Several years ago, I visited Jerusalem while on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. As we approached the Bazaar, a shopping area of small shops and open-air markets, our guide prepared us for the experience ahead. He told us that in the shops there would be no price tags on the merchandise; one must ask the price. At that moment the shopkeeper would size you up and mention a price. Our guide told us, “Never pay the first price.” This is because some bargaining and haggling was expected before deciding on a mutually agreeable price.
I told the guide that I didn’t think I’d be very good at this, and would likely just pay the guy what he was asking. “Don’t do that,” said the guide. “You’ll ruin his day.” “Why would this ruin his day,” I asked. The guide responded, “Because he’ll wish he’d asked for more.”
Bargaining and haggling are prominent in our Readings today, as Abraham attempts to strike a deal with God. This might seem crass, but God the Father stays with Abraham all through the process… and God the Son gives us a little Parable about persistence in prayer.
Some might debate the role of prayer and wonder if it changes God’s mind, or if it simply disposes the mind of the person praying to accept God’s Will, whatever the outcome, both of which would be good. However, both of our Scripture passages today suggest the former: that God responds to prayer, and acts upon the request given Him.
Then Our Lord goes on to declare that all prayer is answered in the famous and beloved saying: “Ask and you will receive… seek and you will find… knock and the door will be opened to you.”
However, have you ever asked and then not received? Have you ever sought but did not find? Have you ever knocked and the door seemed not to open? This is a common experience, but one which should not lead to despair nor cause one to question the efficacy of prayer.
The Lord then speaks to those who wonder if God is listening, or worry that they don’t deserve the petition they’re submitting, by using the image of father and son. While our own fathers might have lacked the height of perfection in this regard, the Lord, whose own Father is nothing less than the Creator of the Universe… the cause of all Being… the very source of life and love… offers a different, more profound image who, in responding does not say, “No,” but says, “Yes” in a more life-affirming response than we might have expected or even desired.
Jesus tells us that God gives us not less than what we request, but more: He gives us the Holy Spirit. However, if we’re not in touch with the Holy Spirit, this gift might seem, at first, to resemble our least-favorite Christmas present: not what I wanted, but aware that the gift was given in love.
So, how can I change my mind and heart in order to begin to want the for myself the same things that God wants for me? This raises a further question: What does God want for me? Well, in the Catechism we studied in our childhood, we learned that God wants us “to know, love and serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.” Happiness in heaven, then, is the goal of our knowing, loving and serving Him now, and, as we learn today, becomes the purified motivation for prayer.
Prayer now becomes both the means and the end of our interaction with God. Perseverance in prayer becomes less about bargaining and haggling, and more about loving God as Father, thus allowing this Father to love us in the way He wants to love us.
The gift of the Holy Spirit will give us the wisdom and insight to discover God’s answer to our prayers, an answer He formed for us before He even created us. There are two schools of thought in the search for God’s answers to our prayers:
God always answers our prayer, but He sometimes just says, “No.”
God has basically three answers to our prayers:
+Yes
+Not now,
+I have something better in store for you.
I tend to agree with the latter. So, go ahead: ask… seek… knock… God is there waiting with wisdom and insight, and above all, with the love of the Holy Spirit.