There is an American
writer called Scott Hahn, who used to be a Presbyterian and extremely
anti-Catholic, but through his own studies ended up converting and becoming a
Catholic. He is a brilliant writer and teacher on the faith. His own conversion
story called Rome Sweet Home, is well worth reading. He now
writes and teaches as a Catholic theologian in Stubenville University. In one
of his CDs he mentions that he had arranged to have a public debate with a
Muslim about the differences between the two faiths. Before they had the debate
he met the Muslim and he mentioned to him that he would be talking about the
fact that Christians understand God as a loving Father who looks after his
children. Before he was able to go any farther, he said that the other man got upset
and said that it is not right to talk about God as a Father. He said God is
master and that it was insulting to speak about him as Father. The Muslim ended
up refusing to have the debate at all. Scott says that this really brought home
to him the difference in the way we understand God.
Jesus taught us to talk
about and address God in a way that was strange and almost scandalous, for many
people then and now. The Jews in Jesus’ time were scandalised that Jesus would
talk about God as Father, especially the way Jesus used the word ‘Abba’. Once
when I was in Israel I remember hearing a boy address his dad as ‘Abba’. It was
amazing for me to hear this and it really brought home to me what it meant. The
idea of addressing God as ‘daddy’ is still strange to us, and yet that’s what
Jesus did.
While God is all-powerful
and doesn’t need us in any way, yet He chooses to have us involved in what
happens in the world. He asks us to take part in his creation, by interceding
for each other, by being responsible for our actions. That is very much the
action of a good parent with their child. Any parent doesn’t need their
children’s help, especially when the children are small, but they love to allow
the children to take part in things, for the sheer joy of having them there and
helping them to learn. God does the same with us, even though there is the risk
of us making a mess of things, which we regularly do.
In the first reading
Abraham intercedes for the people of the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah, which God
is threatening to destroy and in the classic Middle-Eastern way, he bargains
his way down to the best deal. The wonderful thing is that God is happy to let
him do this. God showed him what He intended to do, so that Abraham would
intercede for those people. He wanted Abraham to be involved. He wants us to be
involved in his world. He wants us to pray and intercede for the world around
us and you are in exactly the right place to pray for those around you. You may
be the only one who is praying for those people. Take it seriously. We have
been blessed with the gift of faith and that is part of what God asks us to do;
to intercede for those around us.
In the New Testament,
Jesus brought this idea to a new level. He taught us that of course God is
going to help us and listen when we ask him for help, and he spoke about it in
terms of parents looking after their children. ‘Ask and you will receive. The one who asks always
receives.’
Now the question comes up
with most of us, ‘How come I’m always asking for things and they often aren’t
answered?’ God can see a much bigger picture than we can, and what we ask for
is not always the wisest thing to ask for. If your eight year old son asked for
a chainsaw for his birthday, would you give it to him? of course not. The child
may think that you are really mean and never give him what he asks for, but you
can see a bigger picture than he can, because you are older and wiser. God is
the same with us. God does answer our prayers, otherwise Jesus is a liar, but
He doesn’t always answer them in the way that we expect, or understand, or even
recognise. That is where we have to believe and trust that God knows what He is
doing and God is looking after us.
When the disciples ask
Jesus to teach them how to pray, He gives them the Our Father. Note, they didn’t
ask him for ‘a prayer’, but a way of praying. So this is teaching us how to
pray; a question which people often ask. The first half of the Our Father is
acknowledging God, his holiness and that his will may be done. Only in the
second half do we ask for our needs. So even if you only take that much away
from the Our Father, remember to always start by praising and thanking God for
all that we have before you ask for what you need. That’s why at the beginning
of the mass each Sunday, we pray the Gloria. We praise and acknowledge God. It
is only after listening to the readings that we ask for our own needs in the
intercessions. This is how God teaches us to pray.
Perhaps the most
unexpected thing of all is the way that Jesus teaches us to pray to the point
of being annoying, the way a child will keep asking you for the same thing
until you give in. This is how Jesus tells us to pray. Be persistent, until God
gives in!
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be
opened.
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