Genuine Prayer: Its Honesty, Humility and Trust

In today’s first reading, Job 3: 1-3, 11-17, 20-23, Job curses the day that he was born, saying: “Perish the day on which I was born, the night when they said, ‘The child is a boy!’ Why did I not perish at birth, come forth from the womb and expire? Or why was I not buried away like an untimely  birth, like babes that have never seen the light?  Wherefore did the knees receive me? Or why did I suck at the breasts.”  The Psalmist, in today’s responsorial psalm, prays: “O Lord, my God, by day I cry out; at night I clamor in your presence. Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my call for help.”  In the Gospel, Luke 9: 51-56, James and John ask the Lord whether He wants them to call down fire on a village that does not allow them to enter. Jesus’ response to their petition is “No!” And they move on to another village.

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Both James and John and Job honestly share their feelings--their frustrations, anger, and grief-- and thoughts with the Lord in prayer. We, too, are encouraged to be honest with the Lord when we pray, to cover up nothing.  We may get a “yes” or a “no.” The important characteristics of genuine prayer (communication with God)  are honesty, humility and trust. Jesus also teaches us this, especially in His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane when He cries out to the Lord: “Abba, Father! For you everything is possible. Take this cup away from me. But let it be as you, not I, would have it.'" (Mark 124:36); and again on the cross when He agonizingly prays:   “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me” (Mark 15: 34)?

What characterizes your communication with God?

"...[P]ray always without becoming weary," Jesus says to us in today's Gospel, Luke 18: 1-8.  The
widow in the parable repeatedly went to the judge in her town asking for "a just decision against her adversary." The judge was unwilling to hear her out but she repeatedly presented her need.  Finally he paid attention to her, fearing that she would strike him if he continued ignoring her.





God is not like that unjust judge. He willingly pays attention to our petitions. He sends the Holy Spirit  to those of  us who ask for the Spirit's help: His counsel, His fortitude, His consolation, His wisdom, His power, His intervention to bring about a good in our lives, in the lives of others and in the world of our day. We may not see that God is at work as a result of our  intercessory prayer, but faith tells us that it is so,  as it was with Jesus nailed to the cross during the crucifixion, begging that the Father forgive his persecutors (we are those persecutors when we sin against one another and against ourselves). The world we bring to Christ in prayer is always transfigured, made new, transformed from death to new life in Christ Jesus, whether we see the Spirit at work or not. God's redemptive work will not be thwarted by humanity and it is important that we bring that which needs God's intervention to Him in our prayer.
Like the widow, let us repeatedly bring our needs, the needs of our families, the needs of the world into our prayer, pleading that justice become a reality, that wrongs are righted,  as they were through Jesus' death on the cross, where sin was destroyed and we were set free of our slavery to sin.


May we realize the freedom God wants to give us day by day, hour by hour and accept His invitation to pray always--being honest with Him about our hopes, our fears,  our worries, our frustrations, in short, being real with the Lord, never hesitating to talk to God about anything and everything as we would with our soul mate.