During the “Zamboanga Siege” which lasted for more than three
weeks, it was very easy to lose heart when day after day what woke you up in the
early morning were the exchanges of gunshots and the hovering of helicopters. Already
in the second week, people were impatient asking the same question: “When will
this end?” For the situation was making the suffering of people more and more
unbearable each day. A priest from Bohol, who is a good friend of mine, sent me
an assurance that he was always praying for me and for the City of Zamboanga.
Few weeks after the siege, we were all shocked by the extent
of the damage wrought by the 7.2 intensity earthquake that rocked the exotic
island of Bohol. Most of the centuries-old churches which had been Bohol’s
contribution to our national cultural heritage were destroyed. When I got the shocking news,
I found myself sending a message of assurance to that priest friend of mine. I assured him that
I was praying constantly for him and the people of Bohol.
We are not in control of many things in life. “Ang buhay
ay weather weather lang,” according to Kuya Kim. Hence, we need to pray always
and not to lose heart as Jesus teaches his disciples in today’s gospel reading
(Lk 18:1-8).
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| (grabbed from http://www.village-missions.org) |
Jesus’ parable of the persistent widow illustrates very
clearly that just as the unkind judge finally grants, out of his selfish
motives, the widow’s persistent request for justice, so God, who is infinitely better
than that wicked judge, listens to the plea of those who persevere in prayer. In
short, God certainly listens to our cries; but our pleas must be constant and
unceasing. We must persevere in prayer.
Why? Is God playing hard to get? Does He take pleasure in
watching us struggle in begging for what we need? No. God is not the unjust
judge in the parable. God is a good God. His infinite goodness wills only that
which brings out the best in us and nothing less. Hence, God challenges us to
persist in prayer because He wants to bring out in us the following: Humility,
purity, and intimacy. A word for each:
Humility. Modernity
has expected us to be autonomous and responsible for our lives and destiny. So,
we tend to act independently trying to gain total control of our lives. We keep
God at bay. We become very busy and praying becomes a waste of time. But life
has a way of exposing our helplessness: Zamboanga Siege? Bohol Earthquake?
Unending supertyphoons? Flashfloods?
It is only in accepting our existential helplessness that
we assume a posture of total dependence in God. The widow in the parable is our
representative. Like her, we are many times powerless and dependent on the
kindness of others and God. Like her, pleading unceasingly is sometimes our
only recourse. In Filipino, we say “pagmamakaawa.”
Everyone knows it takes a lot of humility to beg for mercy. The good God does
not like conceited people. He invites us to be humble as we pray with
constancy.
Purity. Many times what we desire for needs
purification. Even if it seems that what we are pleading for is good, God still
sees through our selfish motives. Oftentimes, we ask for what we want and not
for what we truly need. We want to have more wealth but this may lead us to
greed and materialistic attitude. What we need sometimes to become a compassionate
and loving person is the experience of solidarity with the poor.
God requires our persistence in prayer because we need to
purify our desires. And the process requires some time. As we persevere in
prayer, the grace of God helps us, in time, to see our own self-centeredness
and to distinguish our whims and caprices from our real needs. Hence, we need
to persevere in prayer not because God is not listening closely to our cries
but because He is helping us to grow in the purity of our desires.
Intimacy. When we persevere in prayer, we gradually
understand that prayer is not just a one-shot deal. We begin to see meaningfully
what spiritual writers tell us: that prayer is relationship. God requires
persistence and constancy in our prayer because, above all else, He is inviting
us to grow in intimacy with Him. To be in constant prayer means to spend more
and more of one’s time with God. As we grow in the purity of our desires, we
begin to see with joy that what our hearts truly long for is not just any gift
that God gives. Our heart’s greatest desire is God.
With much gratitude, we discover as we persist in prayer
how good and generous God is. God requires our perseverance not because He
enjoys keeping us on our knees but because He wants to give us much more than
we are asking for; He wants to give Himself.
Praying is not a waste of time. The more time we spend in
prayer, the more that God brings out the best in us. Praying persistently melts
our conceit and brings out humility; praying with patience and perseverance
purifies our selfish desires and leads us to our real needs; praying with
constancy trains our hearts to long for God and enjoy intimacy with Him. So, as
Jesus wisely advises us, “Pray always without losing heart.”
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