We Need Prayer

The Gospel passage for this 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time is a catechesis on prayer.

Jesus teaches us to address God as “Our Father” because before we were even born, God had already thought of us and loved us. Jesus wants us to present ourselves before the Father with confidence and ask Him for what we need to live as His sons and daughters. No other religion, except Christianity, presents God as a Father.

I would like to make my own the words of the Claretian missionary, Fr. Paulson Veliyannoor, when he explains the Lord’s Prayer:

“When we pray, ‘Hallowed be your name,’ we declare to the Father our willingness to be involved in the glorification of his name and to collaborate with him in the fulfillment of his promises: ‘You will be my people, and I will be your God’ (Ezek 36:23-28).

‘Your kingdom come,’ we pray. Jesus taught us that the Kingdom has already arrived. The time of waiting is over. However, we continue to pray for its coming, because it must develop and grow in each person as a seed of goodness, love, reconciliation, and peace. Prayer helps us discern between the values of this world and the values of the Kingdom of God.

We cannot recite the Lord’s Prayer sincerely if we think only of our own bread, are concerned with possessions, and are anxious about tomorrow, forgetting the poor and neglecting social justice. It is equivalent to saying: ‘Help me, Father, to be content with what is necessary, to free me from the slavery of greed, and strengthen me to share with the poor.’ God’s forgiveness has only one requirement: that we cultivate love and forgiveness toward our brothers and sisters, and that we first reconcile ourselves with them.

And the temptation from which we ask to be saved is not about minor weaknesses, life’s struggles, or persecutions. These cause us to stumble and can stifle the seed of God’s Word within us. But Jesus wants us to pray that we may be kept from the temptation to abandon our faith in God, the loving and merciful Father.”

Now, I don’t want to end this reflection without forgetting that the parable of the man who went to ask a friend for help with three loaves reiterates the importance of persistence and perseverance in prayer. We must always persevere in prayer. And let us remember that prolonged prayers do not seek to persuade God to change His plans. Prayer does not change God; on the contrary, prayer opens our minds and transforms.

May the Lord always grant you his peace!

Fr. Lalo Jara, OFM, Pastor
Mission San Luis Rey Parish