Be Active In Your Faith

Catholicism is not a spectator sport. If you want to grow in the spiritual life, you must be active in your faith. The foundation of that activity is prayer. You must be dedicated to prayer. Furthermore, we must approach it not as an obligation: an item on our checklist that we need to cross off among the myriad other items. Rather, prayer should be the preeminent item in our lives. That doesn’t necessarily mean the item that gets the most time, but the item that gets the best of us. If we dedicate ourselves to prayer, the rest of our lives will fall into order.

Gospel - Luke 11:1-13

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,

one of his disciples said to him,

"Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."

He said to them, "When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread

and forgive us our sins

for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,

and do not subject us to the final test."

And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend

to whom he goes at midnight and says,

'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,

for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey

and I have nothing to offer him,'

and he says in reply from within,

'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked

and my children and I are already in bed.

I cannot get up to give you anything.'

I tell you,

if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves

because of their friendship,

he will get up to give him whatever he needs

because of his persistence.

"And I tell you, ask and you will receive;

seek and you will find;

knock and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks, receives;

and the one who seeks, finds;

and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

What father among you would hand his son a snake

when he asks for a fish?

Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?

If you then, who are wicked,

know how to give good gifts to your children,

how much more will the Father in heaven

give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"

Scriptural Analysis

Chapter eleven of Luke’s Gospel opens with the disciples asking Jesus to teach them how to pray. Jesus responds to their request by providing them with the Lord’s Prayer. However, he doesn’t stop there. In this Gospel passage, we see Jesus continuing that instruction.

The ambiguity of location is Luke’s way of telling the reader that the key is what Jesus was doing, not where he was doing it. By this point, the disciples were very accustomed to seeing Jesus pray and were inspired to engage more deeply in prayer themselves. They asked him to teach them how to pray, just as John the Baptist had taught his disciples. This request would have been expected, as it was common for rabbis of the time to instruct their students on how to pray.

The version of the Lord’s prayer presented in Luke is shorter than the version in Matthew. Luke’s contains five petitions, whereas Matthew’s includes seven. This likely reflects the different ways the prayer was used in the early Church, with Matthew’s version becoming the preferred one for liturgical use.

Jesus begins the prayer by addressing God as “Father.” In the Old Testament period, God was referred to as Father in relation to the entire people of Israel or to Israel’s kin in a special case. The ordinary person never referred to God as Father. Jesus is pointing his disciples to a more intimate relationship with God, one that shares in the intimacy Jesus has with the Father. It also indicates a family bond, that we may be called the children of God.

The first two petitions in Luke’s account focus on things of God, while the last three focus on the needs of the one praying. This is a significant divide. Before we ask for anything for ourselves, we first give God all the honor and glory due him. Only when God is given what is due to him first, will other things take their proper place.

The first petition, Hallowed be thy name, is a petition to honor God as Holy. This prayer acknowledges God’s absolute distinction from all creation, and it also takes on the obligation to be holy as He is holy. In other words, give us the grace needed to keep our lives from profaning God. There is also a tie here to the prophet Ezekiel:

And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them; and the nations will know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. - Ezekiel 36:23

Our ability to glorify God requires God. He alone is the one who can glorify his name. We can cooperate with him to do so.

The second petition, Thy kingdom come, is a petition for the Kingdom of God, inaugurated by Christ, to be made effective in the world of humans. The prayer is also asking for the Kingdom of God to reign in one’s heart. Saint Augustine writes, “When you say ’Thy Kingdom Come,’ you pray for yourself, because you pray that you may lead a good life. May the kingdom that is to come to your saints and your righteous ones also come to us.” We are praying both universally for God’s kingdom and specifically for our place in it.

The third petition, Give us each day our daily bread, for bread (artos in Greek), has several meanings. First, it is a prayer to meet our daily physical needs. Give us the food we need to sustain us. Second, there is also a spiritual component to this. Recall the temptation of Christ in the desert, where his response to Satan was that man does not live on bread alone. We need the word of God. Finally, the phrase is also understood to be referring to the Eucharist Give us each day our daily bread, harkens back to the manna, the bread given each day, “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or not.” Exodus 16:4

The next petition, Forgive us our sins, is tied to our forgiveness of everyone indebted to us. The words used here, “forgive” and “debt,” recall Old Testament legislation surrounding the jubilee year and the remission of debts, as stated in Deuteronomy 15:1: “At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release.” In Nazareth, Jesus had declared a jubilee mission, proclaiming liberty.

The final petition, And lead us not into temptation, can be more accurately phrased do not subject us to the final test. In other words, spare us the great tribulation that was expected to accompany the coming of the messiah. The Greek word used here, peirasmos, is the same word used to describe the temptation of Christ. The petition is primarily about seeking protection from the evil one, and the strength needed to withstand trials.

Jesus then presents a parable about a gentleman who goes to his friend at midnight in search of some bread. In the Hellenistic world, the notion existed that friends held all things in common, making this imagery particularly resonant. Note also that the item being requested is bread, which ties this back to the Lord’s Prayer. The friend’s response, “Do not bother me,” is a command to prohibit an ongoing action. In other words, the gentleman is being persistent in asking his friend for bread. Jesus explains that if the friend is not motivated by friendship to answer the request, he will be motivated on the account of persistence. In Greek, the word is anaideia, which is closer to shamelessness. The gentleman is shamelessly and repeatedly asking his friend. Jesus is teaching his disciples the value of persistence in prayer. One can continue to bother God, confident that God will respond.

Jesus then utters the phrase, “I tell you.” A more literal translation would render this “and I say”. Luke often uses this phrase to signify that Jesus is going to explain a parable. There is the beautiful progression of active petitions laid out next: ask, seek, and knock. This shows that prayer is active. You need to ask God for what you want, seek Him out, and knock on His door. Yes, God already knows what you are going to ask Him, but He will never impose His assistance upon us; we must ask Him. To these three petitions are the responses of receiving, finding, and the door opening. This gives the disciples the confidence to pray to God to meet all their needs.

Of course, this kind of relentless prayer is only possible with filial trust in the Father. Jesus illustrates this with the story of a son who needs food. He asks for a fish and an egg, and Jesus reminds us that a loving father would not give him something harmful instead. Jesus then employs a rhetorical device known as an argument from the lesser to the greater. If earthly parents who are flawed know how to give their children good gifts, how much more will the Heavenly Father, who is perfect, give his children? This includes the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Venerable Bede summarizes this passage the best:

He bears witness that the kingdom of heaven is not given to, found by, and opened to those who are idle and unoccupied, but to those who ask for it, seek after it, and knock at its gates. The gate of the kingdom must be asked for by praying. It must be sought after by living properly. It must be knocked at by persevering. - Homilies On The Gospels

Daily Application

Prayer is the foundation upon which the entire spiritual life rests. You can’t have an active and vibrant faith if you neglect prayer. It is simply not possible. Furthermore, when we neglect our prayer lives, the rest of our life gets out of order. For example, in the vast majority of cases where a priest or deacon is experiencing problems, upon examining their situation, one of the things often discovered is that they have stopped praying the Divine Office, The Liturgy of the Hours.

Prayer can be neglected in various ways. First, there is the issue of time neglect. While prayer does not have to be the thing we spend the most time on in our day, if we don’t spend any time at all in prayer, then how do we expect to grow spiritually? Indeed, we all understand the difference between quality time and simply going through the motions. That is the next thing we need to focus on. Our prayer time should be quality time spent with the Lord. He should get the best of us. That means we need to schedule time when we are at our best to pray, rather than hoping to get it in before we fall asleep.

Finally, we need to consider how we pray. Our Lord provided us with a template in this Gospel. We begin by placing ourselves in the presence of God and acknowledging who He is and who we are. We must give what is due to God first in order for our prayer life to be fruitful. Second, we should present our needs to the Lord. This is an area where many people struggle. They assume, and rightfully so, that God already knows what they need, so they fail to ask. In doing so, we forget that God will never impose Himself upon us. We need to bring our needs before him.

Furthermore, we need to bring them before him continuously. We pray without ceasing. If you’re struggling with a relationship issue, bring that need before the Lord until the situation is resolved. That can be weeks, years, or even decades. God answers all prayers in the manner and at the time He knows is right. We must be faithful in bringing our petition to him until such time comes.

I understand that this is not an easy task. When laundry is piled up to the ceiling, the floor needs to be mopped, or a deadline at work is rapidly approaching, it is easy to focus on these tasks: tasks where we see immediate results. However, I promise that if you put God first, you will soon discover a truth about our Lord. He is never outdone in generosity. You will be given the time to complete your laundry, mop the floor, and finish your work projects. Furthermore, you will accomplish all these tasks with renewed focus and peace, knowing that you are doing so with the Lord.

When we set aside time for focused and purposeful prayer, over time, our entire life becomes a prayer to the Lord. Be active in your faith. Dedicate yourself to a life of prayer, and then watch and be amazed how that dedication will bear much fruit in the rest of your life.