Trust in the Mercy of God and Power of Prayer

07-24-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Anthony Okolo, C.S.Sp.

The story of Abraham in today’s first reading tells how Abraham, trusting in God’s mercy, pleaded for the people of Sodom, a sinful city that God had wanted to destroy. Abraham recognized that justice called for destruction but argued that Sodom should be spared if a few righteous citizens could be found. What is seen in this passage is the possibility of the righteous to intercede with God and influence the divine will. God in His mercy and love gave ears to Abraham’s plea that if a few good people could be found He will spare the city. It presents us with a relationship with a God who is able to give ear to the prayers of those who have good relationship with Him.

We get from Abraham’s action that God’s mercy is unlimited and everlasting. “The Lord in this story does not seem impatient or offended by Abraham’s approach”. The other lesson is that God can save a community through a few people who are good and righteous. Thus, we are being encouraged to live righteously as we may not know through whom the saving grace can visit a community or family.

Then in the gospel we are presented with a popular parable many of us have heard many times. And The parable is about the teaching on persistence in prayer and our father who cares for us when we call on Him without giving up. We were told that He was praying in a certain place and when He had finished one of the disciples said to Him “Lord teach us to pray.” The apostles request that Jesus should teach them how to pray shows that they have observed Him praying at every significant moment of His life and the apostles themselves wanted to follow Him in that same regard. It means that if Jesus our Lord and master prayed, we should also follow this pattern of praying in our lives. It also means that it is only the Lord Himself who can teach us how to pray. We learn to pray at the feet of Jesus and anyone who wishes to master the true act of praying should learn from Jesus who began His life with prayer and ended His life with prayer. Jesus invites us to pursue intimacy with our father actively. It is not that our persistent prayers persuade an indifferent God to become generous. Rather, our Father eagerly awaits our asking, seeking, and knocking so that He can give us the Holy Spirit, which mysteriously meets every human need.”

“Why do we pray? It is not to impose our will on God, but to ask God to make us available to the divine will and to share our concerns with God, to place these under God’s loving judgment. It is therefore, not an effort to change God but to change ourselves.” Prayer has the capacity to transform us inwardly to accept the will of God for ourselves. In prayer we have a deeper relationship with God. We are called to pray persistently without losing hope as God is always close to hear us at His own time. May we never give up in our prayer even when we feel that God is silent to our prayer.

Happy Sunday to you all.

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