Fr Marco Lazzaron
he theme of today’s Gospel is prayer. The disciples, watching Jesus praying, feel a desire to learn how to pray from Him. They knew how to pray using traditional Jewish formulas, but in Jesus’ prayer they see a different “quality”. He lives an intimate relationship with God the Father, and his entire life is imbued with prayer, especially every important action preceded by long pauses in prayer. Therefore, the disciples ask to be able to experience this union with God. On the one hand, it reawakens a longing for God; on the other hand, it makes us reflect on our own way of praying. When I pray, do I mean it or do I just repeat some set formulas? Do I find myself in relationship and in a dialogue with God the Father? During the Eucharistic celebration, am I involved or distracted? Do I think and wonder if the priest will give a good homily, or am I actually listening and actively participating in the Mass?
Jesus responds to the disciples’ question by teaching the Lord’s Prayer. As Pope Francis said (Angelus, 28th July 2019):
Jesus does not give an abstract definition of prayer, nor does he teach an effective technique for praying and ‘obtaining’ something. Instead, he invites his followers to experience prayer, putting them in direct communication with the Father, arousing in them a longing for a personal relationship with God, with the Father. Here lies the novelty of Christian prayer! It is a dialogue between people who love one another, a dialogue based on trust, and sustained by listening. What we ask for in the ‘Our Father’ is already fully realized in us in the Only-Begotten Son: the sanctification of the Name, the coming of the Kingdom, the gift of bread, forgiveness, and liberation from evil. As we ask, we open our hands to receive the gifts that the Father has shown us in the Son.
The Our Father is the synthesis of every prayer, and every prayer should be summarized in the Our Father. We ask God that His name be hallowed (that is, that He be recognized for what He is, the Holy One, also through our way of life); that His kingdom come (of love, justice, and peace, committing ourselves to welcome it within us and to build it around us); that He give us daily bread (that is, what is necessary for life, therefore both material and spiritual “bread”, namely, the bread of the Word and the Eucharist); that He give us His forgiveness, committing us to forgive in turn; and, finally, that we not be abandoned to temptation (that is, we invoke His help to overcome temptation and know how to choose good). Temptation places a person’s freedom and responsibility at a crossroads: good and evil. To choose good, we need God’s help.
God is always present in (or at) temptation, so as to overcome it, indeed, to transform it into confirmation in our choice of good.
Then Jesus tells the parable of the importunate friend and says: “We must persist in prayer”. “God desires to be sought. He is an absolute gift because He is love, and love wants to give everything and itself. He desires this close contact with us because we ask so many things of Him; in the end, He wants only one thing: that we come into contact with Him” (p. Silvano Fausti).
Therefore, Jesus urges us to ask, to seek Him, certain that He gives us only what is truly good for us. Sometimes what we ask for is good, but it takes time; other times, this very waiting purifies our desire, and we find ourselves asking for something deeper. For example, I remember a person who initially asked the Lord to change certain things around her; after some time, she found herself asking that God change her! Other times, even though what we ask for seems good, God has a greater good in mind; so it seems the door remains closed, but if we persevere, one day it will open, and we will discover that God has not given us what we asked for, but has given us much more.