and went to bed at about 9:00 pm. The village had a lot
of insects: mosquitoes and bugs. Thank God we were warned in the seminary to
always have a mosquito net during apostolic work. My net was neatly put in
place as I rested comfortably in bed for the night. At about 1:00 am, there was
a knock at Patrick’s door. A man from outside called out begging Helen, the
catechist’s wife, who had a convenient shop, to kindly sell him mosquito coil (when
lit the smoke repelled mosquitos). Patrick shouted from inside that he and his
family were in bed, that the man should come back in the morning. But the man
would not hear of it. He knocked, begged louder and louder, that his kids were
unable to sleep due to mosquitos. This went on for a good while. I was wide
awake now, but restrained myself from interceding for the man, partly because I
wanted to see what the catechist would do. The man outside would not go away,
he persisted and insisted, he knocked, pleaded, and begged. Finally, Helen
got up, took some coils, unlocked the door and shove them into the man’s hands
and told him to go with the money till the following day. Then there was peace.
The story is similar to the parable told
by Jesus in today’s Gospel about the need to persevere in prayer and not lose
heart. Jesus Christ himself was a man of prayer. The Gospels relate instances
of Him praying. He prayed so much that his disciples asked him to teach them
how to pray.
The
16th chapter of my book, ‘Life’s Lessons’ looked at ‘Why Christ
Prayed’. I used my life experience to explain why I think Christ prayed. In
prayer Christ called home to check on his Father, to know how he was doing. To
tell God his father about his mission on earth and the difficulties he
encountered. He talked to God about the many sick people he met wherever he
went; he told him about the devil who worked hard to undermine him. He needed
his father’s advice on how to counter and overthrow the devil. I think Christ
discussed with his father about the problems he had with people on earth, the
‘holier than thou’ who made life difficult for him: the scribes and the
Pharisees who wanted to kill him; Herod who ridiculed him and those who called
him names and said that he used the power of beelzebud to drive out the devil.
He was worried about the hatred, the hypocrisy, the lack of love, the
unforgiving people he had to deal with. He was bothered about the backstabbing,
the gossip, the betrayal, and the disloyalty that confronted him daily. Or
maybe he just wanted to tell his father about his day, his joys and sadness,
about his new friends, those who were assisting him in his mission. He talked to
him about the crowds, the disciples, his apostles and their characters,
personalities, and temperaments. He talked about the women in his life and
mission. He must have talked at length about his mother, Mary. Sure, he
mentioned Mary Magdalene and how committed she was to his cause. Oh, Christ
prayed every day, prayed hard and spent long hours in prayer. Sometimes he
spent the whole night, other times he would go up the mountain or at day break
he would go to a deserted place and prayed in solitude.
In
my opinion, prayer made it possible for Christ to focus on the work of his
father. Prayer helped him not to be rash in his judgement and decision making.
Because he prayed he was able to see everyone as a son and daughter of God,
therefore, his brothers and sisters. Since everyone is created in the image and
likeness of his father, he was able to see them as members of his family.
If
Christ who is both God and man prayed so hard, the more reason why we too
should spend a good deal of time in prayer. Prayer is to a Christian what water
is to fish. How can we possibly survive without prayer! Today Christ taught his
disciples to keep their prayer simple and short. God knows what we need, hence,
we should ask for his kingdom to be established here on earth.
There
are many types of prayer to choose from depending on our particular need. We
may say prayer of intercession as Abraham did in the first reading today. We
say this prayer when praying for others. We also ask others to intercede for us
as when we invoke the saints to pray for us. In the prayer of thanksgiving we
express our gratitude to God for blessings received. We are encouraged to offer
thanks to God for the gift of life. Our greatest act of thanksgiving is at the
celebration of the Mass – the eucharist which is “the source and summit of the
Christian life”. Other forms of prayer are: adoration, contrition,
supplication, meditation and contemplation.
Our prayer is efficacious and is of utmost necessity for overcoming our
enemies. Like Christ, the saints were people of prayer. They too spent their
whole life in prayer, not only during the day but at nights as well. Prayer is
a must for everyone. A Christian who does not pray knows nothing about God and
his love for humanity. According to John Vianney, The Cure D’Ars, “We will
watch ourselves and all the motions of our hearts in vain, in vain we will
avoid temptation if we do not pray; if we do not have continual recourse to
prayer, all our other ways will be of no use at all to us and we shall be overcome.
We can see plainly that in the world there are a great many occasions when we
cannot run away; for example, a child cannot run away from the society of his
parents because of their bad example. But he can pray and his prayer, will
sustain him.”
If
we pray as Christ did, we may begin to experience life differently; see people
differently and love as God loves us. We may begin to forgive people from our
hearts as we want God to forgive us. In praying the ‘Our Father’ we are praying
to a loving God, who cares for us and seeks what is best for us. No matter what
we go through in life, our Father knows it all and wants us to tell him about
it. But most of all, in praying may we never forget to ask for the one thing
that is dearest to God’s heart, the gift of the Holy Spirit. For “The Spirit
too helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought; but
the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be
expressed in speech. He who searches hearts knows what the Spirit means, for
the Spirit intercedes for the saints as God himself wills” (Rom. 8:26-27). Pray
always, pray perseveringly, pray insistently, pray and do not give up and the
God who sees your heart and knows your needs will open the door for you and
give you all you need abundantly. He will turn your mourning into joy and fill
you with the blessings of your youth. May the Spirit pray for us and in us now
and always. Amen.
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