17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Sunday 24th July 2016)
Grace is a Gift Received And Changes Everything – (Luke 11: 1 – 13)
After discovering the importance of prayer in last week’s Gospel, this week Jesus gives his disciples a blueprint for how to pray and urges us to be persistent in our prayer life. Luke’s version of the Our Father is a little bit different to the prayer we say today but it is a reminder for each of us to keep our prayers simple and direct. The disciples would have known the prayers that would be said in the Temple and in their homes yet when they see Jesus pray they ask him for his way. Jesus directs us in prayer to God our Father – prayer is thus a relational act, it brings us closer to God who is always by our side. It is also relational in that prayer helps us to see where we have gone wrong with others around us.
There is a story told of a poor man that came into Church every day, sat at the back, was quiet for a few moments and then left. St Jean-Marie Vianney saw this man and asked him what he was doing – the response came: “I come in to say hello to God, to ask him for my daily needs and then I head on.” This simple yet profound way of prayer shows us that God does not grant our requests because we are good – he does so because we are his children.
The significance of being persistent in our prayers may beg the question about how and when God answers our prayers. The old Youth 2000 saying is very apt at this time: God will answer ‘Yes,’ ‘No,’ or ‘Not yet.’ As we become more persistent in prayer we may become aware of why we are asking for that particular something. In this process it is important to discern if our prayers are in line with God’s will and also to realise that God is helping us to be something more rather than have something more. To be this something more is thus to recognise the role of grace in our lives – this grace is the Holy Spirit which Jesus urges us to ask our heavenly Father. I once thought up of a way to describe grace – grace is a Gift Received And Changes Everything. When we come to prayer and ask God for any gifts, our faith is actualised as we receive them and are transformed by them.
Rev. Charles Lafferty S.A.C.