20150716 EFFECTIVE PRAYER AND INTERCESSORY PRAYERS
Mass
Readings (Our Lady of Mount Carmel)
1Kings
18:42b-45a
42
While Ahab went back to eat and drink, Elijah
climbed to the top of Carmel
and bowed down to the ground, putting his face between his knees.
43 'Now
go up', he told his servant, 'and look out to sea.' He went up and looked.
'There is nothing at all,' he said. Seven times Elijah
told him to go back.
44 The
seventh time, the servant said, 'Now there is a cloud, small as a man's hand,
rising from the sea.' Elijah
said, 'Go and say to Ahab, "Harness the chariot and go down before the
rain stops you." '
45 And with that the sky grew dark with cloud and storm, and
rain fell in torrents. Ahab mounted his chariot and made for Jezreel.
Psalms 14 : 1-4
1 [For
the choirmaster Of David] The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.'
Their deeds are corrupt and vile, not one of them does right.
2
Yahweh looks down from heaven
at the children
of Adam. To see if a single one is wise, a single one seeks God.
3 All
have turned away, all alike turned sour, not one of them does right, not a
single one.
4 Are they not aware, all these evil-doers? They are devouring
my people, this is the bread they eat, and they never call to Yahweh.
Gal 4 : 4-7
4 but
when the completion of the time
came, God
sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law,
5 to
redeem the subjects of the Law, so that we could receive adoption
as sons.
7 and so you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son,
then an heir, by God's own act.
John 19:25-27
25 Near
the cross of Jesus
stood his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas,
and Mary
of Magdala.
26
Seeing his mother and the disciple
whom he loved standing near her, Jesus
said to his mother, 'Woman, this is your son.'
27 Then to the disciple
he said, 'This is your mother.' And from that hour the disciple
took her into his home.
EFFECTIVE
PRAYER AND INTERCESSORY PRAYERS
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SCRIPTURE
READINGS: 1 Kings 18:
42b-45a; Ps 14:1,
2-3, 4; Gal 4: 4-7; Jn 19:25 – 27
We are
living in challenging times. Institutions, religious values and cultural
practices and traditions are called into question. The institution of
marriage and family is being redefined. Divorce and remarriage is
accepted as not contrary to the gospel. Abortion, euthanasia and stem
cells research involving embryos are accepted forms of killing or destruction
of life. Surrogate motherhood and test-tube babies on the other hand are
promoted to help couples to have children. Among the Christian communions
and within the Catholic Communion, the values of the gospel are compromised to
fit the needs of the modern world. Instead of humanity trying to be
faithful to the values taught by Christ, we are attempting to manipulate the
gospel to suit our needs.
Like
Elijah, more than ever, we are called to preserve the purity of the
gospel. This was the context of today’s first reading. The prophet
Elijah was known to be a zealous prophet in keeping the faith of Israel
uncontaminated. He was a true prophet and servant of God in defending the
true God of Israel. Just earlier on, he confronted King Ahab and the
false prophets. He even went to the extent of killing the false prophets
in obedience to Moses’ command as death sentence was imposed on those who
apostatized. Indeed, Elijah demonstrated his utter devotion and loyalty
to God. It showed his deep concern and protective love for his fellow
Israelites who were being led astray by the false prophets.
What
principal weapons did he use to purify the nation of Israel? What
can we learn from Elijah? How do we preserve the purity of our faith and
the health of society?
Firstly,
Elijah did not use weapons or force but the power of faith in God. The
secret of his courage in confronting the King and exposing the false prophets
at Mount Carmel was his faith in God. He had total confidence in Yahweh
whom he believed would vindicate him. True enough, the Lord allowed a
severe drought in Israel at the command of Elijah. And, unlike the false
prophets who could not command their gods to consume their sacrifices, the Lord
had the holocaust burn at Elijah’s command, even though it was deliberately
drenched with water. Finally, Elijah prayed for the rain to come and it
became a storm.
Secondly,
from Elijah, we learn that this faith in God must be expressed by fervent and
persistent prayer. His confidence in God’s power and fidelity was seen in
the brevity and simplicity of his prayer. He did not utter long and
complicated prayers. Elijah believed and his prayer was heard. He
never doubted the fidelity of God to his prayers. His prayer was not
only, fervent but it was also persistent. “Elijah climbed to the top of
Carmel and bowed down to the earth, putting his face between his knees.”
Elijah persevered in prayer, a prayer that was complete and total, symbolized
by the seven times before the prayer was answered. Even though Elijah
received his prophetic word that God would send the rain, he persevered in prayer
until the rains came. (1 Kg 18:41-45) If we want our prayers
to be heard, we, too, should not give up too easily. We must pray till it
is given, search until we find and knock till the door is open. (cf Mk 7:7)
Fourthly,
he prayed with expectant faith that God would manifest His power.
Indeed, God manifested His power in response to his sincere prayer.
He sent fire to consume the sacrifice thereby showing Himself to be a
living God and vindicating him as God’s prophet. Through his
persistent prayer, the rains came, symbolizing the renewed blessings of God for
the nation. We need to pray for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit and
a spiritual renewal in the Church. This is what the New Evangelization is
inviting us to. We should pray also for a God-encounter so that we too
will know that our God is a living God who is not only to be believed but one
who acts in our lives. Without an experience of His love in our lives and His mighty
power, the world which believes only in science and technology, in empirical
and experimental sciences, would not come to have faith in our God.
However,
it is not enough to pray rightly. The way and attitude in prayer is no
less important than the motives and the life of the pray-er. Elijah
did not pray for himself. He interceded for the people of Israel because
of his sincere desire to reveal God’s grace to them so that they would repent
and turn their hearts back to God. He asked for God’s grace to deal with
the false prophets and Baalism and Asherah, the pagan gods. He was
not seeking for his glory and honour but the restoration of God’s hour and
glory. Indeed, this is what the Lord asks of us when He taught us the
Lord’s Prayer, to pray thus, “Holy be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy
will be done!”
Besides
having the right motives, we need to live a holy and righteous life. St
James reminds us that the prayer of the righteous man works wonders.
After saying, “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one
another, that you may be healed”, he added, “The prayer of a righteous man has
great power in its effects.” (James 5:16f)
It is important that we keep ourselves pure and holy if we were to be effective
in the lives of others. Righteousness comes from faith in Christ who
justifies us. But it also means that having been justified and reconciled
with the Lord, we need to continue living a righteous, holy and God-fearing
life in obedience to His commandments. The psalmist underscores this
necessity for a righteous life in prayer when he says, “Lord who shall be
admitted to your tent and dwell on your holy mountain? He who walks
without fault. He who acts with justice and speaks the truth from his
heart.”
Without
putting on the mind of Christ, we will not be able to always ask according to
His holy will. And the Lord will give us what we ask provided we ask with
the mind of Christ. This is an indispensable condition if we want to
receive what we ask. St John wrote, “Beloved, if our hearts do not
condemn us, we have confidence before God; and we receive from him whatever we
ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.” (1 Jn 3:21f)
Hence,
to pray according to His perfect will as the Lord asks of us in the Lord’s
Prayer and as He did in the garden of Gethsemane, we must pray that we are not
in the will or in the way of God because of our self-centered motives.
Like Elijah, we need to give our undivided attention to the Lord. Just as
he challenged the people earlier on to make a definitive choice between
worshipping Baal or Yahweh, we too must with undivided heart render complete
devotion to God. Elijah, regardless of how he was taunted and ridiculed
by the prophets of Baal and threatened by King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, he
remained committed to the Lord to purify Israel from corruption and false
compromises. We, too, if we want our prayers to be heard must have
undivided loyalty to God.
Within
this context of prayer and the faith of Elijah and his spiritual warfare
against the false prophets at Mount Carmel, we can now better appreciate why
our Carmelite sisters are doing what they are doing. Following the
tradition of the spirituality of Elijah, they too seek to live a life of purity
through penance and mortification in the monastery. Through their
sacrifices and self-denial, they unite themselves with the sufferings of Jesus
on the cross so that they can do the will of God. At the same time, this
house is known as a house of prayer and, especially, a house for
intercession. The primary task of the sisters is to offer their whole
life, not just at prayer but in their whole being, for the conversion of
sinners and the petitions of the local church and the universal church and the
world. Their prayers, like Elijah’s, are effective because they are
prayed with a purity of heart, with fervor, sincerity, persistence and most of
all, with faith. Indeed, we have much to thank our sisters for
being our great intercessors. We know that their prayers are effective
because of their holiness of life and their faith.
Finally,
we also take inspiration from Mary, our Lady of Mount Carmel in seeking to
follow the spirituality of the Carmelite sisters. The response in the
responsorial psalm says, “Draw us after you, Virgin Mary; we shall follow in
your footsteps.” Indeed, let us follow Mary’s footsteps in doing the will
of God and glorifying Him in our lives in obedience to His will. She
reminds us at Cana in Galilee, to do whatever He tells us if we want our
prayers to be answered. So through Mary, let us live out our sonship in
Christ by living our lives not as slaves to the Law or to sin but truly as
adopted sons and daughters in Christ, sharing in His life. In this way,
our prayers would be heard for we pray not just with the confidence as sons and
daughters of God but with the same mind of Christ.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh
Roman
Catholic Archbishop of Singapore
© All Rights Reserved
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