Anyone who’s lived in the Bible Belt is well-aware of how Protestants tend to have little difficulty praying publicly “…in Jesus name. Amen.”
How foreign that is for “sleepy” Catholics!
For some “sleepy” Catholics, if prayer isn’t a routine formula they memorized decades ago in CCD or PREP class, they don’t seem to know how to pray or what to do when asked to offer a prayer in public. Should events conspire to force “sleepy” Catholics to pray aloud and they have a moment or so, they’ll sit down and craft something that sounds to them like a prayer. They may even have a trusted someone proofread the draft, just to make sure! If put on the spot, some “sleepy” Catholics will stammer a bit, bumbling about for words that will make them sound like Protestants when they pray publicly but in this instance, of course “…through Christ our Lord. Amen,” making it sound all so very official and proper. Then too, if a priest should be present, “sleepy” Catholics immediately defer to that member of the clergy whom they believe is a “trained professional” at praying aloud in groups as every Catholic should be able to pray publicly “…through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
To sum up: For “sleepy” Catholics, prayer is a strictly private matter of “ask and you will receive,” as Jesus taught his disciples in today’s gospel. Not so with praying publicly and only, only if necessity requires.
It seems the operative principle these Catholics have taken to heart is what we prayed in today’s Psalm response:
Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.
For “sleepy” Catholics, that’s what constitutes prayer: I ask God what I want God to give me and God, being good and gracious, You will respond immediately by bestowing it upon me.
But what happens when God doesn’t respond immediately to the laundry list of oft-repeated wishes?
For a variety of reasons, many “sleepy” Catholics conclude You aren’t much interested in listening to me and, rather than persist, “sleepy” Catholics give up. After all, the data are irrefutable: Prayer is demonstrably inefficacious for getting what it is they want so much that, they believe, will bring them the happiness and bliss for which they yearn.
“Why should I pray if You never listen to me?”, “sleepy” Catholics ask.
When asked about this phenomenon, fellow Catholics will oftentimes respond reminding their “sleepy” co-religionists of the second part of what Jesus taught in today’s gospel “…seek and you will find” as well as the third part “…knock and the door will be opened to you.”
“Just be persistent and keep at it,” these fellow Catholics admonish their “sleepy” Catholic co-religionists. Some may even go as far as to quote the entire passage we heard in today’s gospel where Jesus taught his disciples:
And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
The problem for “sleepy” Catholics is that, like Jesus’ disciples, they don’t know how to pray. And, in this sense, their hearts have grown morally and spiritually impoverished.
For this reason alone and since there are so many “sleepy” Catholics, it’s good the Church proposes today’s readings from scripture. They raise for our consideration two important questions:
- “What is prayer?”
- “What does it mean to ‘pray as Jesus taught’?”
To respond adequately to these questions, all Catholics need to take Jesus’ teaching literally: Authentic prayer is asking, seeking, and knocking.
However, the image Catholics should keep in mind concerning this teaching isn’t some holy card depicting a pious Saint on one’s knees anguishing in prayer before a Crucifix. Helpful and instructive as that may be, that’s the “end product” of a whole lot of moral and spiritual growth. Rather, the image to keep in mind—one that transcends the generations of how to pray as Jesus taught—is that of a young lad whose heart has been smitten by a comely lass who feigns complete disinterest in him.
In any generation, does the young lad give up?
Of course not! Cupid has smitten his heart!
All the young lad can think about during his waking hours is the comely lass, what she means to him and what he want to mean to her, as well as how best to conduct himself in a way that’s pleasing to and ultimately will win her heart over.
Confronting this challenge, what any healthy lad in every generation does is to seek out the comely lass continuously. For example, at school in the hallway, cafeteria, library...wherever she’s to be found. Then too, outside of school hours, for example, knocking at the lass’s front door and calling out to her from outside when she’s upstairs in her bedroom texting her girlfriends about what a fool the lad is making of himself. At nightfall, the lad may perhaps be so audacious as to shimmy up the downspout in hopes of stealing a kiss...and not getting caught by her father. The young lass surely takes notice of his earnest and persistent longing to fetch her attention!
Today’s readings suggest the key to authentic prayer—to pray as Jesus taught—is persistence in praying for those kind of matters—the deepest longings of our hearts for what we need if we’re to fulfill God’s plan for us—not continuously offering up egotistical or narcissistic prayers, the content of which is “all about me.” Oftentimes and although these aren’t the exact contents, these prayers take the form of “Here’s what I want from You. I’ll do whatever You want. Just give it to me RIGHT NOW!”
The trouble with this form of prayer presents isn’t primarily its content but what happens when those prayers go unanswered. When prayer is “all about me” and those prayers go unanswered, it’s common for the people offering them up to cease asking, seeking, and knocking. Eventually, these people also cease trusting in God and begin trusting more in their own designs to get what they desperately want.
And therein their heart’s moral and spiritual impoverishment begins.
What these folks should be asking themselves before asking, seeking, and knocking of God is: “Why aren’t You answering my prayers and giving me what I want?”
Were “sleepy” Catholics to ask this question, they’d begin to mature a bit morally and spiritually by learning what constitutes authentic prayer, as Jesus taught. To be sure, it isn’t everything they believe will fill them with happiness and bliss in this world. No, what they need to prayer for is what every human being in every generation needs to experience fulfillment as a child of God.
Recall what all of us were promised on Christmas Eve:
They shall name him “Emmanuel,” which means “God is with us.”
To pray for what we really need—to experience “God is with us”—requires persistence. Rather than telling God about everything we want, we need to experience God is with us and to learn to pray to God to assist us—through the Holy Spirit’s inspiration in the gift of good counsel—regarding what need truly in order that we might grow morally and spiritually as God’s children to fulfill God’s will for us.
In contrast to making demands of God like “Lord, give me this” or “Lord, solve this problem for me,” one authentic prayer is “Lord, help me to discern what must I do now.” Notice how this prayer focuses upon something beyond ourselves—a moral or spiritual matter concerning something about which we worry and fret—that makes room for the Holy Spirit to come to our assistance and make haste to help us in our genuine need by offering us good counsel...what we must do now about this matter. In this way, we will experience God is with us and what we must do to fulfill our heart’s deepest needs which is nothing other than to do God’s will for us.
“Do this, in memory of me,” as Jesus taught, may not may any of us happy. But, doing this will fill our hearts with joy.
Were “sleepy” Catholics to ask “Why isn’t God answering my prayers and giving me what I want?”, they’d also begin to learn that prayer isn’t limited to a particular time or place. Instead, “sleepy” Catholics can offer authentic prayers wherever “sleepy” Catholics find themselves and have a moment to squeeze a prayer in.
For example, how much time do “sleepy” Catholics waste rushing here and there in their vehicles, sitting on their couches and flipping through cable television channels looking to be entertained, or performing boring chores around the house or yard? Never once does it occur to “sleepy” Catholics to take advantage of moments like these and so many others as well to pray for the Holy Spirit to give them the gift of good counsel to know what they must do as it concerns what they need.
Ever notice how, even in those moments, the voice of our hearts oftentimes catches our attention as it were “out of the blue”? Were “sleepy” Catholics to take advantage of these movements of the heart under the direction of the Holy Spirit to invite the Holy Spirit to bestow the gift of good counsel upon them, “sleepy” Catholics would become increasingly sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s voice within. They’d also gradually learn to direct their thoughts, feelings, and intentions to that voice and their ears away from this world’s cacophonous voices that only distract “sleepy” Catholics from focusing upon their heart’s deepest yearnings. Even more importantly, “sleepy” Catholics would begin to grow morally and spiritually.
Were “sleepy” Catholics to “do this in memory of me,” as Jesus taught, they could then offer authentic prayers that could include: “Lord, what do You desire me to do?” and “Lord, what is Your will?” as well as “Lord, what would please You?” Note the switch in subjects: From me—“egoism” and “narcissism”—to God—“You,” “Your will,” and “What pleases You.”
Notice how authentic prayer, as Jesus taught, is actually a “workshop”—like St. Joseph’s where he taught Jesus about carpentry—for learning how to walk the pathway of holiness of life! Focusing upon God and God’s will—the Wholly Other who is with His people, as Rudolph Otto called God—assists us to learn to focus upon others and their needs. This is how persistence in asking, seeking, and knocking about God’s is learned. Then, as the Holy Spirit’s good counsel is incorporated into daily life, its fruit signals moral and spiritual growth, beginning with a turn from self-centeredness to other-centeredness and, in this instance, to God-centeredness...the sure foundation of moral and spiritual growth!
Concurrently, all this asking, seeking, and knocking inculcates moral and spiritual growth which opens the door to a deeper faith.
Unfortunately, “sleepy” Catholics “get it all backwards”—they believe faith opens the door to moral and spiritual growth—evident in how “sleepy” Catholics think prayer formulas are “authentic” expressions of prayer. While those formulas—even the “Our Father”—are beautifully composed prayers, what “sleepy” Catholics forget is that those prayers grew out of the deep faith of the people who composed them when they experienced God is with them. Those words poured forth from the depths of their hearts, perhaps when they were inspired by a text from scripture, a particular Catholic belief, or when their heart was being moved with pity for another person’s plight. Were “sleepy” Catholics true honest, they’d pray like the apostles when they said, “Lord, increase our faith” (Luke 17:5).
To pray with faith is to speak from the heart about what we truly need to God who is with us—present to us—and whose Holy Spirit can solve any problem, difficulty, or challenge when the content concerns a matter of selfless love. Persisting in this kind of prayer—asking, seeking, and knocking to do God’s will—begets the kind of moral and spiritual growth that opens the door to a deeper faith.
That deeper faith then begets courage…the courage to open our hearts even further as we persist in prayer not for ourselves but beyond ourselves for others and their moral and spiritual good.
We heard of this kind of courage in the person of Abraham in today’s first reading. Rather than righteously condemning the people of Sodom and Gomorrah for their sin and moving along to save himself and his family but knowing God is present, Abraham courageously haggled and negotiated with God to save the inhabitants of both cities. In this context, also reconsider the prayer of Prodigal Son’s father for his son’s safe return home from a life of debauchery and his prayer for his other son whose heart had grown hardened against his brother. Then, too, authentic prayer deepens faith to live as a child of God by doing God’s will. For example, consider Jesus’ prayer in the garden of Gethsemane as he confronted the brutal specter of his arrest, trial, and crucifixion. Jesus prayed: “Not my will but Your will be done.”
“Sleepy” Catholics possess neither the faith nor courage to pray as Jesus taught. Instead, with hearts closed to others’ true needs, “sleepy” Catholics judge the world as going to Hell in a handbasket. If they do persist in prayer, the words “Thank God I’m not like that!” flow from their hearts. In this regard, imagine the great faith and courage it takes to open one’s heart to God, to allow one’s heart to be moved by God’s will, and to respond generously with forgiveness! Again, as Jesus taught his disciples and this time when he prayed his final prayer from the Cross, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”
Yet, God hasn’t abandoned “sleepy” Catholics! They can learn to pray as Jesus taught.
Yes, it will take faith and courage if they’re to open their hearts and to see how devoid of love they’ve grown, having become veritable arid and parched deserts in need of the water of life from which new life can emerge. To be saved from this situation, “sleepy” Catholic must realize what their hearts truly need: Divine intervention in the form of a Savior. This realization—that no human being can save oneself—given voice in a faith-filled courageous, and, yes, authentic prayer, constitutes the first affirmative step on the pathway leading toward holiness of life…to be a “WOKE” Catholic.
As Pope Francis has described this form of authentic prayer:
First: [we must] recognize our dryness, our incapacity to give life. Recognize this. Second, to ask: “Lord, I want to be fruitful. I want my life to give life, that my faith be fruitful and go forward and I can give it to others.”
That represents this week’s challenge from scripture: To persist in asking God for the grace to empty our hearts of asking, seeking, and knocking for everything we want.
One note of caution, however: “Rome wasn’t built in a week” and neither is moral and spiritual maturity. It’s a process, one akin to learning to walk. First, there’s crawling around on the floor and exploring the terrain. Second, there’s taking baby steps and flopping down face first onto the floor in failure to amble about freely. Third, eventually the infant ambles about grasping onto objects to establish a solid foothold in new terrain.
How might each of us “do this,” as Jesus taught, “in memory of me”?
Upon awaking each morning this week, conduct this memento mori: Persist in humbly praying “Lord I’m a sterile desert. I haven’t borne fruit. You can assist me to bear fruit.”
Offered up at the beginning of each day this week, this authentic prayer will prepare our hearts to become “WOKE” Catholics who, acknowledging their Savior and praying as Jesus taught through God’s grace, will gradually begin to sprout, grow, flourish, bear the fruit of divine love, and eventually give life to others. Again, it won’t happen instantaneously. But, given time, this moral and spiritual growth will, in retrospect, be miraculous! Persevering in this prayer—asking, seeking, and knocking for the grace to do God’s will—will strengthen the kind of faith that will support moral and spiritual growth which, in turn, will generate within each of us the courage we need to begin listening for the Holy Spirit’s good counsel.
As Jesus told his disciples in today’s gospel:
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?
Then, having experienced the fulfillment of the promise we heard on Christmas Eve—“They shall name him ‘Emmanuel,’ which means, ‘God is with us’”—further moral spiritual growth is simply a matter of praying authentically each day “Your will be done…on Earth as it is in Heaven” and acting upon the Holy Spirit’s good counsel to carry out God’s will throughout the day.
And, of course, as “WOKE” Catholics pray, “...through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
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