Pastor's Corner: Prayer: Are you ready for change?

I remember being in a hospital room with someone I loved very, very much and I was praying — very hard. I was praying that they would be healed; they were much too young to die, but they kept getting sicker and weaker. Why didn’t God listen? Couldn’t he hear my prayers? Wasn’t I praying right? Why was the one I loved dying?

What does prayer do? Does it make God aware of all that is going on? I don’t think so; God knows how everything is going to work out. Does prayer change God’s mind about how things should happen? I am talking about God who is the great I Am, Who is, Who was and Who never changes — I don’t believe our prayers hold that kind of power. Yet we are told in scripture to pray without ceasing — Why? What good does it do to pray if we can’t change what is going to happen anyway.

I just have to say at this point that I don’t believe that everything is predestined. We have the ability to make choices; we have free wills which will allow us to step outside of God’s plans for us. Even so, God still knows when this will be taking place and what the outcome will be. So why pray?

I found some answers about prayer and how it works in Genesis 18:20-32. Abraham is talking with God (prayer?), he is actually bargaining with God. I personally have tried bargaining with God and you know what; God did not change, actually I began to change. This is exactly what happened to Abraham as a result of his conversation with God. Abraham began to become aware of God’s great mercy and compassion toward a broken and sinful people. So in the Genesis 18 story Abraham’s conversation (prayer) with God causes Abraham to change — prayer always causes us to change. Do we really want that to happen? Do we want God to change us?

In the Gospel of Luke Chapter 11, Jesus’ disciples have witnessed Jesus praying, they saw the effect this prayer had on Him and they wanted some of that for themselves. So they asked Jesus to teach them to pray and He does, He teaches them the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus also uses a parable to emphasize the need to persist in prayer. Jesus says that when they persist in prayer they will receive the Holy Spirit. They will be changed forever, God will be with them and God will be in them. As St. Paul says in the letter to the Colossians; through faith in the power of God in Jesus, we are raised to new life — we are changed.

Let me take you back to that hospital room with my very sick child. My persistent prayer for the healing of my child led me to the gift of the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit affirmed in my heart that even if and when death occurred God’s great love and mercy would hold me and all who I love in the Peace of Christ. God’s Peace.

Please believe me, life doesn’t get any better than living in God’s Peace.

May your prayer change you and lead you to the Peace of Christ.

——

Tim Maroney

Pastoral minister

St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church