Thursday of the
First Week of Lent
(Esther C12:14-16; 23-25; Matthew
7:7-12)
Why do people pray? The age-old question is probably made
more by unbelievers than by believers. Still, the faithful need to ask
themselves if they think that they might change God’s will by their
efforts. Is He not changeless? If so, then why bother to seek His help?
Prayer is the most urgent of Christian actions. Christians cannot help but pray because it is
the Holy Spirit that is prompting them to do so. Their prayers do not change God, but through
their prayers God is changing them. First,
prayer enables them to see that God has at his disposition myriad ways of improving
an undesirable situation beyond what they have considered. Then in prayer they discover how God may want
them to address the challenge at hand. Finally
and most importantly, prayer aligns them with the only true order of things:
not theirs but God’s is to be done. It
has been wisely said that God’s posture toward those who pray does not change
with their prayer; it always remains one of pure love.
In today’s gospel Jesus urges his disciples to pray for
what they need. The first reading
pictures the Jewish Queen Esther doing that as she prepares to meet her
husband, the king of Persia. Her prayers
will lead to the salvation of her people as God unmasks the maliciousness of their
persecutor.
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