God’s Answer To Prayer - Part I

This week I downloaded and listened to a podcast of Monday’s Openline on EWTN with John Martignoni. I was genuinely moved by a caller who asked for the host’s interpretation of Matthew 7:7-8:

7 “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. - NRSV

This particular caller seemed almost despondent as he expressed doubt that this passage had in any way proved accurate in his life. In his prayers he never asked for fame or fortune. He believed that all those things which he had requested were reasonable and spiritually desirable. He asked for gainful employment. He asked for opportunity. And he remained faithful in prayer and waiting. Yet after years of perceived silence and disappointment he was unsure he could accept Jesus’ words in this passage any longer. He was close to closing a door on prayer.

The caller’s experience is not unique. The scars of sadness, doubt and despair mark the prayer journey of all who seek to follow Christ. The man who claims that all his prayers have been answered as he would have liked surely stands alone. There’s a beautiful scene in the movie Rudy which confronts the reality that God’s response to our prayers is not always evident. Desperate to pursue his dream of playing football for Notre Dame but unable to meet the institution’s academic standards, Rudy Ruettiger had enrolled in Holy Cross Junior College. Under the guidance of Father Cavanaugh, the retired president of Notre Dame University, Rudy worked his way through college and his spiritual struggles but found himself stifled in successive attempts to transfer into Notre Dame. As Rudy prays in a church and awaits a decision on his final permissible transfer application, Father Cavanaugh approaches him:

Father Cavanaugh: You did a hell of a job, kid, chasing down your dream.
Rudy: I don’t care what kind of job I did. If it doesn’t produce any results, it doesn’t mean anything.
Father C: I think you’ll discover that it will.
Rudy: Maybe I haven’t prayed enough.
Father C: I’m sure that’s not the problem. Praying is something we do in our time. The answers come in God’s time.
Rudy: Have I done everything I possible can? Can you help me?
Father C: Son, in 35 years of religious studies, I’ve come up with only two, hard incontrovertible facts - there is a God, and I’m not Him.

Both Father Cavanaugh in counseling Rudy and John Martignoni in responding to his caller realized that God’s promises regarding prayer must be placed in their proper context. The verses immediately following Matthew 7:7-8 explain the true nature of what God’s assures us:

9 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? 10 Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Prayer does not always produce the temporal results we expect but it is always heard and answered. This pseudo-paradox is only understood by realizing that God’s response is to provide the spiritual “good gifts” which His children need. None of us are God and we are often unaware of what can most benefit our soul. Our Father in heaven, seeing the entire picture, often responds with a cross. By placing a burden on our shoulders God presents us with the opportunity to prove our love. Whether we reject it or carry it says much of whether we desire our pleasure or relationship with God.

Continued in Part II HERE