Resiliency in praying: The Holy Stubbornness
October 20 2019: Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time - C
A German proverb says, “Most people like short prayers and
long sausages.” Another proverb adds, “Prayer knocks till the door opens.”
What is prayer? Here is a beautiful question to which each
one should try to answer while entering this 29th Sunday in the
Ordinary Time of the Year C. As basic definition, prayer is “talking to God.” It
is not a mere meditation or passive reflection; but a direct address and active
communication with God.
I once read an article where the author was trying to outline
prayer. He said, “Prayer is the practice of the presence of God. It is the place where pride is abandoned,
hope is lifted, and supplication is made.
Prayer is the place of admitting our need, of adopting humility, and
claiming dependence upon God.”
From that definition, something very beautiful to keep is
that, prayer opens us to a relation, our relationship with God. It is
expression of our dependence and a school of humility. Besides, the best prayer
is an act of stubbornness doubled with resilience. To pray is to wear out God.
Because we depend on him, we ceaselessly disturb him until we get what we need
from him. It is about consistency, insistence and persistence. It has never
been, and it won’t ever be easy for one to hold firm to faith without prayer. There
are moments in life where we feel like giving up. When confronted to
difficulties, we get tired holding on our faith and on prayer. Nevertheless, it
is exactly in those moments our prayer needs more consistency and fervency.
Today’s liturgy, special the first reading and the Gospel
are about steadiness or stubbornness in our relation with God. We are given two
examples of people in prayer. The first is about Moses praying for the people
of Israel in war against Amalek and the second, a poor widow in her relation
with a certain unlawful judge.
From these two stories, we learn that genuine prayer calls
for perseverance and holding on, never giving up. In the first reading for
example, while Joshua and the children of Israel were at war against Amalek,
Moses was in an intercession prayer. The author reports that, “As long as Moses
kept his hands raised up”, in an attitude of prayer, “Israel had the better of
the fight, but when he let his hands rest, Amalek had the better of the fight.”
Moses getting exhausted, Aaron and Hur came to support him. The lesson here, is
that when one prays, he must always show sign of determination and not get
tired. It is only through this attitude that we can achieve our goal, that is, get
what we are hoping for. This is clearly proved by the holy stubbornness of the
widow in Jesus’ parable in the Gospel. It asks for a great faith for one to
keep on praying for something without ceasing or getting discouraged that the
result may delay. But at the end, he who knows how to persist in prayer, wins
God’s favor. All these experiences show that a little stubbornness isn’t
necessarily a bad thing when it comes to establishing a consistence relationship
with God.
We are used to hear that prayer works miracles. That is true. Nevertheless, the prayer which makes possible the miracle is not the prayer of an instant. That of people who comes to church and know God only when in trouble. Miracles are the fruits of insistent, persistent and continual prayers. Do not come to church only when you are in need and expect God to bow at your needs. You cannot fool God. What he rather needs of us is our seriousness and consistency in the relationship with him.
We are used to hear that prayer works miracles. That is true. Nevertheless, the prayer which makes possible the miracle is not the prayer of an instant. That of people who comes to church and know God only when in trouble. Miracles are the fruits of insistent, persistent and continual prayers. Do not come to church only when you are in need and expect God to bow at your needs. You cannot fool God. What he rather needs of us is our seriousness and consistency in the relationship with him.
In order for us to keep strong and perseverant in our prayers,
we should make ours the advices of Paul to Timothy, closeness to God’s word. We
have to be rooted in the Scriptures and find in them a school of prayer and a companion
of life. The word of God always teaches us what to do at any circumstance or
situation of life. As Paul says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is
useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in
righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for
every good work.”
It is sad that many of those who claim their belonging to
Christ today, know very little of God’s word. Many Christians seldom read the
Scriptures. Some do not even have a personal Bible. We have enough time to spend
on Facebook, watch hours and hours of Netflix, play videogame even a whole day.
But when it comes to prayer, after few minutes, we feel tired and sleepy. Bible’s
reading seems to be a nice sleeping pills for some people.
We are urged today, to build a real intimacy with God’s word.
In so doing, no matter the situation we may be confronted to, we will realize
that we have a help. Thus, as says the psalmist, “Our help is from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.” Consequently, we are never discouraged by any
situation. No matter the problem, we stand firm in prayer.
In reality, life teaches us that the losers,
those who are easily discouraged and who give up are those who are not well rooted
in their spiritual life. When one knows who his God is, he no longer drinks
from any other source, let alone dirty waters, simply because he seeks to
quench his thirst. He always finds what he needs in the word of God, in the
Holy Scriptures. Prayer and scriptural meditation are the source of Christian
life. Therefore, a Christian who does not pray is a living dead.
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