(Twenty-ninth Sunday of the Year (C): This homily was given
on October 20, 2019 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond
Suriani. Read Exodus 17:8-13; Psalm
121:1-8; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2; Luke 18:1-8.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twenty-ninth Sunday 2019]
The apostles said to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.” In
response, he taught them the “Our Father.”
If we’re serious about our faith, we will often say
something similar to Jesus. We will say,
“Lord, teach me to pray better; teach
me to pray more effectively; teach me
to pray as you want me to pray.”
And this is certainly something Jesus wants to do for us:
he wants to help us pray better, since he knows how important and how powerful
prayer is! In today’s Gospel text St.
Luke says this: “Jesus told his disciples
a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming
weary.” Obviously, Jesus knew his
disciples would be tempted at times to get casual about their prayer or to
neglect it entirely, and he wanted to motivate them to resist those
temptations! So he told them this
parable about a poor widow seeking justice.
His message to them was, “Look, if this dishonest, despicable judge will
honor the persistent requests of this widow, how much more will your loving,
compassionate Father respond to the sincere and persistent prayers of his
beloved children? So pray—and pray with
confidence and with perseverance; in good times and in bad; when you feel like
it and even when you don’t feel like it.”
One footnote here: Notice that Jesus does not say or imply that God will always
respond to our prayers in precisely the way we want him to; he merely assures
us that God will respond—and
ultimately that response will be according to his perfect and holy will.
Of course, God has many different ways of actually
answering our prayers. Sometimes he
answers them through events; sometimes he answers them through other human
beings. Believe it or not—he can even
answer prayers through me. (I know that
may seem astonishing to some people, but remember that for God all things are
possible.) So, if you’ve ever uttered
that prayer I mentioned at the very beginning, “Lord teach me to pray better,” perhaps God will answer that
request this morning through yours truly!
As I prepared for this homily, I asked the Lord to give me
some insights on this very subject, and—as he always does—he answered my prayer. So here are some simple, practical points on
praying more effectively.
To pray better:
1. Praise and thank first; ask
second. The Catechism of the Catholic
Church speaks of prayer as “the living
relationship of the children of God with their Father who is good beyond
measure, with his Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit.” A good relationship does not begin with
the words, “Give me . . . “. Prayer that
begins with petition is usually superficial prayer. And here’s a corollary to this suggestion: When you do offer up your
petitions and ask God for things, pray for others as well as for yourself. We know that’s what God wants us to do because in the ‘Our
Father’ (which is our model prayer) we never use the pronoun “I”; it’s always
“us” and “our”.
2. To pray better, pray to a Person. We don’t pray to a “force” or an impersonal
power floating out there in the cosmos somewhere. New Agers do that. We pray to a personal God who loves us just
as we are, but too much to let us stay that way (as Scott Hahn would put
it). In this regard, it may be helpful
to imagine Jesus standing before you when you pray—especially when you do so in
the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.
(Because when you pray in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus
IS right there in front of you!)
3. Here’s another
suggestion: To pray
better, focus on quality and not on
quantity. When I was growing up, I
remember my pastor saying, “It’s better to say one ‘Our Father’ slowly and with
real devotion, than to say a hundred at warp speed. Quality is more important than quantity.”
4. This follows
from number 3: Think
about what you’re saying! Don’t pray like a
parrot, pray like a prophet! Parrots
just say words without thinking; prophets reflect on what they’re saying.
5. But don’t say
too much! To pray well, practice listening. This, admittedly, is very difficult—but well worth the
effort. And here’s a great way to begin
practicing: before Mass, slowly read over the Scripture passages for the
day. Look for a word or phrase that
strikes you and touches your mind and heart.
Then spend some time pondering that word or phrase, and ask the Lord to
help you to see how it applies to your life.
At times you’ll be surprised at how many ideas flood your mind. That’s one way to practice “listening to
God.” (Of course, to do this kind of practicing, you’ve obviously got to get
here early!)
6. This idea
stands behind the suggestion to practice listening: If you want to pray better,
always expect Someone to speak to you when you pray. (Someone there
has a capital “S”.) You can only listen
to a message if someone says something you can hear! Perhaps one reason why many of us find prayer
boring is that we don’t really expect to “hear” the Lord speak to us in his
Word or in our heart when we pray to him!
Consequently, we keep our “spiritual ears” closed!
7. Another
suggestion: Don’t
judge the effectiveness of your prayer by how you feel. Think about Moses
in today’s first reading: he stood there for hours in prayer with his hands
raised up in the air, while Joshua and the Israelites fought the
Amalekites. After a while, he definitely
felt exhausted! In fact, he was so tired that Aaron and Hur
had to support his hands! But his prayer
was extremely effective, in spite of the fatigue he felt in his body.
8. Here’s a
crucial point about praying well: Never
think that you can “change God” when you pray: that can’t possibly happen, so
it will only make you frustrated! Prayer doesn’t
change God, but it will change us if we allow it to, opening us up to the many
blessings the Lord already wants to give
us.
9. This one I’ve
saved for now for obvious reasons (because it's so difficult!): To
pray effectively, pray like Jesus (i.e., pray even for your enemies, and make
every effort to forgive them!) Remember the prayer Jesus offered on the Cross: “Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do.” 1 Peter 3: 7
indicates that if we pray with love in our hearts, nothing will prevent our
prayers from being answered. But our
love must be universal, because the
love of Christ was universal.
10. And finally, if you have trouble putting into
practice any or all of the suggestions I just mentioned, don’t give
up—EVER! If it’s any consolation, I’ve had
trouble with all of them at one time or another in my life, and quite frankly I
still have difficulty with some of them!
But why would I want to give up?
The prize—even on this side of the grave—is well worth the price! And so, as Monsignor Struck would put it:
“Pray, pray, pray.”
And be sure to do it every day—without exception.
And be sure to do it every day—without exception.