Seventeenth of Year C
July 2010
Today’s theme is prayer.
Unfortunately, for many of us, when we think of prayer we think of prayer of petition - we think of asking God for favours.
I have lost count of the number of people who have told me, or I have read about, who claim to have abandoned God or the Church or prayer, because their prayer of petition was not answered. What is the point of prayer or belief in God, they declare, if your prayer is not answered?
Anyone who shops in a supermarket has experienced upset, and may even have felt repelled, at the sight of children who stridently demand this and that, as the whim takes them, from parents who seem helplessly unable to say no and make it stick.
This shows a great inability in parenting skills on the parents part and is seriously detrimental to the wellbeing of the child.
Now, God my Father is not like this, nor do I want to be like one of these children.
You know better than I how children not only ask questions but also ask favours.
You listen but do not always grant what the little ones ask. The horizons and understanding of children are limited. They fail to understand that something can be harmful, far too expensive or inappropriate for some reason. Parents show their real love and care by never giving their children more freedom of favours than they are able to handle at any moment in life.
All of us are children. All of us are teenagers - when it comes to understanding correctly what is good for us. We experience every day the headlong rush for celebrity status. After the first heady days of success, we gradually come to see the damage that usually ensues as they are unable to cope with the new life and status and gradually descend into dependence and addiction.
It is a sign of great maturity, it is a sign of great humility, to realize that I am the worst possible judge of what is good or bad for me. My prayer life should reflect this maturity, this humility.
In short I should hold tightly to God’s hand and let Daddy decide what is good for me and when I should get it.