This is my homily for yesterday, the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C. Yesterday's readings are here.
That’s quite a conversation between Abraham and God in today’s first reading, isn’t it? What if there are still 50 righteous men, will the city be spared?…45…40… Speaking as someone who works in the business world, that sounds less like a simple conversation and more like a negotiation. How low will God go? But in fact, it is a kind of prayer: Abraham is petitioning God to be merciful to the sinful city of Sodom. Whenever we speak with God, we’re engaging in prayer.
Abraham’s interest in the fate of Sodom is personal: his nephew and adopted son, Lot, lives in Sodom. Abraham knows Lot is living in the midst of gross unrighteousness and sin. As Abraham boldly presses God for mercy in the event there are only 50 righteous men in Sodom, or 40 or 30 or 20 or even as few as 10, God graciously concedes he will be merciful for the sake of the handful. In praying for the city, and the righteous in it, Abraham may also be praying for his own loved one. There is nothing wrong with that – in fact, praying for our loved ones is a good thing. I’ll say more about that in a moment.
As I say: Abraham is petitioning God. He is asking God to please help someone he loves. I would guess that all of us have made similar prayers to God at one time or another: Lord, please let my mother live. Or Lord, please ease the physical pain I am suffering. Or Lord, please help my child to do better in school. Or Lord, please don’t let me lose this job because I really need it. Or Lord, please stop those bullies from tormenting me at school. There is no end to the troubles and terrors we can ask God to protect us from, or to fix on our behalf. We call those requests prayers of petition. For some of us, that might be the primary way we pray, pouring out our hearts to God the things that are troubling us, and asking him to help us with them.
Jesus assures us today that it’s perfectly fine to pray to God in this way, asking him to help us with our problems. First, Jesus teaches his disciples a version of the Our Father prayer which we all know so well. That prayer is a series of petitions, asking for things from God, such as, “Give us each day our daily bread” and “Forgive us our sins” and “Do not subject us to the final test”. All of these are petitions where we ask God for what we need, or to protect us from things we fear.
Jesus then goes on to teach us that God is eager for us to ask him for help. We’ll receive, if only we ask. The door will be open to us, if only we knock. If only we would remember to ask God for help with our problems and issues, gifts and goodness will come our way.
God wants to hear from us. He wants a closer relationship with us. He wants us to converse with him, much more than we do. He wants us to pray. If my relationship with God isn’t very strong, I need to use a thumb, rather than a finger, to point to the party at fault.
I’ll share with you that I pray to God with prayers of petition – prayers where I’m asking God for help. If there is something weighing on me, I’ll ask God to help me with it. For example, my job is feeling a bit insecure these days, so I ask God to please let it be preserved for me. But from day to day, nearly all of my prayers of petition are to ask God to help other people.
I’m a fairly methodical person, so I group the people and issues I pray for into categories. This helps me remember who to pray for. I started doing this a long time ago, with lists of people whom I know personally. Then, over time, I’ve added persons I don’t know well, or even persons I don’t know at all, if someone asks me to pray for one of their loved ones. For example: I have a cancer patient list, which is rather long, of people who are undergoing treatment for cancer, or who are cancer survivors. I name each person, one by one, and I ask God to please help each one. I also have a Parkinson’s Disease list, because I know a number of folks who suffer from that disease which, today, has no cure. And I have a list of people I pray for who suffer from depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses. I have a number of family members on that one. I also have a list of victims of abuse for whom I pray. I have a list of the ministries I’m personally involved in: I pray for those ministries, their members and for the people they serve as well. And I have some other lists as well.
I also have a list of loved ones who have died, for whom I pray. As time marches on, that list grows longer. When our loved ones pass away, our prayers of petition on their behalf don’t need to end. If a Parkinson’s patient on my list dies, then that person moves to my list of deceased loved ones, and then I pray for them on that list.
If I’ve been praying for a Parkinson’s patient, and he dies, does that mean that my prayers failed, or that God didn’t listen to me? By no means. It means that, for whatever reason – and the reason may not be clear to me – this person’s life has reached its end. But that doesn’t mean that God wasn’t helping and supporting him every step of the way, and it doesn’t mean that God’s care for him ends at the point of his death. God hears my prayers of petition. I’m confident that God is listening with good will when I’m praying for the Parkinson’s patients on my list, and for the people in my other prayer categories.
So that is how I pray my prayers of petition. I’m sharing my approach with you because I hope to stir you to think a bit how you incorporate prayers of petition into your daily lives. Your mind may not run along the same neural pathways mine does, but you can still pray for yourself and those whom you love. We should turn to God to ask him to help us, including those we love, and even strangers, at least once a day – and several times a day is even better. Some of us lead busier lives than others, but it doesn’t take as long as you might fear to ask God to help those whom we love, and to help the whole world.
“ If only we would remember to ask God for help with our problems and issues, gifts and goodness will come our way.”
ReplyDeleteIt’s really hard to believe this sometimes, given the realities we face - not just our own, but the horrors so many strangers suffer, often so much worse than our own trials and problems.
I do pray, especially for others, because it can’t hurt, but as I’ve mentioned many times, I’m not a bit sure anyone is listening, or that “gifts and goodness” are a sure thing.
Right. Yesterday's Gospel reading, from Luke, ended this way:
Delete"If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"
Couldn't help thinking: how many of the people who are asking / seeking / knocking are actually requesting the Holy Spirit? But Jesus's statement here suggests that's what we may be sent.
As a practical matter, how does that make a difference? More Holy Spirit doesn’t seem to be a big help for many suffering people.
DeleteYes, that was my thought, too. God doesn't always shield us from suffering. For someone who is suffering, the Holy Spirit might be a source of consolation.
DeleteIt also raises the confusion issue of Trinity. We pray to God. We pray to Jesus. We pray to the Holy Spirit. That sure does seem like three gods not one.,
DeleteIt's hard not to think of God either as a pantheon of three gods; or to think of him as one undifferentiated "God-blob".
DeleteSo if I pray to the Holy Spirit with a petition, does that mean the other two persons of the Trinity don’t “hear”? Or do they think that lets them off the hook because “HS will handle this one?” But HS, Jesus, and the First person of the Trinity are one - so why separate the one into three separate individuals when praying and only pray to one of them?
DeleteI view the Trinity like three facets of the same jewel, if that makes any sense. I suppose I pray more to Jesus because I feel like I know him better. And the Father, because I picture him as my creator, even though I know creation is a total Godhead effort. The Spirit seems a bit more mysterious, even though we are told every prayer or good act begins with him. I just find the Trinity very fascinating, it (he, she, them; language fails!) is interacting with us every second of our existence.
DeleteSo God the Father is the Godhead? As the head of the Trinity, the Father is the boss - above Jesus and the HS?
DeleteWhen I pray, I pray to God. I don’t pray to one of the three.
DeleteAnne, no I didn't mean the Godhead is the Father. I meant the Godhead is all three. I pray more to Jesus, but when I do I realize I'm praying to the Trinity, the Godhead I just relate more to Jesus because he became one of us, and I experience him in the Eucharist (but I'm really experiencing the Trinity)
DeleteI don’t usually pray to one of the three. But in my mind it might be the father, not Jesus or the HS. I thought about this a few times and decided that maybe I am seeking a God who Loves “his” children instead of the mean, judgmental, gotcha God I was taught as a Catholic child of the 50s and early 60’s, or the indifferent, cold, absent human father I had. I’m not sure we ever completely shake off what we absorbed as young children.
DeleteGod has no gender though - God is spirit but humans assigned gender to at least two of the three named in the Trinity. Some think of the HS as feminine - Sophia - Wisdom. But since God has no gender I’m not sure the three named “ persons” have gender either. Jesus was a male human being. But was Jesus divine? Centuries after this became dogma, in still not totally convinced. But I do try to follow his teachings, so I’m Christian in that sense.
I don’t “ experience “ Jesus or God in the Eucharist. Never have I don’t think, although “ God knows” I’ve tried. How would you describe this experience?
"How would you describe this experience?" I don't know, I've just always believed Jesus was there. I try to just be present with him, and pray thanksgiving and adoration. That doesn't mean that I necessarily "feel" anything. Just that I try to make myself open and present.
Delete""How would you describe this experience?" I don't know, I've just always believed Jesus was there."
DeleteI believe it, too, although to be honest I don't dwell on it very much. But there is an aspect of experience about the whole thing. I don't know if it's a warmth, or a spark, or an energizing, or something similar, but I do experience something. Something happens.
My prayers are in no way organized. If I see some parent at the grocery store with a kid who's a live wire, I try to make some encouraging friendly remark, "I had one just like that, and you're doing great." Then In say a prayer to St Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, another live wire, to please help this parent and parents of all kids who are a but off.
ReplyDeleteIf it's a saints day, I try to remember people in the saint's patronage: "Dear St Drogo, please help me pray for everybody in the coffee business, especially The Boy. Protect growers from climate change and blight and from Trump's idiotic tariffs. Amen"
Lingering illnesses bleed you dry financially and spiritually, and prayer for others helps keep me connected, wards off irritability, and offsets that sneaking suspicion that there is no point to this life.
Love John the Baptist as a live wire! (and so true!)
DeleteYour random acts of encouragement are wonderful.
I do both depending - random prayers inspired by something I see or read, and regular lists. I’ve been staying up too late reading lately and tend to fall asleep before I’ve gotten through much of my list of individuals. .
DeleteI got nothing but time and attention to offer anybody now. I did manage to take a hot dish to a friend who had surgery. Her sister with early dementia is there often, and they and the cats are a hoot. Her sister keeps thinking I am one of her Sicilian relatives, I think because we all lived in the same UP town and know the same people/places. I brought them hard polenta and marinara casserole. Sister said, "Polenta! Yum! That's what the rich people eat!" Geez, it's just cornmeal mush. Anyway, they fill up a room, and I was exhausted when I left, but always a good time.
DeleteI'm not very organized with my prayer, but I do have sort of a philosophy of it. And that is that God always listens to our prayers. We're never just talking to the ceiling.
ReplyDeleteI have a favorite Scripture verse, Philippians 4:6-9, "Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition make you requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Sometimes I hang on to that thought for dear life, because I usually suffer much more from anxiety about a problem than I do from the actual thing itself.
I have come to the belief that there are a couple of things God doesn't interfere with. One of them is free will. God tries to influence our choices, but in the end we make them (whether we have complete freedom in doing so is another subject). The other thing God seldom interferes with are the laws of nature. God always listens to our prayers, and if what we pray for is good, and doesn't interfere with those two things, he will give it to us. And if it would interfere, he will give us other help to deal with our situation.
I am kind of scatter brained sometimes, and if someone ask me to pray for them, or if I form that intention myself, I am afraid that I will forget. So I immediately commend them to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and mentally offer my next Mass and Communion for them. The Mass us infinite, right? So it doesn't matter how many intentions you pile on.
I try to remember that there are four ends to prayer, not just the one of petition. I try to spend more time in prayers of adoration and thanksgiving than I do in asking for stuff. And the prayer of contrition, not just for my own sins, but for the grace of repentance and conversion of heart for those that are doing things to hurt others.
Katherine, many thanks - all of that is beautiful.
DeleteI think our prayers of just talking to God, or trying to be present with him, are a type of prayer of adoration.
DeleteI really like that idea that God does not interfere with free will ("make him/her do what I want") and laws of nature ("send a miracle to cure my illness"). Though I know a lot of "pray for a miracle" Catholics.
DeleteI don't think of God as a Being with an ear inclined to prayer, though. I think of God more as a creative force, a well from which we can draw strength and insight.
Maybe prayers replenish the "well" I think of as God? I dunno.
DeleteThe free will thing makes sense. Where it gets complicated is in situations like bullying or spousal abuse. If God doesn't interfere with the free will of the bully / abuser - then he's probably not going to stop it. Maybe the gift of the Holy Spirit is helpful there?
Delete"Maybe the gift of the Holy Spirit is helpful there?" Do you mean the gift of the Holy Spirit inspiring people to help the victims of abuse? Maybe in the form of law enforcement, and the justice system, and aid agencies. Unfortunately there seems to be people doing their best to thwart these entities from doing their job.
DeleteKatherine- “ I think our prayers of just talking to God, or trying to be present with him, are a type of prayer of adoration.”
DeleteI mostly carry on conversations on and off all day, wondering why I do it? Maybe God pushes me into it. But the only times I have felt God might be present has been during Centering Prayer - sometimes I think I hear God whispering in the silence. Never at mass in almost 80 years of going to mass - well, more like 72 years, most of the time, but not since Covid.
"I mostly carry on conversations on and off all day"
DeleteSame - at least if, by "carry on conversations", you mean, "...in my own head, with myself". I've been doing that since I was a kid. It has occurred to me occasionally over the years that, I should just try to have those conversations with God instead of myself. And maybe, somehow, I am? But it's hard to break the habit of a lifetime.
""Maybe the gift of the Holy Spirit is helpful there?" Do you mean the gift of the Holy Spirit inspiring people to help the victims of abuse?"
DeleteYes, that's one possibility. Others could be: to help the victim not to despair; or to give the victim courage to resist, or to report the crimes. I am sure there are other ways the Holy Spirit can help in such a situation.
My other thought on this problem is: I think these teachings were addressed to his followers - those who are "in" all the way. The suggestion here is: the more wholeheartedly we commit to giving our lives to him and the closer we draw to him, the more likely our requests are to be the kind of gifts that, for whatever reason, he's disposed to graciously give us.
ReplyDeleteThus: "O Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz" - not likely to be answered as I wish
"Lord, send me the money to be able to afford therapy to help me with my problem" - maybe would be answered as I wish
"Lord, send the Holy Spirit to give me courage to confront my problem" - even more likely to be answered as I wish
I remember a terrible moment when The Boy was 18 months old and docs were concerned he might have leukemia.
DeleteI sat in the waiting room and mentally asked God to make him OK, I asked God to give it to me instead, and I asked God what I was supposed to do if he had leukemia.
All three prayers were answered:
Kid had allergies, but it took two pediatric specialists to figure it out and give us the all-clear.
I got chronic leukemia 13 years later.
In that waiting room, I got an immediate answer to "what am I going to do?" That one came thru almost as if spoken aloud: "You will pull your sh*t together, you will not cry until you are alone, and you will be the best damn parent for this kid that you know how to be." I did feel I wasn't alone.
Why would a God who is Love answer your request to afford therapy but not the unspoken request of a Hindu for the same gift? Does God not love all equally? Does God play favorites?
ReplyDeleteI don't think I said anything about whether God answers Hindu prayers. Granted, I do have a general belief that getting to know Jesus helps us draw close to God, but beyond that I don't have a basis for supposing anything about God answering Hindu prayers.
DeleteDo you really think God answers the prayers of anyone - christian or Hindu or atheist or…- who is simply asking for a personal benefit like having enough money for therapy?
DeleteSimcha Fischer at America has thoughts on prayer including for strangers online.
Deletehttps://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2025/07/28/praying-strangers-251197
Anne, thanks for that Simcha Fischer piece, I like it. And what an interesting set of Facebook groups she belongs to!
DeleteI don't see needing to be able to afford therapy as a personal benefit, at least not along the same lines as a snazzy new luxury car. I see it as necessary treatment that, for some people, is not affordable.
Basically I don’t see God interfering in our daily lives, for good or for bad. So God probably doesn’t magically make money for therapy appear any more than for money to buy a Porsche. God doesn’t help a particular football team win a game or a country win a war.
DeleteSimcha is an interesting writer. I like her much better now that she’s backed off a bit from the days when she was an “orthodox” far right Catholic. Apparently she has now experienced some of what real life is for many that she hadn’t experienced when she was younger. Her views are more mixed now, and more nuanced.
It is an eclectic mix of groups.
"Basically I don’t see God interfering in our daily lives, for good or for bad."
DeleteI think the 'intervention' easiest to see is to see how God motives, inspires and/or changes individual people internally; and those internal changes in turn can cascade outward to change the lives of other people.\
Thus, I think it's perfectly possible that God's influence in parents' lives can induce them to provide someToney to an adult child who needs an infusion of cash to pay for his/her therapy. God isn't pulling puppet strings; but he's working on the herats. Or, if you wish, he's opening the eyes of people who formerly were blind and helping them see things in a new way.
Sorry "motives" should be "motivates", and "herats" should be "hearts". Slow down to go faster...
DeleteRe: Simcha, she kinda got cancelled by the far right media world, guess she wasn't far right enough for the National Catholic Register. She now writes in an Aussie publication.
DeleteI follow her Facebook page because her ducks, gardening, and cooking adventures are entertaining.
Jim - God's influence in parents' lives can induce them to provide some money to an adult child who needs an infusion of cash to pay for his/her therapy.
DeleteBut what if the parents would like to help just because they love their child (not because God is influencing them to help) but the parents simply don’t have the cash to give? They aren’t blind to their adult child’s needs, they hearts aren’t hardened, they simply aren’t wealthy enough to pay for the therapy. I don’t think God influences them to go to the drug store and help them buy the winning lottery ticket.