Be persistent in prayer

In this Sunday’s Gospel, St. Luke presents Jesus speaking to his disciples about prayer. For the past few weeks, our Gospel readings have focused on the marks of a good disciple — love and service of God and neighbor as well as devotion to Jesus — and now Jesus adds the necessity of prayer as another such characteristic.

The beginning of this text offers Jesus’ answer to the request, “Lord, teach us how to pray as John taught his disciples” (Lk 11:1). In response, Jesus teaches the most basic Christian prayer, the Our Father, to his followers. Even the beginning of the prayer, “Father,” says a great deal about our relationship with God. Never before had people dared to pray to God with such intimacy. As Jesus’ disciples, we pray to God who is not some distant, unconcerned potentate, but rather to a God who has adopted each of us as his beloved child. All of our prayer and, in fact, all of our lives are forever colored by our inclusion in the loving embrace of the Father and the Son.

“Hallowed be your name” (Lk 11:2b) expresses our humble desire that God’s name be revered throughout the whole of creation. God’s holiness is expressed primarily through his work in the created order. Each act of creative majesty, every mighty intervention into human history, every deed of love done by his disciples further manifests that infinite holiness that is God’s alone. This prayer is at once an act of worship as well as a promise on our part to live in such a way as to more fully demonstrate God’s glory. St. Peter Chrysologus wrote, “We ask God to hallow his name, which by its own holiness saves and makes holy all creation . . . God’s name is blessed when we live well . . .” (Sermon 71,4).

Jesus next teaches us to pray, “your kingdom come” (Lk 11:2c). The Kingdom of God refers to God’s dynamic Lordship over all. The Kingdom will be fully complete in the heavenly recapitulation of all creation at the end of time. St. Paul tells us that the Kingdom is “justice, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17). Inaugurated into this world by Jesus, the Kingdom of God is further expanded through the work of the Church. Our prayer for the coming of the Kingdom involves petitioning God to let his divine will be fully expressed throughout the earth, while at the same time recognizing that we are the instruments of that expression; our task as the daughters and sons of God is to strive mightily to make real here in this world all that we hope for in the blessedness of heaven.

The next prayer is that God “give us each day our daily bread” (Lk 11:3). This petition is itself an act of faith in the God upon whom we depend to care for us daily. We acknowledge God as the Source of all that we have and are, and ask for his continuing good favor. Our daily bread refers to everything we need to live — both the nourishment for this life (food, shelter, etc.) as well as the nourishment needed for eternal life (Jesus, the Bread of Life). During this period of the Church’s Eucharistic Revival, may we embrace with special fervor and draw even closer to our Lord Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament. May we make St. Teresa of Calcutta’s recognition about the Eucharist our own — “Jesus has made Himself the Bread of Life to give us life. Night and day, He is there.” The Blessed Sacrament is the Source and Summit of our Christian faith because it is Jesus — the fulfillment of all our hopes and dreams.

We next ask God to “forgive us our sins for we too forgive all who do us wrong” (Lk 11:4a-b). In this truly remarkable petition, we ask God’s mercy for all our failings and offenses. We realize, however, that this mercy cannot come into hearts that are closed by the refusal to similarly reach out in forgiveness; and so we make our own ability to forgive a condition of even asking for God’s mercy. The “Catechism of the Catholic Church” states, “Forgiveness is a high point of Christian prayer; only hearts attuned to God’s compassion can receive the gift of prayer. Forgiveness also bears witness that, in our world, love is stronger than sin” (par. 2844).

Finally, we pray that God “subject us not to the trial” (Lk 11:4c), that is, that God always give us the ability to resist whatever temptations we may face and protect us from the entrapments of the Evil One. (For a wonderful commentary on the beauty and importance of the Our Father, please see paragraphs 2759 through 2865 of the “Catechism of the Catholic Church,” which is available on the websites of both the Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.)

Following this prayer, Jesus then tells two stories further clarifying the importance of prayer. In the first parable, the Story of the Persistent Friend, he emphasizes the need for persistence in prayer. Jesus assures his followers that persistence in prayer ALWAYS bears fruit (though not necessarily the fruit we initially intend); the fruitfulness of prayer is that it brings us closer to the heart and mind of Jesus.

Jesus concludes this section of his teaching with words of great reassurance. Using the parent-child image, he offers a poignant message of hope for all who pray: “If you, with all your sins, know how to give your children good things, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Lk 11:13).

Msgr. Fell is a Scripture scholar and director, diocesan Office for Priest Personnel