Are you a list maker? Do you begin every day with a to-do
list?
While I’m not the most organized
person on the planet, I do have a white board at my office on which I list my
unfinished tasks. It helps me each day
to focus on the things I need to get done, and in what order I need to do them. Every time we go away for vacation, my wife
will write out a list of all the things she doesn’t want to forget. And often when I think we have a free weekend
and think maybe I’ll be able to play some golf, she’ll let me know on Friday
night all the chores she would like us to get accomplished with this free time.
Some call that their “honey-do list.”
It occurred to me as I was
reflecting on these readings, that my prayer to God every morning includes what
looks like a to-do list as well. Sort of
a “honey-do” list for the Lord.
Watch and protect my children today,
Lord, keep them safe. Lord bless my
wife, and me and our marriage. Give
healing to all those we know who are sick and suffering (and I’ll list them by
name). Give comfort and peace to those
who are grieving. I pray for our nation
and its leaders, for our Church and its leaders, and I could go on.
It’s a lengthy to-do list for the
Lord. Sort of a “here’s what I want you
to do for me today” list. And there’s
nothing wrong with that – today’s Gospel encourages us to persist in prayer
without growing weary. And elsewhere in
the Gospel Our Lord tells us to constantly make our needs known to the
Father.
So such prayers are good, I
think. And we believe that God always
listens and answers. I mean, if the widow’s persistent prayer
finally makes the unjust judge give in, how much more will our Father in
heaven, who is all good, listen to our pleading? Each of has had the experience of God answering
our prayers – just this morning our youngest daughter, who’s had a bunch of
health problems the last few weeks, asked us to pray hard for her at 11 as she
was running a cross country race – afterwards she texted us praising God at how
good she felt and how well she ran.
The problem with this sort of prayer
is that, to some extent, it treats God like a kind of giant gumball machine – I
put my prayers in and expect Him to give me a gumball out – the exact answer
I’m looking for. I feel powerless over
situations and problems in my own and my loved ones’ lives and so I might look
on God as an all-powerful “fix-it” man who can solve every problem and fix
everything that’s broken.
While we believe that God does solve
problems and fix broken lives, and that God wants us to persist in prayer and
trust in Him, we also know from experience that we there are problems and
brokenness that God doesn’t fix. Or at
least not the way we want, or hoped. The
loved one who didn’t get a cure. The
addiction that won’t be overcome. The
job that seemingly can’t be found. We
are tempted at times to wonder - Is He listening? Wonder if maybe He isn’t some kind of unjust
judge.
The message of this Gospel is that real
faith means faithfulness, that we persist and remain faithful in our prayer,
trusting that the Lord is listening, and is with us, in the midst of our
problems and our brokenness. Giving us
the strength to endure. The Lord’s
prayer in the garden comes to mind as our model for this kind of prayer. “Father let this cup pass from me but your
will, not mine, be done. “
But I wonder - is this “to-do list”
kind of prayer really the only way I should be praying? For isn’t it pretty much self-focused, on
myself, my needs, my loved ones? Oh I
pray for our nation and its leaders, and our Church and all the Faithful, but
do I pray for those among us thirsting for justice? Do I pray for the powerless, the
disenfranchised in our society, the way the widow was powerless and
disenfranchised in Jesus’ day?
When I feel an injustice has been
done to me, I will pray fervently, but when I’m comfortable and happy, do I
pray for justice for others? For let us
not overlook that it is justice that the widow pleads for , persists
after, thirsts for, from this unjust judge.
Now I suppose that I do pray for
justice to some extent. Every day I pray
for the unborn, for an end to abortion in our country. I join my prayer with the hundreds of
thousands who persist every January 22 and travel to Washington for the March
for Life, speaking out and praying for justice on behalf of our most powerless
and defenseless little brothers and sisters.
But do I pray for the
immigrant? For the migrant worker and
her family who are here to pick the tomatoes, grapes and apples? Do I pray for children starving in
Haiti? Do I concern myself with the
victims of human trafficking and keep them in my prayers?
That sort of prayer has the effect,
not so much of changing God, but of changing me! For it occurs to me that I can be like a
little like the unjust judge, hard of heart and at least to some extent, not fearing
God or respecting others. Ignoring,
perhaps, the needs and pleadings of others.
So if I persist in this kind of prayer, God becomes like the widow,
knocking persistently at my door, seeking to change my heart. And stirring me to action, stirring me to
work for justice, on behalf of those whom I’ve prayed for. Stirring me to be the answer to someone’s else’s
fervent prayer. This can happen only if
I persist in my prayer, my staying in relationship with the Lord, without
growing weary. Rather than to seek to
change God, maybe my prayer needs to be to ask God to change me!
In a few moments, as we do at every
Mass, we will pray the Lord’s prayer. We
will pray the words “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done.” We pray not only that the Kingdom come at the
end of time, but that God’s Kingdom may come about in our world, in our lives,
now. By this prayer may God stir in our
hearts, yours and mine, the desire to work to bring about that Kingdom, stir in
our hearts the strength and courage for each of us to be Christ’s eyes and
ears, hands and feet, mind and heart, and to go forth from here to be the
presence and justice of Jesus Christ in our world.
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