A number of years ago, I found myself driving back to the seminary, late at night, on my way back from Cape Girardeau. I was going up I-55, and things seemed to be going well enough- until something odd happened. I noticed that my lights dimmed significantly, the alternator light came on, and the temperature gauge started rising very quickly. I’m not necessarily a mechanic by nature, but I knew enough to figure out the culprit- the main drivebelt. I pulled off to the side, and looked, found the pulley that had shattered, but knew that it was certainly too late to do anything that night. So what did I do in that moment? Called dad! Now, I knew that it was about 10:30pm at night, and that I’d probably awaken him out of bed, but nonetheless, I trusted that he was certainly going to come and help. That he did!
That moment on that night- I had to reach out in trust that dad would do what I needed. I figured I may not have to persist very much, nor have to really bribe him in, even though the drive that night was so far. It just seemed that he would come to the aid of his son, no matter what!
Yet, not our every relationship may seem that way in life. While we have many people that we may trust, or many that we can rely on, we may have many that we feel we may not be able to trust necessarily, or we may even find it difficult to call upon. The question that we may be asking today at Mass- where do we hold God at? Is he someone that we are able to readily call upon and tend to trust, or someone who we feel we may not necessarily bother with our concerns and with our problems? Is He the first one that we turn to whenever things “go south?” Perhaps it is time that we consider if we are ready to delve deeper into our relationship with God.
The first reading for this Sunday comes to us from the book of Genesis, and it is a sort of preface to a story that we may be at least vaguely familiar with: Sodom and Gomorrah. While these two cities live in infamy for their destruction, we are actually at a moment where there is an unexpected tenderness that God shows towards these two cities, and He utilizes Abraham in those moments to exercise that mercy. The story is, essentially, Abraham haggling with God. Abraham knows that there is a plan in motion in God’s mind to wipe away the iniquity of these two cities, because the depravity and evil of those two cities is so great. So Abraham seeks out God’s mercy. He starts asking- if there are fifty innocent people in the city- surely God will not wipe them away! God responds- He will spare the city on their account. Then Abraham starts to move down… what about forty-five. What about forty. What about thirty. What about twenty. God responds favorably each time to every one of these requests. Then, finally, Abraham arrives at a number that seems altogether reasonable- ten. Surely there must be at least ten innocent people in the cities. God again grants that request: “For the sake of those ten, I will not destroy it.”
This short story, though it seems to have many back-and-forth motions between Abraham and God, shows us something important- the power of petition in speaking to the Lord about what we need. It might seem that God is playing games with Abraham, but in reality, he is allowing Abraham to participate in his mercy! Abraham calls out for mercy on behalf of the people- and God responds. The Responsorial Psalm echoes that very same sentiment: “Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me!” Truly, God heard the prayer and petition of Abraham at that time. Abraham interceded for those cities, and God listened and granted that request.
If we move to the second reading, then, we take from Saint Paul’s letter to the Colossians. In this section of the letter, Paul begins to speak to them about the grace of baptism, and what it does for each of them. The Colossians likely know that they need to be baptized, but Paul wants to flesh that out for them and give them more substance! He reminds them- baptism brings us from death to life- it removes transgression, and destroys it by the power of that cross. He notes that we are brought from a state of helplessness to one full of hope, and that is all by the power of Jesus’s own resurrection!
Finally, we arrive at the Gospel of Luke, and this passage comes to us in two fundamental parts: first, Jesus teaching the disciples the Our Father, and then the teaching on persistence. The first part begins with one of the disciples asking a simple request from Jesus: teach us how to pray! All of the other teachers of faith give their disciples something- we want the same! Jesus heeds and answers that request! He starts the Our Father. We probably heard the one here and thought it a bit odd because it is missing a couple of components, and yet, the heart of the prayer is the same. We could spend quite a bit of time on this prayer itself, but the second part of this Gospel really seeks to emphasize one point from the Our Father in particular: the need of persistence in prayer. Jesus, after completing the prayer, gives them a lesson to consider: suppose that a friend goes to another at midnight and asks for three loaves of bread- will he give him the bread? Jesus tells the disciples that, if not from friendship, out of the persistence of the one asking will the other give! Or, we go to the second component: what about a son asking a father for something? Will he receive what he asks for? Jesus responds: “Certainly!” We’d expect a friend to respond. We’d expect a good father to respond!
The question that all of this hinges upon, though: do we trust God, our Father, to do the same for us? When it comes down to prayer, do we think that God listens and responds?
The simple reality that we should consider today is how we approach prayer. It isn’t just one activity amongst many, and it isn’t reserved to a time and place when “nothing else is working.” Yet, our approach to prayer is formed by how we view God our Father. The first thing that Jesus highlights for us this week is that prayer does, in fact, work. God hears our prayer! Yet, He doesn’t just hear prayer in an imperfect way, such as a friend who may be groggy and impatient because of sleep. He may not be as careless as a father who hands his son the wrong thing. Friends and fathers tend to be much more vigilant, much more caring, and much more responsive! Why is our God considered to be any different? Christ begs us to have that trust and belief in prayer that it is going to change things for the better! If we don’t show up at our friend’s door- if we don’t believe that God is even more responsive, or if we show up to prayer prepared to be disappointed- will we even bother to show up? Will we even dare to darken the doorstep outside with our shadow? If we believe God to be who He is, and truly believe that with our hearts, then we will come running and attempting to beat down the door of the Church- not just in the moments that we feel it necessary, but at every moment, because we find that all the more beneficial.
The next thing for us to bear in mind: when do we pray? Are we just praying in times of crisis, when we don’t know where to turn? Perhaps whenever we get around to it? God doesn’t want us to be selective about our times of prayer, and simply reserve it for selective times. Think about the cry of the psalmist: Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me!
Finally, we can go back to the book of Genesis. We see Abraham calling upon God’s mercy for even just a handful of people. Yet, he does it in a very peculiar way. He constantly pleads with and petitions the Lord. He does not give up just on the outset, but continually comes back and keeps striking, hoping for a difference. The thing for us to consider here: what do we do when it seems that God is not responding in prayer? Do we simply back off and let things happen? Or, do we become filled with fervor, and attend to the Lord with our petitions, whether begging him for mercy for someone or for any other cause? We have a God that is responsive to our cries, and not indifferent. He doesn’t leave us yelling or talking into the abyss, simply left to ourselves. Rather, God does respond, even in the times that we may not see exactly how He responds, or even when. We must simply trust that He does!
Even on that night, whenever I called out to my dad, I knew that a response was coming. The challenge for us all, my brothers and sisters, is to call out to God, our Father, with that same persistence and prayer.
God wants to hear from us, and is willing to respond to our needs! If we truly trust that, it changes everything!
Let us be bold in our approach to God- and strengthen our trust and our relationship with Him in our approach to prayer.
