July 27, 2025 at Saint Peter the Apostle in Naples, FL
Genesis 18: 20-32 + Psalm 138 + Colossians 2: 12-14 + Luke 11: 1-13
Jesus says to us and those disciples: “Ask and you shall receive.” It would be good notice that he does not say: “Ask and shall receive what you ask for.” You can take the advice of this old priest or not, but I’m standing here to tell you that you can ask all you want, and you had better to prepared for what happens. You will get something, but it may not be what you wanted or expected, and that’s where the second part of the directive hits home. This is not just an instruction about asking. It is also about receiving.
There is always some assumption that if what we ask for is not granted, we are either not praying hard enough or saying the right prayers. There is also the terrible possibility that someone may think God doesn’t love them or that they are not good enough in God’s sight. Bad thinking. To be quite honest with ourselves, there is something a little childish about trying to change God’s plan. How can we do that and then say: “Thy will be done?” That is not to say that we shouldn’t ask for what we feel we need, but how that asking is expressed says a lot about our faith and our relationship with God. We really don’t pray to change God’s mind but for God to change ours.
What Matthew records as the response of Jesus to the request of the disciples to teach them to pray does not really match Luke’s version, which ought to suggest to us that the exact words are not all that important. What we might discover is that in both versions, there are three common elements.
There is an acknowledgement of the goodness and love of God as Jesus teaches to call God, “Father.” There is no cosmic tyrant who requires humiliating pleas in order to get gifts. This is a loving eternal Parent who takes delight in providing for their children.
Then there is the acceptance of God’s will. A prayer worthy of God is asking for the grace to do God’s work – fulfill God’s will by works of forgiveness, reconciliation, and by becoming the brothers and sisters God calls us to become.
Finally, there is an expression of our hope and our trust in God’s providence. We must always come before God confident that our prayers are heard and that we will be given whatever we need and even more. Even if it seems our prayers are unanswered, we live with the confidence that God is always present to us.
What receive in today’s Gospel is not some magic formula, but an instruction about the Father to whom Jesus prayed. He not only reveals how he prays, but, with these two parables, he affirms what should be the quality of our prayer. It’s not about persistence but about believing and living with assurance. It is with that assurance that Jesus, God’s only Son, went to a garden knowing that he was in grave danger. The writers tell us that he prayed that “This cup may pass from me.” It did not. He was condemned to a cruel death within hours. Instead of rescue he received something else, resurrection, which is better. So, it shall always be for us. We may not get exactly what we have asked for, but we have and we always shall receive the Holy Spirit which, in the end, is probably all we really need.