17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C
First Reading: Gen 18:20-21, 23-32
Second Reading: Col 2:6-14
Gospel Reading: Lk 11:1-13
Two of this Sunday’s readings are about petitionary prayer: asking God for things. Petition is not the only form of prayer: in the second reading, we are exhorted to thank God for things.
In the Gospel reading, Jesus tells us to ask for what we need. In the Lord’s Prayer, we say, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Of course, God knows what we need, but he waits for us to ask because our dignity as his children lies in our freedom.
We can petition God about every need, says the Catechism of the Catholic Church: not only those that influence the march of history, but also our humble, everyday needs. Indeed, how can we tell which are more important? The fate of empires may seem more momentous; yet empires will vanish, while individuals will live forever.
Nevertheless, there is an order of importance in our petitions. We should pray first for the coming of God’s kingdom, and then for what we need to welcome it and co-operate with its coming; we should ask that God’s will be done before we ask for our daily bread.
“Until now, you have not asked for anything in my name,” Jesus said the night before he died. “Ask and you shall receive” – in other words, “use my name.”
Now to pray in the name of Jesus, we must have the attitude of Jesus, who seeks only what pleases the Father. Accordingly, in the Lord’s Prayer, we ask God to unite our will to his Son’s. Then we can pray with “filial boldness,” that is, the boldness of a son requesting good things from a father who never denies him anything.
We hear this boldness in Jesus’ prayer before he raised Lazarus: “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd.” This prayer shows us how to ask: before the gift is given, Jesus commits himself to the one who, in giving, gives himself, for the giver is more precious than the gift.
Now many of us, I am afraid, do not pray with our wills totally united to Christ’s. Accordingly, we can expect that through selfishness or ignorance we will ask for things that are not good for us or for others. God cannot grant these requests, for he desires our well-being. St. James says that we do not receive what we ask for because we ask wrongly, with a view to squandering what we receive on our pleasures.
When we pray with our wills imperfectly united to Christ’s, we must always add, “if it be your will.” This is how Jesus prayed the night before he died, after he had taken on the sin of the world: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. Still, let it be as you would have it, not as I.”
Here there is no “filial boldness.” Jesus seems to be unsure of his Father’s will: he says, “if it is possible,” “if it is your will,” “if this cannot pass me by.” He is not so much doing his Father’s will as submitting to it.
In the Gospel reading, Jesus tells us to keep on praying like this with urgency and patience, as Abraham did in the first reading, without losing heart.
It is more important to ask than to get what we ask for; for by asking we express awareness of our relationship with God, the giver, who, in giving, gives the far more precious gift of himself.
God wants us to exercise our desire in prayer, so that we may be able to receive what he is prepared to give. In fact, he wants to do something even greater than what we ask for. To this end, while we cling to Him in prayer, He transforms our praying heart.
Father Hawkswell will again be teaching the free course “The Catholic Faith in Plain English” every week starting Sept. 15, 2–4 p.m. at the John Paul II Pastoral Centre (33rd and Willow, Vancouver); Sept. 16, 11 a.m.–1 p.m. at St. Anthony’s Parish (2347 Inglewood, West Vancouver); Sept. 16, 7–9 p.m. at the John Paul II Pastoral Centre; and Sept. 17, 7–9 p.m. at St. Clare’s Parish (2888 Delahaye Drive, Coquitlam).
