Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time C.  October 21, 2007.  Our Lady of Grace 5:15, 9:30.  Exodus 17: 8-13.  2 Timothy 3:14-4:2.  Luke 18: 1-8.

A ninth grader wanted to be so good at football that he would make his high school team.  Playing as hard as he could, he didn’t improve and it seemed unlikely that he would ever make the team.  He had heard about novenas and other special miraculous prayers.  With the help of these powerful prayers he was sure that he would get on the football team. Even after many, many prayers no one seemed to notice him when they talked about future great athletes for the high school team.  In desperation and frustration the young man went home and said to his mother, “I have been praying.  I have been praying with all my might to make the varsity team – but God is not answering my prayers.  I just don’t understand.”   The young man’s mother very calmly said, “God does answer all prayers.  I am sure that God has answered your prayers.  Sometimes when God answers our prayers God says ‘wait – this isn’t the right time!’   Sometimes God even says ‘no!’   God often says no to our prayers when he wants to teach us something or when he wants us to work at something more important.”

A powerful commercial on parents and teenage drinking has been on TV lately.  A very cute little girl says, “Daddy, can I have a puppy? – please” And dad very easily says yes.  As the girl grows a little older her dad tells her that it is bedtime.  She pleads for ten more minuets – please!  Dad very easily agrees.  When the girl becomes a teenager she begs for a new dress.  Again her father says yes.  One evening as they are doing the dishes together the teenage daughter says, “Daddy will you buy some alcohol for my party? We will all be right here at the house” Her dad says, “Absolutely not!”  At this the daughter storms out of the house saying, “You never let me have anything!”   At this point a voice in the background very forcefully says, “Don’t be a pushover.  Be a parent!”  Good parents want their children to ask for what they need and want.  Good parents want to give their children the good things that they ask for.  Good parents know how to say no to their children no mater how much they plead when they know that what their children are asking for is not good for them.

God wants us to ask for what we need and want.  But God is not a pushover.  God is a good parent who has the wisdom and the courage to say no to us.   In the parable of the dishonest judge Jesus reminds us that we are to pray always without getting tired.  We are told that God will certainly answer those who cry out to him day and night.  Our response may well be, why does God make us beg?   Why doesn’t God answer our prayers right away, the first time that we pray?  The answer to our question may be twofold.  First, continual prayer keeps us close to God whom we acknowledge to be the source of everything that we have.  Going to God is the right thing to do; that is why we keep praying.

The second reason for long and continual prayer is that prayer helps us grow in our understanding of what is good for us and what in fact we really want.   Prayer is not about changing God’s mind so that we get what we want.  Prayer is about our minds being changed as we enter into conversation with God over and over again.  A woman told me once that she prayed for something for thirty years, always trying to talk God into seeing things her way, and into giving her what she wanted.  She said that she prayed for something over and over again until one day her prayer was answered.  That was the day that she let God change her mind.  When she changed her mind she got what was really best for her.  When she changed her mind she got what she didn’t realize she wanted.

When a child keeps asking for something over a long period of time a parent has a lot of time to talk with the child about what is really good for the child.  It may be that a very selfish child ends us being a mature and generous young adult because for a long time the parent has been very patient with the child and helped the child better understand what was good for the child until one day the child really wanted something better than her or she originally asked for.  In the end prayer is about changing our minds about what is best for us.  God listens to us very patiently even when we ask for the wrong things.  A wise man once said:

I asked God for strength that I might achieve,

I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health, that I might do greater things,

I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy,

I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of human beings,

I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life,

I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for -- but everything I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am among all people most richly blessed.

For the God who listens very patiently to all the pleadings of our hearts and always answers our prayers we give God thanks and praise.