Unanswered Prayers

Why pray? Does prayer make anything change? I know that it can be very hard to believe that prayer is going to make things better. It takes faith in the absolute goodness of God. It takes hope that the future will be brighter. It takes love to get us through the burden of simply living.

But we Catholics are a people of hope. Jesus gave us our Church to continue the work of reversing all of the evil that came with the pride and disobedience of Adam and Eve. Through His Church He gives us living bread and life-giving waters. He makes all things new!

We can choose not only hope for eternal happiness, but hope for relief from the burdens that weigh us down right now. God is infinitely good and He is still in charge. Be not afraid!

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One of the really difficult things, that, on occasion I face, I'm sure that Fr. Frank faces this much more often, is a person who comes to you and says, "Father, deacon, I have been praying and praying and praying about this and it's not working out the way I want it to work. I'm losing faith.”

And that is a very basic part of our faith...

Good morning.

…A very basic part of our faith is the believing in the efficacy of prayer. We believe that when we pray, God hears our prayers.

"From all their distress, God rescues the just." We see ourselves in that role. We see ourselves praying, and sometimes what we pray for does not come true in the words that we understand. It doesn't come true in the way that we have been praying. We want this to occur and it doesn't occur.

Yet at the same time we go, "But I believe in the efficacy of prayer!" And I believe completely in the efficacy of prayer. So what's going on here? What is happening? Because we have in the prophet Isaiah we have the word of the Lord going forth and bearing fruit. It is coming, and it is there. And it’s going to bring what we need to have. And we have Jesus telling us how to pray.

When we face situations that we don't have under control, we not supposed to be as he describes the pagans, who just babble away. We are to focus our attention on God.

And we look at the situations that we face and we go, "Okay God, here it is." Or here's the Blessed Mother. "Here is it. This is what I want. Let me tell you so I can tell you just like a little kid, I want the brown racer that has the red wheels and the little man inside who is green. I know exactly what I want!" And when I don't get it, I go, "Oh, there is something wrong!"

And what is it that is going on here? We believe in the efficacy of prayer. We pray for people. We pray for the dead. We request the saints to pray for us. We believe in it.

But what we get is the goodness of God. We pray to God. He hears us and he gives us what we need.

Many, many times, most times, that isn't what we are asking for. Give me faith. Whatever we ask. But God gives us, and loves us so much, that He gives us what we need. And we don't understand fully. "Oh gosh! Why did I ask for this and He gave me this?"

He's not going to give us something bad. Jesus talked about that. Who, when a child asks for something, is going to give them a snake?" We're not. God's not going to do that. And we have to keep our faith.

In a very fundamental way where we have a visceral reaction going, "He's not listening to what I'm saying." to understand fully what is going on, it's God is listening to our prayers and He is giving us what we need.

And I have to say again, and I've said this before, this is a homily very much formed by my experience at Parkland Hospital. And I would deal with people, because...

Good morning. Buenos dias.

…I would deal with people who are very poor. They've lived their lives poor and they would die. And they would pray for healing. They would pray for healing of themselves, or they were being prayed for by family members and friends. And the people I dealt with, they're all dead. There was no hope for them. They weren't going to survive.

But the marvelous thing… and to this day it just... I've seen it many times in other people… the thing that really causes me great hope, great love for God and the knowledge that He listens, came from a very simple fact.

When I realized that people who were prepared to die, who really had gotten to the point where they were saying, "I know I'm going to die. I accept that fact," they had a characteristic in common. There were people who fought to the very end, "No, I'm not going to die, rah rah rah!" But there were people who would say, "I know I'm going to die." And they had one characteristic. To me, the first time heard it I went, "Whoa"… but that I'm hearing it and hearing it and hearing it again. They would say, "Chaplain… or Michael, they would know my name… I'm ready to die. But I know I'm not going to die right now because God has got me here for a reason. And it's because I have to do something for someone else." They transfer their love to someone else. Love for self becomes love for what Jesus commands us, of loving one another.

And when you realize, that when we go through the world, in trying to prepare ourselves to spend all eternity with Him in Heaven, the great commandment of loving God and loving neighbor are there. The separating of the sheep and the goats.

And when you see the efficacy of prayers, even though not necessarily answered bringing in specifics, but being answered in such a way that God can prepare ourselves for Him. That comes to culmination that when we know, that, well, that when people I've seen know they are dying, all of a sudden they are so close to God. They love someone else.

That it becomes the most important thing in their life to be able to talk to a nephew, to a grandson, to a friend, and whatever. And when they come to that culmination, they die with a smile on their face. And I know you've seen this. I mean, I've heard stories countless times about this.

But it all goes back to the efficacy of prayer. What is the ultimate efficacy of prayer that we can ever receive? The prayer to be like God to the point that when we die He brings us to spend all eternity with Him in Heaven. And how are we going to do that? By loving God and loving neighbor.

March 12, 2019 2