REFLECTION Sunday´s Gospel

17th Sunday of the Year, Cycle C
(25 July 2010)

Fr James McTavish, FMVD

‘Lord teach us how to pray for others’

One striking feature of the readings today is the prayer of intercession. For sure we all pray but we are reminded to not only pray for ourselves but to intercede for others. Perhaps it is a good question to ask ourselves – when I come to prayer why am I coming? Do I only pray for my own needs or am I bringing the needs of others, the Church and the world? We see Abraham in the first reading (Gen 18, 20-32) interceding for the inhabitants of Sodom who had committed a grave crime in their desire to abuse the angelic visitors who had come to the town. Abraham asks the Lord if he would destroy it even if there were 50 innocent people in that town to which the Lord says no. With great humility Abraham continues to intercede for the 45, 30, 20 and finally 10 good people that the Lord might find in that town. The Lord replied “For the sake of those ten, I will not destroy it."

Once in Sydney I gave a short talk about prayer when I first met my community. In the silence that followed I was just relaxing, relieved that my talk had gone well. When we came to share our prayer I told all gathered that in my prayer time I had just chilled out. I was asked if I had prayed for anyone in the time of silence and I said no, that I was just enjoying. Someone asked me “Is there no one who could have benefitted from you prayer?” It helped me to realize that of course we must present our own needs in prayer, but not merely our own needs. Abraham had previously presented his own needs to the Lord, telling him that he was childless and the Lord had responded but now it was time to present the needs of others. Of course we have to get a balance. As St Charles Borromeo said “If you take care of souls then do not neglect your own”. But on the other hand our prayer cannot just be an exercise of going around our own belly button, around our own problems and situations but must be open to the world around us and the needs of our brothers and sisters.

In the gospel the disciples make this beautiful request “Teach us how to pray” (See Luke 11, 1-13). Really it is a request to teach us how to live for ‘as we pray so we live’. I remember in a one month retreat, on the last day the preacher was giving us the meditation. He said that he had asked the Lord that morning to teach him how to pray. I was a bit critical thinking that after a month of giving spiritual exercises if he still didn’t know how to pray then maybe he was not the man for the job! I realised slowly that each day we too must make this same prayer “Lord teach us how to pray” because we do not know how. We have already prayed but today is different, my situation is different, the people and situations I will meet are different and I need to ask the Lord of life to teach me how to live today. The disciples asked Jesus when he was in a certain place. I pondered on where that place might be and felt that it must be the bosom of the Father (See John 1,18). That is why Jesus teaches them to pray to the Father.

When we pray for the our Father we ask for our daily bread, enough for today. In asking we must never be afraid to ask for the needs of others. I ask for them too. Many times we will notice that we are out of bread. Once a missionary had an asthma attack and was trying to shout that he was out of breath. A mexican missionary who was trying to learn English heard him and said “Don’t worry I will go to the baker and get some”. When the asthmatic missionary repeated that he was out of breath the missionary replied “I heard you, I am going to buy the bread now”! We need to listen carefully to the needs of others and then we can ask the Father for the bread they need.

Jesus illustrates the power of intercessory prayer with the example of the man who is out of bread, (not breath!). A man comes at midnight to ask a friend for three loaves of bread as a visitor has come unexpectedly to his house and he wants to feed him. However it is midnight and the friend is sleeping. He gives a refutal, then 3 reasons as to why he cannot give him the bread and a final refutal. 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children are already in bed and so am I. I cannot get up to give you anything.' Jesus explains “I tell you, if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.”

Persistence and perseverance are essential for prayer. St Paul advises “Pray at all times” and “Pray without ceasing”. There is a very interesting detail in the gospel today which spoke to me of the need to persevere. When it says ‘Everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks, finds’ made me think that everyone asks but not all seek. We have to seek, to strive. In this striving St Theresa of Child Jesus says ‘let us never simply allow matters to take their course for the sake of our own peace; let us fight without ceasing’. To exercise thinking more of the needs of others than of our own. I had an nice experience of this last week giving a recollection to a group of teenagers who were graduating from High School. Trying to understand where they are coming from, how they see the world, what their views are, how they see the faith and the relationship with Jesus. St Francis of Assisi advises us “Seek to understand and not to be understood”. I found a lot of common ground with them in discussing their outlook on life, and of course with my British accent they seemed to be fascinated to discuss with me about Harry Potter! Our participation in the mission entrusted to us helps keep our hearts in shape and it makes out forget about only ourselves and think of others. This brings joy and this joy, as Mother Theresa observed, is ‘ a net for souls’. No wonder at the end of the recollection many of the young people experiencing so much joy were desiring to become missionaries!

Of course genuine prayer will strengthen us and make us more capable to enter into the lives of others. What is genuine prayer? It is to encounter Christ. It is to be strengthened by him as the psalmist announces ‘when I cried out, you strengthened my Spirit’ (Psalm 138,3). Let us pray for the grace to be so strengthened in spirit that we can grow more in love for others. To keep toiling, fighting the good fight and as St Theresa of Child Jesus asks “I always want to see you behaving like a brave soldier who does not complain about his own suffering but takes his comrades' wounds seriously and treats his own as nothing but scratches." May we learn how to live more in service of others than ourselves, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds (St ignatius of Loyola). This transformation begins in prayer. For this we humbly ask the Lord to teach us how to pray, how to intercede for others and in doing so be slowly transformed into men and women for others.