In
today’s Gospel, we learn the value of persistence, and we see what
can happen with a lot of perseverance, with an unrelenting desire to
never give up; knocking, asking, seeking, until something happens,
until a resolution is, at last, reached.
And
though this persistence could be applicable to anything in our lives,
Jesus is making it specific to the greatest part of our lives, our
spiritual lives, our prayer.
And
He shows us what is possible, what can happen when our greatest
prayers, the ones we desire God to answer the most, are accompanied
by this great persistence.
Yet,
something about this doesn’t seem to be right, because if this were
truly the case then the healing we pray for, the securities we
desire, the life we want, we would have, our perseverance should have
paid off, something, in our lives, should have changed. And truth be
told, something does change, we do.
The
great Christian author C.S. Lewis, no stranger to prayer and even
less of a stranger to suffering, watched as his wife was dying of
cancer.
A friend taking note of this once asked him if he
really thought he could change God with his prayer for his wife’s
healing, Lewis replied: “Prayer doesn't change God; it changes me.”
This
Gospel began with a simple request: “Lord, teach us how to pray,”
and the first thing Jesus teaches is a variation on the “Our
Father,” a prayer of abandonment, a prayer that asks us for
obedience to the Will of God, to accept Our Daily Bread, whatever
that may be, and out of that, to pray the prayer of perseverance,
because, by doing so, we become stronger, by doing so, we, indeed,
learn what it means to truly pray.
To
put it more simply, when we pray, it should not be a list of what we
want and what we desire, but, first and foremost, an acceptance of
what God wants and the ability to mold our prayers according to Him.
So that it is not bargaining with God, it is, instead, trying to seek
His Will in the midst of our own.
And
it is that which truly changes us, it is that which helps us to
understand, it is not God spoiling us, it is not God granting our
every wish, it is God teaching us as a Father teaches his child that
everything we want we, unfortunately, cannot have, and though
painful, at times, it allows us to grow closer to Him, to seek Him
more. So
that those things He does desire of us, and we ask for, will,
eventually, be given, maybe
not in the way we had hoped, but
our Father in heaven will, indeed,
give to us that which we truly need the most.
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