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We
Must Ask
July
29, 2007
Fr.
George Smiga
Luke
11:1-13
Today's
first reading from the book of Genesis is one of my favorite
passages in all the scriptures. It describes Abraham interceding
before God on behalf of Sodom , lest it be destroyed. I do
not know of any other scriptural passage that more succinctly
defines our relationship to God and the importance of prayer.
The narrative unfolds like a drama, perhaps even like an extended
comedy routine with increasing tension.
Abraham
has a strategy. If he can get God to agree to spare Sodom
for a certain number of just people, he can push God to reduce
the number. Abraham succeeds in persuading God to spare the
city for fifty just people. But, knowing that it would be
difficult to find fifty good people in Sodom , he keeps lowering
the number. He moves from fifty to forty-five, then forty,
then thirty, then twenty, then ten. His boldness and his persistence
are amazing. With each verse the tension rises. We think to
ourselves, “Abraham, quit while you're ahead!” We expect God
at each request to say, “No! Enough! I've given too much already!”
But none of that happens. Verse by verse, Abraham succeeds,
so that God agrees that only a handful of just people are
necessary to spare all of Sodom .
Now
this passage points to the importance of prayer. Our whole
prayer tradition is an inheritance from Judaism, and this
passage is one of its most brilliant expressions. Abraham
is not afraid to ask God for what he wants. He does not hold
back or stand on ceremony. Far from being reserved or polite,
he attacks the conversation with God with an aggressiveness
that can only be compared to a customer bartering with a merchant
in a Near-Eastern bazaar. His example shows us that we are
not only called to pray, but called to pray with our whole
heart and soul. We are called to pray as if our life and the
life of others depended upon it. Therefore, the intensity
and the self-interest with which Abraham prays pose to us
a very fundamental question.
To
place that question most directly I would simply ask, “Do
you pray?” I am not asking whether you say prayers (we all
do that) but do you pray? Do you entrust to God some of the
needs of your life with anything approaching the intensity
and the sincerity of Abraham? I would be willing to bet that
many of us very seldom pray in that way. I think most of us
say, “I don't want to bother God. Things are going along pretty
well. I can handle things myself.” Even when there are needs
in our life, serious needs, I think are inclined to trust
that things will work out. But we do not to turn to God and
actually ask, “God, help me.”
Now
both the Jewish and Christian traditions speak against such
reluctance. What we are asked to do is to pray regularly and
with all our soul. What we are asked to do is to entrust our
deepest needs to God and believe that God will value the prayer
that we offer. We are asked to believe that God is both Creator
and Savior, and that our life is really in God's hands. We
believe all of those things in our head, but it is only in
prayer that they move from theory to reality.
What
would we pray for? We are able to choose. One of the great
advantages of prayer is that it allows us to identify what
is most important to us. We can pray for our children, we
can pray that our cancer goes into remission, we can pray
for a peaceful death, we can pray for world peace, we can
pray that our marriage would become stronger. We can choose
any need in our life. But it is not enough to identify such
needs. We must actually ask God to help us. It is in vocalizing
our needs and desires that they become prayer.
Now
prayer of course is not magic. If we could pray today for
a BMW and get one tomorrow, everyone would pray all the time.
Prayer is an act of faith. It is entrusting our life, our
deepest needs to God and believing that God will honor our
request. Prayer is essential. Without prayer you cannot be
a real Jew or a real Christian. Without prayer, all the things
we believe are really just words. They are never entrusted
to God in a real relationship. Jesus knows this. This is why
as a good Jew he teaches us, “Ask and you will receive.” Notice
he does not say you will receive what you ask for. But he
does say you will receive. You will receive what God gives
you, and what God gives you will be good. It will not be a
snake or a scorpion. But if we are to receive the good that
God wants to give us, we must ask. And that is why we must
pray. We must pray with at least some of the sincerity and
the passion of Abraham. You know what you need in your life.
Ask God to give it to you today.
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