What is more important to us than prayer? How often we find ourselves in the midst of dangers, tribulations and difficulties, and we feel in need of divine protection? Here is why prayer is indispensable.
Newsdesk (18/10/2022 08:51 AM, Gaudium Press) God always desires to benefit His creatures, because His goodness is eager to dispense His infinite gifts to us. This is why, when Jesus became incarnate, He spent His earthly existence doing good to those who came near Him: physically, as we can see from the innumerable miracles and healings; spiritually, by converting and forgiving repentant sinners, opening for them the gates of Heaven that had once been closed to the fallen children of Eve.
Similarly, the parables uttered by the divine lips of Jesus had the purpose of doing good to those around Him and to posterity. The parable of the Good Samaritan and the story of the shepherd who goes in search of the sheep exemplify God’s zeal and love for mankind; above all, they inspire unlimited trust in the Father’s unfathomable forgiveness, whose Gospel paradigm is found in the parable of the prodigal son.
Praying and having faith
Now, in the liturgy, we once again come across a parable. By way of introduction, the Evangelist sets out the need for prayer as a fundamental principle of our lives:
“And [Jesus] told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Lk 18:1).
Indeed, what is more important to us than prayer? How often we find ourselves in the midst of dangers, tribulations and difficulties, and we feel in need of divine protection. We find ourselves, because of our weaknesses and frailties, obliged to have recourse to our Creator, for this is the means we have of receiving His help.
The Gospels tell us, not infrequently, of episodes in which Christ withdrew to pray alone. He did so just before choosing His disciples, during the forty days of fasting and abstinence that preceded His three temptations, as well as before His sorrowful Passion. By such beautiful examples He sought to make clear to all His followers, until the end of time, the absolute necessity of praying to God.
Countless events throughout history prove its power: it was through the prayer of Abraham that Lot and his family were saved in the midst of the terrible punishment inflicted by God on the sinful inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. The victory of Joshua’s troops in the fight against the Amalekites depended on Moses’ unceasing supplication. And, more than all this, it was at the entreaties of Mary Most Holy that Jesus worked his first miracle at the wedding feast of Canaan.
In fact, prayer is indispensable for us.
However, God sometimes seems to play the role of the judge in today’s parable. We pray, ask and implore something of Him repeatedly and earnestly, without, however, achieving any success. Our hands, like those of Moses (cf. Ex 17:12), become heavy because they are held up for so long in supplication for victory against the enemies of our salvation.
How should we react in such situations?
Sunday’s Gospel concludes with the following sentence:
“Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Lk 18:8).
Here is the answer. It is up to us, in our prayers, to always keep the torch of faith burning in our souls. We must nourish an absolute conviction that God will bring us justice very quickly (cf. Lk 18:8).
Often our Lord makes us wait; yet He does this for our good, so that we may understand that what He wants for us is undoubtedly for the best.
In this way, we are invited today to grow in complete conformity with the Divine Will, having a convicted faith that, despite appearances to the contrary, “God [will] vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night” (Lk 18:7).
Thus, when the Son of Man comes to earth, He will still be able to find men full of faith.
By Jerome Sequeira Vaz
