30th Sunday Ordinary Time (B) 27 October 2024 Sermon

 

30^th Sunday Ordinary Time (B) 27 October 2024 Perseverance in Prayer

The blind man called out loudly - which indicates to us that we should exert ourselves  when asking for heavenly favour.

The story is for our benefit so that we will have more confidence in God, and present our needs to Him more boldly. We don’t have to shout, but we do have to believe, and the stronger our belief the more effective the prayer is going to be.

(See also the Canaanite woman, the nobleman who petitioned for his son, the ten lepers, the friends lowering a man through the roof.)  

1) Jesus wants us to approach Him: Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened (Mt 11,28)

And He give us parables to reinforce this. The importunate widow and the troublesome friend. (Lk 18,1-8; Lk 11,5-13) God does not get annoyed like we would do. He is always awake, always listening.

2) He wants us to trust in Him, that He has both the power and the will to heal us.

The blind man believed both of these.

So we cry out to Him when we are in any kind of trouble. Our cry is heard. The Lord hears the cry of the poor. Ps 34,17)

There are things we can do to build up our faith.

One thing is to keep our contact with God always current. We do not allow our faith to cool off. We thank him for past blessings and ask for current needs non-stop. This way we will not be discouraged. In this pattern of prayer we unite ourselves with the whole Church, which is always praying.

Perseverance in prayer is itself an expression of faith. We believe just the same whether the prayer is answered immediately or with a delay. Because we are dealing with the same God, who never changes one time to the next.

We are tempted to think we are alone and so stop praying, stop expecting any change for the better.

We are never alone. Praying will enable us to have a stronger sense of God’s presence. It is that sense of being alone that probably impedes us, a kind of ‘what’s the use’ feeling.

So when we are in trouble we pray more not less. Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! (Ps 126,5)

The more prayer, and the more people praying the better.

But if we are all discouraged we will stop too soon.

3) Pray like the saints. It does make a difference who is praying. Mt 11,28)

A saint will pray with more love of God, and therefore more trust and more power will come from that.

The more we ‘agree’ with God the more smoothly everything will run.

This is what makes things give way, when we love God enough we can make a request without fear. We fit ourselves into His plans and whatever He is doing or not will be ok with us. Son, they have no wine is the ultimate prayer. Mary understood her Son and was at one with His will. (Jn 2,1-11)

God wants us to be absorbed in His will and take comfort there. Whatever difficulties we have with prayer will always stem from a certain distance on our part, whereby we do not fully trust God, or do not know Him well enough.

We learn from the blind man to be uninhibited in the face of divine power and love. Call out to him without fear and we will be heard.

[Universal prayer for universal need. We pitch in here as well, with the whole Church.]