Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross, Page 8
F&itih Aliwi
Thursday, April 12, 2001
How do we know our prayers
are answered?
By Father Eugene LaVerdiere, SSS
Catholic News Service
H
and thirsty, it is natural to wonder if
God listens to our prayers: “Lord, you
know that I am hungry! Listen to my
prayer.”
—At times we are like Abraham,
bargaining with God.
Interceding for Sodom, Abraham
talked with God: “Suppose there are
50 innocent people in the city, would
you wipe out the place, rather than
spare it for the sake of the 50 innocent
CNS photo by Bill Wittman
.ow do we know whether a
prayer is answered? How do we know
whether God even listens to our
prayer? From the beginning of his
tory, our ancestors probably asked
the same questions.
Actually, don’t many of us tend to
be fairly certain that God lis
tens to our prayers of thanks
giving and our prayers of
praise? What we may find
ourselves wondering is
whether God listens to our pe
titions for health, for peace in
the world, for an abundant
harvest.
What we are forgetting is
that it is God who plants the
seed of prayer in our hearts.
When we pray, we think that
the initiative comes from us.
But it is God who initiates the
process of prayer.
God is awesome. Compar
ing us with God, we are poor,
lowly creatures —- like tiny
grains of sand in the desert.
Thus, as human creatures,
we pray with Psalm 8 to the
Lord of the universe:
“When I see your heavens,
the work of your fingers, the
moon and stars that you set in
64F mmmmmmmmm
livery prayer is really
a response to God’s
initiative. With his per
sonal and gracious
presence, he listens and answers. After every prayer, we can thank
God for his listening.... Are we present to God? Do we remember
God? Do we remember God’s answer to our past prayers?”
place, what are humans that you are
mindful of them, mere mortals that
you care for them?”
Yet, after contrasting ourselves to
the heavens, Psalm 8 continues:
‘Yet you have made them [us] little
less than a god, crowned them with
glory and honor. You have given
them rule over the works of your
hands, put all things at their feet.”
So you see, in the human family
every person is extremely precious to
God. As creatures, who are also co
creators with God, “our Father” cer
tainly listens to our prayers.
■ ■ ■
Sometimes, after pleading with
God, if we are still very ill, hungry
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for peace on earth, particularly in
troubled countries, or for divine pro
tection, saying: “Lord, if I would get
well, I will not eat meat on Lenten
Fridays.” Then, raising up the
stakes gradually, we say: “I will go
to Mass every day in Lent; I will
fast throughout the season; I will
visit the sick; I will give alms to
homeless people.”
—Or we may be like King David,
■
people within it?”
God agreed to spare the city of
Sodom for 50 innocent people.
Abraham spoke again, lowering the
number in stages from 50 to 10. The
Lord replied, “For the sake of those
10, I will not destroy it” (see Genesis
18:22-33).
Similarly, we bargain for health,
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praying for the forgiveness of sins.
After the prophet Nathan spoke to
David about his affair with Bath-
sheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite,
David wrote Psalm 51. Today, we call
this psalm in Latin “Miserere,” that
is, “Have Mercy.”
In Psalm 51 David repeated a
simple, eloquent prayer for forgive
ness: “Have mercy on me, God, in
your goodness; in your abundant com
passion blot out my offense. Wash
away all my guilt.”
In the same psalm, David repeat
edly acknowledged his guilt: “For I
know my offense.... Against you alone
have I sinned; I have done such evil in
your sight.”
Throughout the centuries, Psalm
51 has been extremely popular. We
know that God answered David’s
prayer at once while he was praying
his “Miserere.” But David loved this
psalm throughout his life, plumbing
deeper and deeper his guilt, his con- ^
trition, his sincerity and his relation- ^
ship with God.
Think how today we re
peat a simple prayer for for
giveness at the beginning of
every Mass: “Lord, have
mercy. Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.”
■ ■ ■
Jesus heard a divine voice
in his baptism: You are my
beloved Son; with you I am
well pleased” (Luke 3:22). We W
are eager for the same voice
to come from heaven to as
sure that we are forgiven, at
least that God loves us.
When we praise or thank
God, we do not hesitate or
wonder if, how or why God
hears our prayers. With the
three men in the fiery fur
nace, when we are inviting^
the whole of the creation to
give glory to the Lord we
know certainly that God
hears our prayer: “Sun and
moon, bless the Lord; praise
and exalt him above all for
ever. Stars of heaven, bless
the Lord” (Daniel 3:62-63).
But every prayer is really
a response to God’s initiative.
With his personal and gra
cious presence, he listens^
and answers. After every
prayer, we can thank God for his lis
tening.
God responds to our prayer with
what we really need, not what we
think we need. And throughout our
lives, God is present to us. God re
members us.
Are we present to God? Do we re
member God? Do we remember God’s a
answers to our past prayers? ™
(Father LaVerdiere, a Blessed Sac
rament priest, is a Scripture scholar
and senior editor of Emmanuel
magazine.)
To ask if God answers prayer is a little like asking if prayer really works. But what does it mean to say prayer
“works”?
We know God doesn’t give us everything we think we want in precisely the form we thought we wanted it. That
can mean God has greater satisfactions in mind for us. But suffering occurs for us too — even when we’ve prayed
for suffering to end.
It’s a real enigma to me that some people, faced with suffering and/or someone’s death, turn away from God —
at least temporarily, while others in the same situations turn toward God; their spirituality intensifies.
What enables the latter group to keep praying? Obviously prayer hasn’t “worked” for them by “yielding” all their
requested outcomes.
Many of these people, nonetheless, will report that they find prayer effective, profitable. Their suffering is real, but
their hope is vigorous.
Some might say God responds to them by inviting them to recognize how active he has been and remains —
though in mysterious, not easy to understand ways — in their lives and their world.
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David Gibson, Editor, Faith Alive!