SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY ORDINARY TIME

JU= LY 29, 2007

I have talked to many young people about prayer but some ask me why they should pray. Why should we pray?

This question is a clear indication that people in the present society want to assert their self-suf= ficiency, their independence and ability to look after themselves and to solve their problems with their own force and ability.= This is good, but it does not render prayer useless. This way of thinking is caused by = the lack of a clear notion of what prayer is.

Some people take prayer to be= a form of begging. If prayer wa= s to be a simple request of favors, then Jesus had no need pray. He could work all the miracles he = liked.

Prayer helps us to understand God’s will so as to make it our own and to give us the force and cour= age to do God’s will. Jesus= also needed this kind of prayer. P= rayer reflects the contents of one’s faith and the countenance of the God he believes in. It is not enough= to pray, one has to know also how to pray.&nb= sp; This is why Jesus taught his disciples a prayer that was to be the m= odel of all prayer. He told them:<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> “When you pray say: Father.&= #8221;

Our God is not an exacting ma= ster or a severe judge whom we must fear. In baptism, the Spirit of Jesus, the Son, becomes our Spirit and ena= bles us to address God as Abba, dear Father (Gal. 4:6; Rom. 8:15). We go to God as our Father.

In our prayers, we must expre= ss the wish that his name be hallowed or glorified. The name of God is hallowed when h= is salvation reaches man. In the= Our Father, we express this wish of being able to contemplate as soon as possib= le his saving intervention in us and in the whole world.

All the prayers of Christians must express the wish of seeing the accomplishment of the plan of God. We ask Him to destroy the kingdom = of evil, of hatred, of injustice, of revenge, of betrayal and it reminds us of= the commitment we undertook in Baptism to put all our energies at the service of God so that his kingdom of justice, love and peace may be manifested soon.<= o:p>

By asking for our daily bread, Jesus wants to remind us of the community aspect of prayer. It reminds us that we must seek the bread not for ourselves only but for all and it fosters in us a new attitude and a renewed will to make this happen.

Christians cannot hope to be heard and listened to by God if they do not harbor feelings of love for the= ir brother and sisters. They sho= uld not pray to the Father knowing that some brother or sister of theirs has something against them and they have not done everything they could for reconciliation. Also, they sh= ould not pray to the Father until they have sought forgiveness from their brothe= r or sister for the wrong that they have done.

In prayer, we ask God not to yield to temptations but also to be kept from the temptation of abandoning = our Master. The last part of the = Gospel shows that we should never despair, we should continue to pray like Abraham, and God will hear our prayer.