Deacon Tom Anthony

Gospel Lk 11:1-13

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
"Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."
He said to them, "When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test."

And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend
to whom he goes at midnight and says,
'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey
and I have nothing to offer him,'
and he says in reply from within,
'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked
and my children and I are already in bed.
I cannot get up to give you anything.'
I tell you,
if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves
because of their friendship,
he will get up to give him whatever he needs
because of his persistence.

"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.
What father among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish?
Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?
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?"

MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,

Central to our lives as Christians should be a rich and beneficial prayer life. Prayer deepens our relationship with Jesus Christ. It is a dialog with our savior and creator. As we know, prayer can take on many different forms and all of them add to the Christian Experience. When we celebrate mass, the entire event is that of community prayer and celebration. We gather together seeking forgiveness and to receive the Eucharist in a unified fashion. Beyond the mass, we then engage in personal prayer, meditative prayer, devotional prayer, and communal prayer which all deepen our relationship with Jesus.

In the Gospel Reading today, Jesus offers to us the most perfect prayer that all the Christian Faithful look to as the central theme to structure all of our other prayers around. This is very important to understand. Regardless of any other prayers that we use to bring us closer to Him, the Our Father must be first and foremost. The words are the embodiment of all Christianity and Creation. Through it, we recognize who God is to us: Our Father and Creator. We give Him the honor and love that He deserves. We profess our belief in the coming kingdom and that, in the end, it is His will that we surrender to and not our own wants and desires. Acceptance of God’s superiority to us in a totally submissive state is required. We ask God to give to us daily nourishment: spiritual, mental, and physical. By asking for this, we should develop the faith to believe that He will give us everything that we need. As in the mass, we beg God to forgive all of our sins with the promise to Him that we will forgive the transgressions of other. We then plead for His protection against temptation as we admit that we are not strong enough to endure the evilness around us and our attraction to it. Lastly are the words AMEN, which is Hebrew for, “So be it!”

The exclamation of “AMEN” is critical. It affirms everything that is said. It becomes a testament of our faith and a bold statement of love to our God. We carry forth our words and prayers with a learned confidence that all of our conversations with God are important. As we progress in our Journey of Faith, we will develop a deeper understanding of what this word means. We are stepping forward proclaiming that we are God’s children and that whatever we say to Him is heard and that He will respond. It is the ultimate proclamation that we have spoken, He has heard, and He will answer. We are led by this statement and cherish it.

Sacred Scripture gives us a window into God’s interaction with us. Abraham had an open discussion with the Lord, a revelation of Jesus Christ. God chose to have a conversation with Abraham about the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. God insures Abraham, even when challenged, that the cry of the innocent is always heard and responded to. This theme carries throughout all of Sacred Scripture. God is ever-present and is here to guide us, protect us, and love us. The central aspect is, of course, love.

Even though, at times, we may struggle to believe that God is with us in a profoundly personal basis, we are encouraged to engage in prayer as often as possible with the guarantee that we will come to believe this the more we search for it. As Jesus said, “Seek and you shall find.” This is an indication that He is waiting for us to respond to His presence and will be there when we finally reach out to Him instead of relying only on ourselves.

Deacon Tom