Thy Will Be Done

Thy Will Be Done July 28, 2013

While in high school I learned by experience that I have to watch out what I pray for because I may actually get it.

My senior year I had studied for a difficult test.  It was the first test of the first philosophy class I ever took.  Before going to bed I said a half-hearted prayer, “Lord, please, I really don’t want to take this test tomorrow.”

I thought of it as an innocent and harmless prayer, but it wasn’t very innocent nor harmless when I slept through my alarm the next morning and woke up at 8 o’clock, the same time the test was starting at school.

This was the only time I slept through my alarm clock while in high school.  I learned that day that I need to watch out for what I pray for because I may actually get it.

In only four years as a priest, I have witnessed countless answered prayers lifted up by both me and my parishioners, especially prayers offered when the only solution or relief could be found in God.

I’ve seen a man in a coma with no hope of survival get up from his bed and resume a normal life after his mother faithfully stayed at his side praying.  I have seen people go for one final check up before surgery to find out that the tumor or cancer was gone, the latest one happened last week.  I have been at the right place at the right time way too many times to consider these coincidences, especially at hospital rooms.

Those who persevere in prayer and ask with a trusting heart are always heard by God.  Our prayers truly have an effect in reality.  We hear Jesus confirm this in the Gospel reading, “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.”  We see this reality unfold in Abraham praying before God for Sodom and Gomorra in the first reading.

On the other hand, I dare say all of us have experienced moments when we’ve prayed and begged God for something and it was never granted.  I know this feeling from experience having lost both my brother and dad to cancer while the whole family prayed and prayed and prayed.  When this happens we sometimes begin to wonder: Did God not hear my prayer?  Did I not pray enough?  Was my prayer not good enough?  We easily get discouraged and start to blame God with a resentful heart.

The key to understand our prayer of petition to God is the simple prayer Jesus taught his disciples and we all know by heart, the Our Father.  In it we say, “Thy Will Be Done.”  Whenever we pray for something, no matter what it is, we must understand that ultimately we pray for God’s will to be done in our lives.

If God grants a miracle, it’s because it’s what’s best for the salvation of that person.  If what we pray for does not come about, we must trust that the illness or suffering is what’s best for the salvation of that person.
An answered prayer always strengthens our faith and the faith of those around us.  But so can the peaceful acceptance and endurance of a trial.  It is also through the cross that we grow closer to Christ and our faith is strengthened.

For example, my dad wasn’t healed from his cancer, but in the one year he endured his illness, he grew the closest he ever was to God and died at peace with God.

A miracle certainly boosts our faith, but so can a cross.

We must then persevere in prayer and trust that ultimately God’s will will be done – and God’s will is that every soul be saved, whether it is through a miracle or patient endurance in suffering.  Whenever we ask Him for something in prayer, we must always ask him to answer our prayers in accordance to his will.  That “His will be done on earth as it is in heaven”

We can’t get discouraged when our prayers seem unanswered.  We must unite our will and desires to God’s will and desires.  If we pray and are faithful to God, we must trust that he hears us.  If he wills a miracle it will happen and if he does not, it will not.  We must recognize that in God, in his wisdom as our Heavenly Father, he will give us what we need to achieve our salvation.

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