Tuesday of the
First Week of Lent
(Isaiah 55:10-11; Matthew 6:7-15)
People speak of “storming heaven.” They mean that they will say prayer after
prayer until they receive what they request.
Evidently they think of God as remote and apathetic to human need. Perhaps
they have the wicked magistrate of the Lucan parable in mind. But Jesus is clear in that image that God is
much better than the corrupt judge. In
today’s passage from the Gospel of Matthew he gives us a truer way to approach God.
Jesus tells his disciples that the way to secure answer
to prayers is to forgive others’ offenses.
There may be something circular at play here. If one can forgive others’ sins, that person
seems to have already achieved sanctity – the final aim of all prayer. But there is more to prayer than that. Prayer connects a person with God so that her
mind expands to see God’s will. She gives
up her narrow view of reality and finds God working in more efficacious ways.
Saintly theologians say that we cannot alter God’s
will. At the same time they encourage us
to pray. They say that prayer changes
us. That fact alone improves the
situation for all.
