Always there for us

This week’s Gospel might perhaps resonate with us a little bit more than usual. At one point or another, we have all found ourselves praying to God – desperately asking him to listen to our prayers and to help us out. Indeed, we often pray, but the question is – how often do we continue praying when we feel that our prayers are not being heard? How often do we give up praying, turning our back to God, or end up believing that God is ignoring us and doesn’t care? 

These questions are important. This week, Jesus tell us something which is crucial. God the Father wants us to keep praying to Him! Sometimes, God does not want us to just pray a few times, but to keep praying and to keep asking. Here, let us reflect for a moment; if God did not want to help us, would He ask us to continue praying to Him? If you yourself were not willing to help someone, would you encourage them to keep asking you to help them? The “judge” did not like being asked, but this is because he did not want to help the widowed woman out. If someone encourages us to ask, it is because they want to help us! Still, here, one might go on to ask, if God really wants to help us, then why is it that sometimes, even after praying for a long time, we do not feel listened to or helped?

In order to answer this question we might need to try to think a bit ‘outside the box’. We might need to try to think with God’s mind – not ours. We need to ask: what is our final goal as human beings? That is, what makes us truly flourish? The answer to this question is fundamental. The truth is, what makes us truly grow is being more like God and being united with God (i.e. growing close to Him). We’re made in His image, after all! Sometimes the things we wish for, even if on this earth feel important and precious, are not more precious than those things which help us grow closer to God. Sometimes, therefore, the act of praying and growing in faith helps us more than the act of receiving what we are asking for – even if what we are asking for seems most important to us. The blind man might pray for his eye-sight to be restored, but, in truth, it is infinitely more precious if his spiritual-vision was restored and he was able to experience Christ! One thing is much more important than the other, especially in the long-run. This means that, whenever we are praying and we feel that we are not receiving what we are praying for, we need to ask ourselves: ‘is what I am asking for more important than my growth in faith and in my likeness to God?’. ‘Could it be that God is simply testing me in order to help me grow in faith and perseverance?’. Since God is love, we should rest assured that God is never really ignoring us and that whatever will take place will be for our own good!

If we trust God only in the good and joyous times, then our trust is a sham – it is superficial. What if your husband or wife, your friends or your relatives, only trusted you when things are going well, do they really trust you? Someone with a superficial faith is not someone who is Christ-like – they are not someone who are close to God.  

Certainly, sometimes God tries to cultivate our trust and faith by “giving us” and by making us “feel loved”! This happens too. Indeed, there are different ways through which we grow. But here, the thing to always keep in mind is that no prayer is useless. Even if the prayer does not seem heard, it is not useless because in every act of praying we are directing our focus and our heart toward God specifically. When we direct our heart and thoughts to God, we help our soul grow in union and in friendship with God. This is one of the greatest virtues anyone could aspire to! It is because of this that Jesus prayed so often. Ultimately, this is like human friendship. You can only bond with someone if you get to know them and spend time with them. That’s what prayer is. It’s simply being there. And when we’re there, God is there too, always, as our Blessed Mother revealed in Medjugorje:

“You know, dear children, that God grants special graces in prayer… I call you, dear children, to prayer with the heart.” (April 25, 1987).

And, 

“Without unceasing prayer, you cannot experience the beauty and greatness of the grace which God is offering you. Therefore, pray! I desire that through each one of you God’s plan may be fulfilled, that all which God has planted in your heart may keep on growing.” (February 25, 1989).