Homilies

17th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: THE PRAYER OF OUR LORD

THE GOSPEL PASSAGE begins with a quality of Jesus as a praying God or a “man of prayer.” The unbroken sharing of Jesus’ life with the Father is seen in his constant communication or prayer to the Father. His disciples have clearly noticed this and it appears that they wanted also to follow Jesus in his way of prayer. In fact, one of the disciples of Jesus came and made a request: “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” The phrase shows that rabbis at the time, including Jesus, taught their disciples to pray. Prayer is being taught by masters, and prayer can be learned by the disciples. But, like the disciple, there has to be a desire from us to be taught. Let us reflect further on this passage.

First, in response to the request of a disciple, Jesus taught him that in prayer we should call on God our Father. Likewise, prayer can be seen as petitions. There was a mention of the two “you” petitions and three “us” petitions. These petitions are shorter in Luke, but Matthew’s version has more. Petition is one aspect of prayer and is a valid form of prayer. In fact, most of us understand prayer this way. The common prayer of the Church is presenting the petitions of the faithful to God. However, we have to be aware that when we pray, we should not only think of our own needs. There are also petitions which concern God and we must consider them too in our prayers. One of which is the “coming of God’s kingdom.” The kingdom of God is described by Paul as kingdom of “justice, peace and joy.” We pray always for its realization, but we also need to contribute to its completion.

Second, Jesus taught us to be persistent in prayer. In the parable, we are told that a man got up in the middle of the night and gave loaves to a needy friend, not because of friendship, but of the person’s persistence. Persistence can be a problem if we don’t know how to deal with “slow responses.”  In a corporate world, it appears that patience is not seen as a value. People who do not respond quickly to some goals are easily terminated from their jobs. It can be a problem if we apply this to our relationship with God. Often, our prayers are not quickly heard. Often, there is a slow response on the part of God. Could this be a reason to terminate our relationship with him? In prayer, there has to be an accompanying trust on our part. Even if the odds appear to be not on our side, we must live in that trust. In other words, even though it appears that our prayers are not listened to, we must be persistent, we must not lose hope.

Third, Jesus revealed to us the mystery of God the Father. It is basic in prayer that we come to the Father and invoke his name. Jesus tells us the qualities of the Father. Toward the end of the parable, he depicts the Father as provider, good, and has concern for his children. He knows full well the Father because he lives in intimacy with him.  He was with him before he became flesh or man, and he continues to remain with him. Jesus wants to share his knowledge and experience with the Father. He wants us to imitate his relationship with him of loving intimacy. Just as he trusts the goodness of the Father, we must also do the same.

This gospel on prayer is a good reminder for us, modern men and women. The world that we live now teaches us to be always busy and always on the go. We have much busi-ness and preoccupations today. In fact, we don’t have even enough quality time for one another, for our family. Consequently, our relationship with God also suffers. The gospel reminds us that despite the many resources we have, nevertheless, we are beings who are in need of God. Prayer helps us to realize who we are in the face of God, and helps us realize that we always depend on him for our needs.

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