SPEAKER_00: I think many Catholics struggle with prayer for the same reason.
SPEAKER_00: We secretly believe that prayer is about convincing God.
SPEAKER_00: We bring him our needs, we bring him our problems, our worries.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, if we're honest, we spend most of our prayer trying to persuade God to do what we want him to do.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus says something remarkable in today's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
SPEAKER_00: God already knows.
SPEAKER_00: Before the prayer is spoken, before the tears fall, before the anxiety, before the diagnosis, before the difficult conversation, before the uncertainty about the future, God already knows.
SPEAKER_00: So you may be asking yourself, so then why should I pray?
SPEAKER_00: If God already knows, what's the point?
SPEAKER_00: Well, here's the answer.
SPEAKER_00: Because prayer is not primarily about changing God's mind, prayer is about changing our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is where God slowly teaches us to see the reality that He sees.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is where our fears encounter His providence.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is where our plans encounter His wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is where we, our wills, encounter His will.
SPEAKER_00: That is why Jesus gives us the Our Father.
SPEAKER_00: And notice how different it is from the prayers we often pray.
SPEAKER_00: Most of the prayers begin with us, our problems, our needs, our concerns.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus begins with God, our Father who art in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Hallowed be thy name.
SPEAKER_00: The first concern is God's glory, thy kingdom come.
SPEAKER_00: The second concern is God's kingdom, thy will be done.
SPEAKER_00: The third concern is God's will.
SPEAKER_00: Only after that do we arrive at our needs.
SPEAKER_00: Give us this day our daily bread.
SPEAKER_00: That order matters.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus is teaching us something very fundamental.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is not about getting God to join our agenda.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is about joining His.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not always easy.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because most of us have experienced moments when God's will seemed confusing.
SPEAKER_00: Why did this happen?
SPEAKER_00: Why wasn't this prayer answered?
SPEAKER_00: Why did this door close?
SPEAKER_00: Why am I suffering so much?
SPEAKER_00: Those are not new questions.
SPEAKER_00: The saints all asked them too.
SPEAKER_00: Elijah certainly knew something about that struggle.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to how the first reading describes him.
SPEAKER_00: Fire came down from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: The dead were raised, kings trembled before him.
SPEAKER_00: His words carried extraordinary power.
SPEAKER_00: It is one of the most impressive descriptions of any prophet in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: But the secret of Elijah's greatness was not his miracles.
SPEAKER_00: The secret was his friendship with God.
SPEAKER_00: The miracles were visible, the friendship was hidden, the miracles were public, the prayer was private.
SPEAKER_00: Long before Elijah stood before kings, he stood before God.
SPEAKER_00: Long before he confronted the world, he allowed God to shape his own heart.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where spiritual power always begins.
SPEAKER_00: Not with activity, not with influence, not with success, but with prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I sometimes think we admire the wrong things in the saints.
SPEAKER_00: We admire their accomplishments.
SPEAKER_00: God admires their surrender.
SPEAKER_00: We admire all the beautiful things they did.
SPEAKER_00: God sees what they became.
SPEAKER_00: And what they became happened because of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus ends today's gospel with something that almost feels abrupt.
SPEAKER_00: He moves from the Our Father to forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you.
SPEAKER_00: Well, because one of the greatest obstacles to prayer is a heart that refuses to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: A resentful heart cannot fully receive mercy.
SPEAKER_00: A bitter heart cannot fully experience freedom.
SPEAKER_00: Many people carry wounds for years.
SPEAKER_00: A harsh word that was said to them, a deep betrayal, a disappointment, an injustice.
SPEAKER_00: And that hurt begins to build and becomes part of their identity.
SPEAKER_00: Yet every time we say the Our Father, we say, forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Lord, treat me the way I treat others.
SPEAKER_00: That's a frightening prayer if we really think about it.
SPEAKER_00: And so perhaps today's gospel invites us to examine two things.
SPEAKER_00: First, do I trust God's will?
SPEAKER_00: And second, is there anyone I still need to forgive?
SPEAKER_00: Because the saints understood both.
SPEAKER_00: They trusted God even when they did not understand him, and they forgave others because they themselves had been forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus teaches us to pray, he teaches us far more than words.
SPEAKER_00: He teaches us how to live, how to trust, how to surrender.
SPEAKER_00: Teaches us to forgive and ultimately to say, with our whole lives, thy will be done.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because for the Christian, there is no more powerful prayer than that.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.