289. Fourteenth Monday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 271 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

God wants our petition to be humble.

Jesus was speaking to the crowds when a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus rose and followed him with his disciples. The ruler made his plea in tones of deep faith. Our Lord did not delay: he set off straight away to relieve a father’s anguish. While they were on their way, an event took place which tells us something else about how to pray to God, namely that our prayer of faith should also be charged with humility.

Now it is St Matthew who tells us about a most touching episode. And behold a woman who for twelve years had been troubled with an issue of blood, came up behind him and touched the hem of his cloak. What great humility she shows! She said to herself, “If only I can touch the hem of his garment, I shall be healed.” There are always sick people who, like Bartimaeus, pray with great faith and have no qualms about confessing their faith at the top of their voices. But notice how, among those whom Christ encounters, no two souls are alike. This woman, too, has great faith, but she does not cry aloud; she draws near to Jesus without anyone even noticing. For her it is enough just to touch his garment, because she is quite certain she will be cured. No sooner has she done so than our Lord turns round and looks at her. He already knows what is going on in the depths of her heart, and has seen how sure she is: “Have no fear, my daughter, your faith has saved you.”

“She delicately touched the hem of his garment,” St Ambrose comments. “She came forward in faith. She believed, and she knew she had been cured … We too, if we want to be saved, should touch Christ’s garment with faith.” Do you see now how our faith must be? It must be humble. Who are you, and who am I, to deserve to be called in this way by Christ? Who are we, to be so close to him? As with that poor woman in the crowd, he has given us an opportunity. And not just to touch his garment a little, to feel for a moment the fringe, the hem of his cloak. We actually have Christ himself. He gives himself to us totally, with his Body, his Blood, his Soul and his Divinity. We eat him each day. We speak to him intimately as one does to a father, as one speaks to Love itself. And all this is true. It is no fantasy.

One of the conditions for any prayer to be heard by God is that it must be humble. Among men petition is necessary so that the person in need can make his need known; and he also has to soften the other person’s heart, says St Thomas. But neither of these two reasons apply when we make a petition to God. When we pray to God we are not making our needs known to him, since he knows everything … Nor is there any question of bending God’s Will to ours, as though to make him want something he did not want before … If we make petitions to God in order to obtain his favours, it must be because making petitions does us good. It makes us stop and realize our own smallness, and desire the thing we are praying for in a fervent, filial spirit. Thus we become more worthy to receive it.

Perseverance in prayer.

Our Lord is ready to give us the good things we ask for, but he wants us to persevere in prayer. How often he has told us this! He gave us examples of it, such as that of the poor widow demanding justice, or the man knocking on his friend’s door late at night. Because he cleaves to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him.

That sort of holy stubbornness in praying for things is something which shines out in the life of the Work. When I was fifteen years old, our Father told us, when talking about the founding of the Work, I started to pray for Opus Dei, without knowing what it was. I had intimations of it. I went on praying for it for many years without knowing what it was. I just prayed, Domine, ut sit! (Lord, let it come about!) Souls dedicated to God have always done the same thing. St John Chrysostom says: When I tell someone, “Pray to God for that, ask him, beg him,” they answer, “I’ve already prayed for it once, twice, three, ten, or twenty times, and got nothing.” Don’t stop, my brother, until you get it; petition ends when you receive what you are asking for. Stop praying for it only when you receive it. Better still, don’t even stop then. Until you get it, keep on praying for it; and when you have got it, thank God for it.

One reason for persevering in prayer is that the more we pray, the closer we come to God; and vice versa. Those who are nearest are the first to be heard. That is why you must get close to God and be intent on becoming a saint, our Father recommends.

Before addressing a man, St Thomas says, you need to be acquainted with him, or at least have some common bond. But when you pray to God you become his friend straight away, because your soul is raised up to him and you adore him in a spirit of truth. And so your prayer generates friendship, which in turn opens the way to still more confident prayer. Hence we read in the Psalm: Ego ad te clamavi quoniam exaudisti me, Deus, I have called upon you - that is, I have prayed with faith - for you heard me, O God; as if to say, once brought into the circle of God’s friends by our first petition, we can pray much more confidently the next time. Therefore when we make our petitions to God, persistence is never out of place. In fact, it actually pleases God. We “ought always to pray and not lose heart,” St Luke says. Our Lord invites us, through St Matthew, to do the same thing: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Our Father gave us exactly the same advice. Et omnia quaecumque petieritis in oratione credentes accipietis. That’s what St Matthew wrote: “Whatever you ask me for when you pray with faith, you will get it all.” And we need so much! This family of Opus Dei, spread throughout the world, needs such a lot of God’s blessings … Let’s ask for them with our whole soul, with all our faith, each telling our Lord lovingly, alone with him in our hearts: “Jesus, we want this…” I know you just say, “We want whatever the Father wants,” don’t you, because it’s quicker! In any case, what I want is what God wants: so he simply can’t get out of it. Iterum dico vobis (Again I say to you), St Matthew tells us, quia, si duo ex vobis consenserint super terram de omni re quacumque petierint (if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask), fiet illis a Patre meo qui in caelis est (it will be done for them by my Father in heaven). There only need to be two people praying for something in unison - and there are thousands of us, all asking God for the same thing. What massive certainty we should feel! What sure hope! Our hope is literally divine, supernatural, because it is based on Love, faith, and Christ’s own words.

Praying with confidence.

My daughters and sons, omnia quaecumque orantes petitis, credite quia accipietis, et evenient vobis (whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you will receive it, and you will). That is from St Mark: everything you ask for in prayer - everything! -believe that it will be given to you. Let’s all pray together as one! How do we ask God our Lord for things? As we would ask a mother or a brother: sometimes with a look, sometimes through a gesture, sometimes by behaving well, so that they are happy and as a way of showing them our affection; and at other times in words. Well, just like that: that’s how to pray for things. All the ways we have of making ourselves understood by other people are the ways we should use when we pray and relate to God.

St Luke: omnis enim qui petit accipit, et qui quaerit invenit, et pulsanti aperietur (everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened). God heeds every single person who asks him for something, but we have to pray with faith, as I said. He heeds them still more if there are at least two of them - and there are so many thousands of us here!

Si quid petieritis Patrem in nomine meo, dabit vobis. That’s St John: If you ask the Father for anything in my name, he will give it to you. In Jesus’ name. When you receive him in the Eucharist every day, tell him: “Lord, in your name I ask God the Father for…” and pray for all that we need in order to serve the Church of God better, and work still more for God’s glory: the glory of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; the Holy Trinity, one God.

Petite et accipietis, ut gaudium vestrum sit plenum. Ask, and you will receive, and be filled with happiness. The gaudium cum pace, joy with peace, which we pray for every day in our Preces, is a reality in the life of any of God’s children who behave well towards our Lord because they love him, even in spite of their difficulties, and pettiness, and faults - I’ve got so many faults, and I’m sure you must have a few. Well, God will necessarily give them what they ask for, and will also give them a happiness that nothing on earth can take from their hearts.

More: more friendship with God, more union. I’ll read you some other words written by St John, who was, humanly speaking, the Apostle who knew Jesus best. Si manseritis in me, et verba mea in vobis manserint, quodcumque volueritis petetis, et fiet vobis. If you remain united to me, and have my words, my teachings within you, then anything you ask for will be given you. So our union with Jesus, our loving conversation, our remaining in Christ, all have to give us a sense of total assurance. I have that, my children. Because the words I am commenting on now, as I say, are helping me to pray, so that I am filled with joy again when I have to struggle.

And because this food does me so much good, I want to give it to you as well: I want to give you the certainty that prayer is all-powerful. Pray for a lot of things, being thoroughly united among yourselves in fraternal charity; and also pray for the Father’s intention, what the Father is praying for in the Mass, what he is constantly asking God for …

My daughters and sons, let’s ask our Lady for it too. When you don’t know what to say to God, and perhaps can’t even repeat what I am saying now, in this same familiar, conversational way, then turn to our Lady. “My Mother, you are God’s Mother too. Tell me what to say to him, and how to say it so that he will heed me.” And our Blessed Lady, who is also our Mother, will guide you and inspire you, and our prayer will always be done well, and you will be contemplatives.