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In Luke (18:9-14) Jesus talks to his disciples about the quality prayer in the ministry of liberation.
It is easy to assume an attitude of superiority, even unconsciously, when serving the poor and oppressed. The Gospel illustrates how this feeling of superiority can even extend to our prayer. We may believe that God has a "special ear" for us because of our perceived holiness or dedication or self-sacrifice.
Who is it that "bends God's ear"? "God hears the cry of oppressed. God is not deaf to the wail of the orphan, nor to the widow when she pours out her complaint." (Sirach 35: 12-14). God's greatness is not proved by accommodating the powerful. God's grandeur reflects itself in the cry of the poor.
Jesus told his apostles, "When you pray, say our Father". When we pray, we need to acknowledge that we, in our own ways, are poor, oppressed, wailing orphans, complaining widows. Remember we pray to Abba, that is, our daddy, and we are children in wonder and need.
Prayer is not for the sake of God. God has no need of our praise, thanksgiving, or petition. Prayer is for us to review our relationship with God. Prayer is to acknowledge the transcendent Greatness of the Supreme Being. We give praise for God is Almighty; we give thanksgiving because God is the source of all good; we give petition because we are aware of our own powerlessness.
We Catholics have the practice of "the intercession of saints and the Blessed Mother." (Note: Catholics never pray to saints, the Blessed Mother, or statues. As with other Christians, all prayer is directed to God through Christ.) The intercession of saints is a practice of piety and not of the essence of Faith. Those who practice it unite their spirits with a saint who is particularly meaningful to them to lift up their prayer to God through Christ. In the Lukan context of liberation theology, we can seek the powerful spirit of the poor to supplement our sinful attachments.
"The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest until it reaches its goal, nor will it withdraw until the Most High responds, judges justly and affirms the right, and the Lord will not delay" (Sirach 35:16-18).
II.
Many people only turn to the Lord when there are storms in their life.
In the storm that they ask God to help or rescue them.
Often there is a promise on their part – to change in some way – as if God can be bargained with:
Lord, if you make this a successful surgery, I will never smoke again;
Lord, if you see me through this mess I made, I will avoid this sin for as long as I live;
Lord, if you only give me a sign of which way to go, I will follow with all my heart.
People who only turn to God in the stormy times look at God as a sort of super world-wide web, being bombarded with hundreds of requests every minute of every day.
Other people only acknowledge God in the good times, when things are going their way.
They only pray to give thanks to God; and their thanksgiving is always self centered: “God, I thank you for all the blessings you have given me and my family”.
I often think of the book of Job.
Job was God’s faithful servant who had everything. It was easy to thank God in the midst of so many blessings.
Then God took everything away,p from Job: his possessions, his family, his health, until he was left to sit in the dumps outside of town.
There is a powerful lesson here about what we interpret as “gifts” of God.
If we interpret good fortune as a blessing, then is bad fortune a curse? Is my father, who through much of his life was a strong and healthy man, now cursed by God in his infirmity?
1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a tells us God is there in gentler times.
Yahweh is also present in the quiet whisper on a gentle breeze. Even in beholding the stillness, We can acknowledge the Greatness of God.
Sitting in ashes and misery, Job finally was able to raise to God a prayer of praise. And The Book of Job ends with a beautiful self-proclamation of God’s own greatness.
Praise is the way we acknowledge God in all times and every day.
When I experience storms in my life,
I pray best when I try to acknowledge my complete powerlessness over a situation and God’s overwhelming power and might.
This is the praise behind petition.
In good times, I pray best when I try to acknowledge the goodness and love of God towards all of his creation, particularly towards the oppressed.
This is the praise behind Thanksgiving.
When we can recognize the presence of God in every circumstance – from the violent storm to the gentle whisper of a breeze – we can praise God at all times.
This is the spiritual discipline we all can develop that is called the practice of the presence of God.
Praised be the Name of the Lord!
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