Pray with Confidence

Homily for Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

The reading from the First Book of Kings this morning should come with a warning: “Do not try this at home.”

That warning might be misinterpreted. I doubt that people of our time would envision making a sacrifice that in any way resembles Elijah’s sacrifice atop Mount Carmel. However, we might be tempted to test God. It is possible to read the story as such a challenge. I am reminded of something that happened when I was stationed in Cincinnati and teaching at the minor seminary there. This particular seminary had an outdoor swimming pool. One day, in the middle of one of my English classes, we heard sirens screaming through our driveway. It quickly became evident to me that there was no sense in trying to continue the class until we knew what had happened.

Sadly, during one of the physical education classes that was using the swimming pool that day, one of the freshmen was found lying at the bottom of the pool. The teacher immediately jumped in and lifted the boy from the pool. However, he was not breathing. The EMTs were successful in getting the boy breathing again and then loaded him into the ambulance and took off for the emergency room. Although he was breathing again, there was concern that he might have sustained some mental or physical impairment after being deprived of oxygen while he was under water. At that point we were all directed to go to the chapel to pray for the unfortunate boy. We were led in prayer by the guardian of the Franciscan community. He made the comment that we should not strike a bargain with God. In other words, we should not test God as we made our intercessory prayers. Happily, he did respond well to treatment and was returned to the seminary in just a few days.

Later that day, I spent some time thinking about the notion of testing God. Our psalm response for today from Psalm 16 is oftentimes categorized as a psalm of confidence. God is our refuge, even though we might experience difficulties or dark times. Expressing our confidence in God’s care for us is the posture that we need to cultivate in our intercessory prayer. Jesus reminds us frequently in the Gospel that God hears and answers our prayers. Consequently, we make our intercessions with faith in God’s providential care despite the bad things that happen in our lives.