Why Doesn’t God Answer my Prayers?
Being open to God’s will is more interesting than we could possibly imagine.
Reading: Matthew 7:7-12
The following homily was preached to the student brothers during Compline. You can listen here or read below:
We have all had moments where we felt like our prayers we not being answered. This is part of the Christian life. But how do we to square this with Jesus’ assurance that it is obvious that God answers our prayers? Especially when he uses ridiculous comparisons to make his point! It’s as if he’s saying, “This is obvious!” But I’m still there scratching my head and thinking, “is it”?
I can think of three reasons God seems not to answer our prayers (though I’m sure there are more).
Firstly, God knows what is best for us. He not only knows this, but desires it ardently. We are therefore called to trust that He hears us and listens deeply to us, and is is utterly loving in his response, whatever response that may be.
The second reason may seem not to answer our prayers is that delayed gratification can be good because it helps us grow. In life, this is part of our growth as human beings. We have to learn to discipline our appetites for food and drink. In the spiritual life, it’s not too different. I can’t have that cake now, both because it’s about to be supper and I don’t want to spoil my appetite, and because its Lent – the season of delayed gratification. I think God sometimes avoids giving us what we want when we want it because he has something even in better in mind. He is able to take the long view of things, after all.
Thirdly, “if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans”; the one who seeks will find – but not necessarily what he was looking for! I think this is essential. Jesus offers us “good gifts” from God, but His gifts are not the same as our requests. He is not currently saying to me, “you will have that Ferrari which you have so earnestly prayed for”. No. We know what the good gifts of God are, and we can name some of them: faith, charity, brotherhood, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and especially the gift of Himself to us in the Eucharist, our daily bread.
The passage we’ve just heard is a working out of the logic of the Lord’s Prayer in preceding chapter: we have a Heavenly Father, one who doesn’t give stones to his children, but bread.
Now God is so much more than a celestial baker indiscriminately distributing bread – he wants each of us to be happy. He wants each of us individually to know him. Pope Benedict said that there are as many different paths to God as there are people.
The challenge of any moment we feel unanswered by God is to enter ever more deeply into trusting him. It’s part of the the life of Faith.
And it’s why we say “thy will be done”.
Image: Blessed Dominic Barberi, whose prayers to be missionary in England took so long to be answered; Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
