(Lk.18:1-8)
Thomas Merton, one of the foremost spiritual writers in America wrote: “By reading the Scriptures, I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.” These words of Thomas Merton actually describe the disposition of every one who is rooted in prayer and whose heart is at peace with himself and God.
Prayer is our life- line to God, the source of our hope and dreams. A life devoted to prayer keeps us sober and sane and enables us to face the challenges of life with great equanimity of mind. We are at every moment of our life aware of the abiding presence of the Lord who loves us and cares about us. We live in a mind-set up that is secure and anxiety-free because we know the Lord will not abandon us. Our cries to him in the loneliness of our hearts and in the darkest moments of our lives will not go unanswered.
It is about prayer that Jesus speaks in today’s Gospel. We often wonder about the methods and contents of prayers. We ask ourselves: “Am I praying properly? What is lacking in my prayer life? Will God be happy with the way we pray? Am I consistent my prayers?” We look for answers in the lives of saints and holy people. We run after preachers for more ideas about prayer or to deepen our prayer life.
Wee, here in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us all that we should know about prayer.
In the first parable, through the attitude of the corrupt judge Jesus lets us know that we should not cease from praying just because we did not get the response immediately .We should be knocking at the doors of heaven unceasingly. The corrupt judge who is not interested in dispensing Justice is forced to respond to the cries of the woman because e of her insistence. If a corrupt, fragile, weak and criminally-lazy can respond to the requests of a poor woman, how much more would the response of God who loves us when we approach him with our cries and requests. God will never abandon us. Whatever may be requests, we should place them before Him and ask Him unceasingly for a solution or for a response. He would respond to us. It is to the heart of a Father that we send our requests.
Through the parable of the Pharisee and the publican Jesus lays bare the attitudes and the dispositions needed for a good relationship with God. When we are before God, we should realize our littleness, our fragility and our nothingness. Before the august majesty of God, before his immeasurable goodness, we are puny, little beings, having no worth of our own. We are what we are by the pure graciousness of God. We should not stand before God in a mood of self-satisfaction. All our good acts are not the tickets to buy rewards from God. Our smugness and our being satisfied with our own selfish acts are self-defeating. We become hypocritical and filled selfishness when we try to narrate the good acts of life to earn the graces OF God. We can never stand anywhere near God .Our good acts and pious devotions should not make us think that we deserve to be praised and rewarded by God .It is our humility and repentance that count before God.
Today as listen to these words of Jesus on prayer, let us offer our hearts to Him in pure gratitude and thank Him for all the blessings we have received in our lives.We shall ask Him to bless us with His continued protection.
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