PRAYING FOR OTHERS

Ex 17.8-13; Ps 121.1-8; 2 Tm 3.14-4.2; 
Lk 18.1-8

As many in our Parish of Christ the King know, both of my parents died this past month. Many, many, people said they have been praying for us. I think we needed those prayers. I know I needed those prayers. 

The readings for the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time are about prayer, especially the persistence of praying. Isn’t it interesting that we often don’t think our prayers are being answered. We ask for something specific and it doesn’t happen. After all, I prayed for the Red Sox to win the World Series, but that isn’t going to happen. Maybe I didn’t pray persistently or hard enough. Maybe as a student you prayed hard to do well on a test but it never happened. Maybe if you studied a little bit it that would have helped. After all we have to do our part too. Or maybe as a parent you prayed really hard for a child of yours so they would come back to church. I know parents who have prayed for over 50 years that their son or daughter would return to the Eucharist. Sometimes prayer works and sometimes prayers seem not to be answered. 

The gospel for this Sunday seems to indicate that if we pray hard enough and persistent enough, our prayers will be answered. This widow keeps pestering the judge asking him to make a just decision for her. The judge could care less. In fact he didn’t believe in God and he didn’t care what people thought about him. All he was concerned about was money. Poor people of that time just didn’t have enough money to bribe their way to a verdict. They generally had no hope of ever getting a case settled. But this widow was persistent and it paid off. 

The fact that the widow finally got a just decision from the dishonest judge indicates that persistent prayer does pay off. In fact, Jesus said, “Learn a lesson from this evil judge, corrupt as he is. If an unjust and greedy judge can be worn down into giving a widow justice, how much more will God, who is a loving Father give his children what they need.” And yet we ask, Why aren’t our prayers answered? 

Some of us have prayed long and hard for what we believe is a just cause but there is still no answer. One can grow weary after a time and give up. We may get exhausted because so much is happening in our lives that we give up praying. We get overwhelmed. We may go through periods of dryness where our prayers don’t mean anything to us. Maybe we become hopeless and just give up because we think our prayers are not answered. Why even bother.

It is at those times when nothing seems to work that we need help. We need others to pray for us, to hold our arms up in supplication when we get tired. Moses could not have kept his hands up, or prayed constantly, without the help of his friends. I know many people have been praying for me and my family these last few weeks. It is hard for some people to ask for and accept prayers on behalf of themselves. I know it is for me. We don’t want to ask for help and have people go out of their way to do something as simple as, and as important as praying for us. But we can take the example of Pope Francis and ask in a most humble way, “Pray for me." 

It is those people who prayed for my family and me these last few weeks that I know helped carry me through everything that happened. It was at a time that I was unsure what to pray for. In the end, I prayed prayers of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving for a long, faith-filled life for my parents. A thankful prayer that nether of my parents suffered or had a long painful death. A prayer of thanksgiving that my parent were together on their seventieth wedding anniversary, the day after my father died. A prayer of thanksgiving for all those who prayed for me and my family through a difficult period. And most importantly, a prayer of thanksgiving for the faith that they passed on to me. We are all called to pray for each other. 

Jesus asks, “But when the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?” It is through the assistance of our prayers for one another that Jesus will find faith on earth.