Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: 7-24-16
Peace be with You,
Last week through the story of Martha and Mary, we received instruction about how the disciple of Jesus is to order their life. That is, the life of discipleship is shaped by one’s relationship with Jesus, but it is not characterized by sedentary contemplation (prayer), rather our relationship with Jesus gives impulse to a life of faith based work. Today, Jesus focuses on the prayer dimension of our life of discipleship.
If we were to sum up what Jesus has to tell us about how we are to approach prayer, we would simply say that we must be persistent in prayer. In our gospel for today, Jesus uses the parable of a man who goes to his friend in the middle of the night asking for him to lend him some supplies. In the end, Jesus tells us, that if the friend doesn’t get up because of their friendship, he will give him what he is asking for because of his persistence. So, are we to understand that if we pray persistently that God will give us whatever we want? Absolutely not. This would be to completely misunderstand the function of prayer. Rather, persistent prayer is meant to have a double-effect: 1) In praying persistently our wills become united with God’s, so that our desire is properly oriented; & 2) As St. Augustine says, persistent prayer has the effect of ’expanding our capacity to receive the great gifts God is preparing to give us.’
At this point you may protest saying, in the end the man gets what he wants. Yes, we can be assured that God hears and will answer our prayers if they be according to His will. However, the answer may not look exactly like what we had in mind. What this means then, is that we need to be open to God surprising us. Our prayer may be answered in a way which is completely unexpected, so unexpected we may not even notice if we are not looking for the response.
My friends, the journey of discipleship has ups and downs, twists and turns that can be made sense of only from the purview of God. We must trust that He knows how to get us exactly where we need to go, and be ready to walk through the doors He opens, even when they aren’t the doors we expected to pass through. Be open to the surprising plans of God, for I can assure you, the path He maps out will always be more exciting and more fulfilling than anything we could have devised.
Your servant in Christ,
Tony
Tony Crescio is the founder of FRESHImage Ministries. He holds an MTS from the University of Notre Dame and is currently a PhD candidate in Christian Theology at Saint Louis University. His research focuses on the intersection between moral and sacramental theology. His dissertation is entitled, Presencing the Divine: Augustine, the Eucharist and the Ethics of Exemplarity.
Tony’s academic publications can be found here.