He will get up because of his persistence

9 OCTOBER (Lk 11,5-13)

Our life is entirely from God. It is from Him in the present and in the future, in time and eternity. It is a life that must constantly be asked. Prayer must scan all the rhythms of our daily existence. One moment without prayer, and you remain without life. God comes to us by invocation, byrequest, at our asking, at our interest and upon our begging. It is not enough then to pray. There are some rules that must be respected. Nevermight they be ignored, at the risk of non-fulfillment, and as a consequence our remaining in the hunger of life and of everything else needed so that our poverty is transformed into its fullness.

The first rule of prayer is insistence. Jesus speaks of intrusiveness. We understand what Jesus wants to teach us if we think for a moment at the overflowing of a great river. Its waters invade land, houses, streets, squares and entire cities. It is as if water were the only master of all things. It overwhelms everything and drags everything with it and can carry even big mountains, big trees and large buildings, with it. The intrusiveness isan unstoppable force. There are no human remedies. When water invades everything becomes like a straw before its strength. Wherever itpasses is catastrophe. Every sign of life disappears. It destroys and breaks everything down.

Our prayer must have so much intrusiveness as to ignite Paradise. God must be forced to listen by it. In the prayer we should always live thisimage that comes to us from Holy Scripture and that concerns a not heard prayer. It is an image that reveals us the power of our intrusiveness.

Absalom lived in Jerusalem for two years without appearing before the king. Then he summoned Joab to send him to the king, but Joab would not come to him. Although he summoned him a second time, Joab refused to come. He therefore instructed his servants: “You see Joab’s field that borders mine, on which he has barley. Go, set it on fire.” And so Absalom’s servants set the field on fire. Joab’s farmhands came to him with torn garments and reported to him what had been done. At this, Joab went to Absalom in his house and asked him, “Why have your servants set my field on fire?” Absalom answered Joab: “I was summoning you to come here, that I may send you to the king to say: ‘Why did I come back from Geshur? I would be better off if I were still there!’ Now, let me appear before the king. If I am guilty, let him put me to death.” Joab went to the king and reported this. The king then called Absalom, who came to him and in homage fell on his face to the ground before the king. Then the king kissed him (2Sam 14,28-33).

If our intrusiveness does not come to the point of setting fire to Heaven in order to force God to go out and meet us, our prayer is weak, fragile and ineffective.

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?”

The second rule of prayer wants you to believe in the goodness of God towards his children. God is the true Father. With him, the insistence and intrusiveness last a few moments. The time of pronouncing our request and immediately He comes to our rescue. He does not make his children wait long. He listens to them promptly. He is the eternal goodness and endless mercy. In his Only Son he is also charity crucified for us. Can we doubt himafter what he has done for us? This assurance must be a strong, robust and invincible faith in us. When his children invoke him, God is always movedwith joy.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints give us a strong and convinced faith.