Fr. Richard Ver Bust

God really does hear all prayer

July 29, 2001, Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The central theme of today's liturgy is prayer. Both the first reading and the gospel reflect on prayer and its importance in the life of a disciple of Jesus. The first reading emphasizes the persistence of prayer in the story of Abraham. Abraham will not give up in his pursuit of seeking to help other people. The story arises out of the Near-Eastern pattern of haggling for something. In this case it is the lives of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Yet it is more than haggling. It is a reflection on divine justice. The people of the cities are certainly guilty of sin. The problem is can the lives of a righteous few out weigh the sinful lives of the many. The answer is not clear-cut. Abraham certainly defers to the power of God but asks that God hold back the destructive power that God can wield. Prayer in this case is familiar and powerful. Abraham is not deterred from seeking a change from God.

The gospel presents three different ideas on prayer. It is almost a catechism on prayer. We hear a specific prayer, an emphasis on perseverance in prayer, and the fact that God really does hear our prayer. The specific prayer is the "Our Father." It is a version that most of us do not know. It differs from the one in Matthew that we, in our tradition, have tended to use. The fact that there are two versions shows that the evangelists are not simply giving us an exact verbatim of what Christ said. It is presented as the mark of Jesus' community of disciples. Jesus and other religious leaders, such as John the Baptist, seem to have had a specific prayer which identified the group.

The Lucan version has five different petitions. It begins with the way we should address God, that is, by the title of Father. It is the distinctive way in which Jesus addressed God. Jesus thus teaches that God is a caring, gracious and loving parent. Jesus invites his disciples to address God in the same way.

The first two petitions may have come from a traditional form in Jewish practice. In asking that God's name be sanctified or made holy is to pray that God be honored. To pray for the coming of the kingdom, we are asking that people recognize God's rule and that the will of God in this way be fulfilled. Since Luke has been teaching something about the nature of that kingdom we may understand it as one in which all people, rich and poor, and all other distinctions be broken down. It means that the power of that kingdom may change human life.

People have sometimes asked what does this prayer imply by using the word daily in reference to "Give us each day our daily bread." There are different opinions but one which stands out is that we need to receive help at all times and thus recognize a dependence on God for what sustains us. The petition for forgiveness implies that God's forgiveness is related to our own generosity in being a forgiving person. Finally there is a petition that God help us in the journey of life and preserve us from failing. Temptation in itself is not sinful but is dangerous. Therefore we need God's help along the way of life to survive these dangers.

The other two sections of today's gospel emphasize the need to persevere in prayer and the fact that in turn God really does hear all prayer. They both presume the fact that God cares for those who are his children. Both sections use human examples to emphasize these ideas. It is saying if we know this is true on the human level how much more can we expect God to respond. Maybe it is not God who is changed by prayer but we, through learning to pray with such love and intensity, who are changed.

(Fr. Ver Bust holds the title of professor emeritus in religious studies at St. Norbert College, De Pere.)