Sermons on Prayer

 

LUKE 11:1-13

1He was praying in a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." 2And he said to them, "When you pray, say: "Father, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. 3Give us each day our daily bread; 4and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive every one who is indebted to us; and lead us not into temptation." 5And he said to them, "Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, `Friend, lend me three loaves; 6for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; 7and he will answer from within, `Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything'? 8I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him whatever he needs. 9And I tell you, Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

 

Over the weekend, as per usual, I heard three different homilies on the same readings. This past weekend, the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, the priests in the parishes where I sing, all took a stab at this passage from the Gospel According to St. Luke.

The first priest is a Dominican Friar, and a frequent guest at the one parish. He talked at length about this, and memorable his words were not. But, at the time, it was good.

The second priest, the rector at one of the Churches used as a Cathedral over the years, talked about a young couple asking for prayer for their son, who was since diagnosed with mild autism. The husband of the couple repeated to Monsignor the words he says at every Mass. “We pray for what we think we need. Please, grant us what you know we need.” That is the root of what all prayer is, after all. The words were familiar and stuck with me.

The third priest, a young Jesuit who embodies traditional Ignatian thought and fervor, began with observations of the Our Father. Essentially, it is a series of command sentences and isn’t it presumptuous of mere mortals to make such demands of the Deity. It was most amusing before he went into how we are to be humble in prayer and steeped in virtue, something that is desperately lacking many times. We also got a bit of a history lesson on the Our Father and how the early Christians recited it with passion three times a day. This was before the more formal developments of prayer, and Liturgy, so, it was what Christians at the time knew.

And so, St. Luke’s version of the Our Father was somewhat explained. It is the instruction from Our Lord and Savior to His sheep on what to request: our daily bread, forgive us, lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil. We can pray for these things all we want. The thing is, we still have to keep our end of the bargain.

That part of the deal has been muddied over the last five hundred years.