17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 23, 2022
Cathedral of Mary Our Queen
Praying Under Duress
Some years ago, I was on a flight to the West Coast. At one point, the flight became exceptionally turbulent, and I don’t mind telling you that I was more than a little nervous. As we were bouncing around at 37,000 feet, I took my Rosary out of my pocket and began to pray like there was no tomorrow. The passenger next to me noticed both my nervousness and my fervor. “Pardon me,” he said, “Are you praying because you’re afraid we’re going to crash?” “As a matter of fact, I am” said I, as we hit another air pocket. “Pray harder!” urged my fellow traveler.
Just as that bumpy flight was an inducement to prayer, so too today’s Scripture readings are an invitation to prayer. In Luke’s Gospel, it is Jesus himself who teaches how to pray, not only the words to say, but also the attitudes we should bring to our prayer. In the same breath, Jesus urges us to be persistent and persevering in prayer. So, let us spend a moment reflecting on what the Lord is teaching us about prayer.
“Lord Teach Us to Pray”
As we encounter the Lord in today’s Gospel reading, we find him at prayer. Not only is Jesus praying, he is absorbed in prayer to his heavenly Father. Jesus prayed deeply and frequently, often in a secluded place, often on his knees, sometimes rising early, sometimes spending the whole night in prayer. For Jesus, intimacy with the heavenly Father was his lifeblood.
The disciples often found Jesus deep in prayer, but on this occasion they asked him, “Lord, teach us how to pray” – for they were attracted by his example. They wanted to pray just as he did, and they wanted to encounter in their prayer the One to whom Jesus was praying, namely, his heavenly Father.
In response, Jesus taught his closest followers the prayer we call “the Our Father”. As you noticed, the version in today’s Gospel is shorter than one we typically recite, but essentially, it is the same prayer that you and I pray every day. Whatever the version, the Our Father is also a short prayer, for Jesus warned against multiplying words when we pray, but in this prayer’s brevity are found all the essentials . . . allow me please to explain. D. In the first words of The Lord’s Prayer, we address God as “Our Father”. After all, as those who are baptized into Christ Jesus, God’s incarnate Son, we are, by adoption, the sons and daughters of the heavenly Father. In fact, through Christ, the door has been opened to a beautiful intimacy with God the Father of Mercies, with the God who is love. In the grace of the Holy Spirit, we share in the intimacy of the Father and the Son. Nothing in our lives should be more precious, nothing more important than our relationship with our heavenly Father . . . As Psalm 73 puts it, “Whom else have I in the heavens? None beside you delights me on earth.”
After calling on God as our Father, we then address to him a number of petitions. First we say, “hallowed be Thy name”, and then, “Thy kingdom come”. Perhaps we have wondered what those petitions mean. After all, isn’t God’s Name holy in and of itself – how can I make it holy? And won’t the Kingdom of God come whether or not I help it along? Well, God’s Name is holy, from all eternity and for unending ages – yet Jesus teaches us that his Father is pleased when we ask that his Name might be hallowed in us and in our lives, . . . in other words, that we ourselves might reflect more clearly God’s holiness. So too, God’s Kingdom will indeed come, with or without us, but here Jesus teaches that God is pleased when we ask that his Kingdom dawn upon us.
So, when we say, “Thy Kingdom come”, we are seeking, as individuals and as a community of faith, the graces we need to bear credible witness to the living presence of Christ in the world, and to work together for a world of justice, love, and peace…fit for God’s Kingdom.
In the remaining petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, we ask our heavenly Father for what we need. When we ask for “our daily bread”, we are referring to all of life’s necessities, but it is more accurate to say that we are seeking the “superabundant” bread of God’s Word and the Eucharist. This is “the bread” that nourishes us inwardly, more than any ordinary food. This is what draws us into the orbit of God’s Triune life and love, and gives life to our bodies, our souls, our parish communities, and our world. How could God the Father not be pleased when we ask for such a gift?
So too, Jesus instructs us to ask his heavenly Father to forgive our sins, just as we forgive those who have sinned against us. Here we remember Jesus’ teaching that the heavenly Father forgives us ‘only if each of us forgives our brother and sister from our hearts.’ So also, Jesus teaches that we must forgive those who wrong us 77 times… or as we used to say, 7 X 70 times, in other words, endlessly and sincerely. Isn’t this one of the most challenging of the Lord’s teachings! Finally, Jesus taught us to say, “lead us not into temptation” – not as though God would entice us to sin but rather that he not allow us to be tried beyond our strength.
Beyond That…
Having taught us the Our Father, a prayer we must always learn anew, Jesus proceeds to give us good advice on the attitudes we should bring to prayer. And what are these?
First is a disposition of loving trust in God’s will. If you’re like me, you often present God with many specific requests, and God does invite us to ask him for what we think we need. Yet, even when God seems unresponsive, or when we are facing a catastrophe, we must trust that the Lord will not abandon us, and that he knows, better than we do, what is truly good for us and for our eternal salvation. Sometimes, all we can do is ask the Lord to help us trust him!
Second, we must pray with persistence, like Abraham in our first reading, who did not hesitate to haggle with God. When the chips are down, we too might try to strike a deal with God. More often, we may find ourselves giving up on prayer, especially when it fails to console us or produce the desired results. To-day, Jesus advises us not to give up, to keep on praying, to keep on asking. St. Mary Magdalene, whose feast we just celebrated, exemplifies holy persistence. When she could not find Jesus’ body in the tomb or in the garden, she continued to search until she encountered him and he called her name. Mary Magdalene kept searching and found what she did not expect: the Risen Lord! If we pray persistently, God will answer our prayers, often in ways we don’t expect.
Third is an attitude of humility – the humility of Abraham who confessed to God that he was “but dust and ashes” even as he bargained with him, Or the humility of the Blessed Virgin Mary who, in her great hymn of praise, exulted that the Lord “looked upon her in her lowliness.” Or the humility of Jesus who knelt in prayer on the mountain and in the garden, ‘who emptied himself of glory and took the condition of a slave’.
To the One who teaches us how to pray, to Jesus Christ be glory, power, and honor, now and for unending ages, and may God bless us and keep us always in his love!