Lord, teach us to pray
Gen 18,20-32; Ps 137;Col 2,12-14; Lk 11,1-13
28 JULY
The first prayer elevated to the Lord in Scripture is that of Abel. It is a prayer in which God is confessed author of every good produced by his creation. God gives nice and good things to us. We thank him by giving him the best things in his beautiful things. Cain instead gives God the waste of things. God might never like such an offer. Example: can we give God the waste of time? If Sunday is consecrated to his name, can we give him the scrap of it? Such an offering is in everything like that of Cain, not like that of Abel. With the prophet Malachi the Lord reveals to reject such offers. He wants the best of things and time, the best of our heart, the best of our thoughts and the best of our lives.
In the course of time Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the soil, while Abel, for his part, brought one of the best firstlings of his flock. The Lord looked with favour on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not. Cain greatly resented this and was crestfallen. So the Lord said to Cain: “Why are you so resentful and crestfallen? If you do well, you can hold up your head; but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door: his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master” (Gen 4,3-7).
A son honours his father, and a servant fears his master; If then I am a father, where is the honour due to me? And if I am a master, where is the reverence due to me? – So says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise his name. But you ask, “How have we despised your name?” By offering polluted food on my altar! Then you ask, “How have we polluted it?” By saying the table of the Lord may be slighted! When you offer a blind animal for sacrifice, is this not evil? When you offer the lame or the sick, is it not evil? Present it to your governor; see if he will accept it, or welcome you, says the Lord of hosts (Mal 1,6-8).
Today we are all missing in the prayer of offer. We are not at all grateful to the Lord. We do not want to confess that everything belongs to God. Jesus offered to the Father all of himself from the cross for the redemption of the world. What do we offer to God for the salvation of our brothers? Without the prayer of offering, there is no prayer of thanksgiving and there is also no prayer of request for forgiveness and blessing. If we pray, we pray from the falseness of the heart and life and not from the truth.
He was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.” And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,’ and he says in reply from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’ I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence. “And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
Jesus is teaching the disciples that have already given life to Him to pray. Therefore, if each one wants to pray well, he must keep faith to the gift given to God through the sacrament he has received. Every sacrament involves a particular gift. It is in this gift and from this gift that we must pray. The first request is faithfulness to the gift made not only for us, but also for others. This request must be made with great perseverance. Without ever getting tired. In fidelity to the gift given to God, everything else is given in addition. The Holy Spirit that is asked is the Spirit of faithfulness to the Lord.
Mother of God, Angels and Saints, help us to always pray from fidelity to our gift.