God doesn’t need our Prayers ... but we need to offer them!
Homily preached Sunday, October 16, 2022
by Monsignor Michael Deering

Does God need our prayers?      Does God need our prayers?

Scripture directs you ... to pray to God.

The Catholic Church and other Christian Churches direct you to pray to God.

Your Priests and Protestant Ministers direct you to pray to God.

Is that because God needs our prayers?

No ... not at all.       God doesn’t need anything!

So, God doesn’t need our prayers.

Then why all the clamor for people to pray?

Why are Christians constantly being reminded and exhorted to pray to God?

It’s because ... we need God!     God doesn’t need us.    We need God!

Everything we have and everything we’ll ever receive is from God.

And God wants us to know that ... and never forget that.

He is the Source and Giver of all things!

This truth is announced in Psalm 121 that we prayed today.

Listen again to the Responsorial Response that you just prayed:

“Our help is from the Lord, who made Heaven and Earth.”

You just said that  ... five times.

“Our help is from the Lord, who made Heaven and Earth.”

Do you believe that ... or were they just words?

If the Lord made Heaven & Earth... then the Lord can do anything & everything.

So then why are you not going to Him persistently in prayer?

Why are so many people telling me: “Father, I’m not praying.”

                                                or “Father, I’m not praying as much as I should.”

What is Prayer?

Prayer is dialog with God … it is lifting the heart, the mind and the spirit to God.

It’s opening ourselves to contact with the Almighty ...

          not because He needs us ... but because we need Him.

In our human selfishness ...

we’re pretty good about doing what it takes to get something we want.

 So why in the world are we not constantly in prayer ...

beseeching God ... the Giver of all ... for many things?

It comes down to Faith.

it comes down to ... do I really believe in God?

do I really believe that He loves me?

do I really believe that He listens to me?

do I really believe that He has the power to help me?

do I really believe that He would ever use His power to help me?

Two weeks ago we heard the Apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith.

Last week we contemplated how priceless the Gift of faith is.

It’s our faith that saves us!

God has given us the gift of faith to be used ...

and we use it every time we call upon Him in prayer!

“Prayer” demonstrates that we know God is there ...

 that we know God can help us

  and that we know God wants to help us.

And how often does God wants us to approach Him?    Regularly and often.

Notice how St. Luke begins our Gospel passage today, “Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary.”

Wow!      Did you hear that?       Jesus wants us to pray always!

It reflects back to our First Reading where Moses grew weary holding up his hands. 

Scripture says, “As long as Moses kept his hands raised up, Israel had the better of the fight, but when he let his hands rest, Amalek had the better of the fight.”

How many people there are who are letting their hands rest and are not praying!

Today, we’re not in battle with the Amalekites.

No, we’re in battle with two far greater forces ...  the devil and the world.

   So, it’s even more important that we keep our hands raised in prayer.

If we keep our hands up in Prayer, things will go well in our battles.

But if our hands drop from Prayer, things will go poorly in our battles.

Today, Jesus encouraged us to be persistent in Prayer in his Parable today about the widow who relentlessly called upon the Judge for a just decision.

That woman knew that the Judge had the power to answer her request ...

and so she determinedly called upon him day after day without ceasing.

Jesus wants us to see that God has the power to answer all of our prayers.

Do you believe that?

Jesus wants us to be like the persistent widow and call out to God day and night.

Yet, God may not always answer our prayers the way we would like.

God may have to be like a father, who has to refuse the request of a child because he knows that what the child has asked for will hurt them rather than help them.

Or maybe God has other plans for us that we just aren’t seeing at the time.

For instance, looking back, I can clearly see that God wasn’t answering my prayers for a wife and family because He really wanted me to serve Him as a Priest!

The way we communicate with God is through Prayer.

It’s in Prayer that we tap into the wisdom and power of God to help us through life.

And when we stop praying, we operate on our own wisdom and power ...

and we’re going to lose the battle of life.

Which is why God doesn’t want us to stop praying.  He doesn’t want us to lose.

Reflecting on our First Reading,

• Could the fact that Moses climbed to the top of a hill away from the battle symbolize that we too need to find a place set apart from the battles of this life to effectively be with God in prayer?

• Could the need for Moses to keep his hands raised up in battle

symbolize the need for us to keep our own hands raised in prayer?

• And could the propping up of Moses’ arms symbolize the need for us to do whatever it takes to remain steady in prayer?

Do you ever become weary in saying your prayers?

     Sure ... that will happen from time to time.

Praying is not always easy. Often we have to push ourselves to finish our prayers. St. Paul encourages us in this today saying:

“Be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient.”

So the clear message from God ... through Scripture ... through His Church ... and through His Priests and Ministers ...  is to be persistent in prayer.

You see, God sees all of time and He knows what is best for us in the long run. That’s why we must persist and never give up on prayer.

Consider this ... Prayer reminds us of our unique relationship with God!

If we don’t pray, we’ll forget who God is!

and if we forget who God is ... we’ll forget who we are!

God is Creator ... we are mere creatures.

God is the King ... we are his Stewards.

You could say ... Prayer reminds us of our little place in God’s Perfect Plan.

Here’s an example of what happens when we forget who God is:

The Annual Awards for best TV programs & actors the Emmys took place Sept 12

It was a time of enthusiastic cheers and celebration.

And when the Korean man, Lee Jung Jae was presented with this trophy

for Best Actor in Drama ... the audience was cheering loudly.

Then He began his acceptance speech, “First of all, I’d like to thank God above.”

and the Audience went silent.

Lee Jung Jae went on : “I’d also like to thank Netflix.”

and the Audience roared with cheers and applause!

Silence for God .... Applause for man.

That’s what happens when you forget who God is!

God doesn’t want that to happen.

Recall Jesus’ foreboding statement in Luke’s Gospel today:

 “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”

Sadly, the disappearance of faith in God is happening right here in America!

A new report by the Pew Research Center says that

Christians could someday soon no longer be a majority in this country.

“With each generation, progressively fewer adults retain the Christian identity

they were raised with ... which in turn means

fewer parents are raising their children in Christian households.”

“Report after report over the years has shown

a decline in America’s Christian population.

Last year, Pew reported that 63% of Americans identify as Christians –

down from 75% a decade earlier ...

and the religious unaffiliated had risen to become roughly 30% of the population.”

“In addition, the share of U.S. adults who say they pray on a daily basis

has been trending downward, as has the share who say

religion is ‘very important’ in their lives.”

The numbers of people in non-Christian religions are expected to double

to 13% of the population ... as well as the growing ranks of the “nones”

(who claim no religious affiliation)”

For 246 years, our Country has been a Christian country ...

and we have been richly blessed for remembering who God is.

But now ... Jesus’ concern from 2000 years ago is happening before our eyes.

“When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”

In the middle of next month Demographers say

that the Global population will turn 8 Billion people!

And right...  now only ¼ of that number, some 2 Billion people ... are Christian.

In Communist countries like Russia and China ... God isn’t even a thought.

Please pray!

Pray for God’s blessings for you and your family and your country and the world.

Please follow Jesus’ instruction: “Pray always without becoming weary.”

Pray for the help and blessings of Almighty God... and pray to insure that people in every generation will know and never forget ... that God alone ... is God.