How Does God Answer our Prayers?

            I have wanted to have absolute assurance that God has been with me a number of times.  I have never seen God’s face.  That is what our God told Moses on the mountain when he gave him the Ten Commandments.  “No one can see my face and live,” said God to Moses.  Moses argued with God about that.  “Show me your glory,” he said.  God tucked him into a cleft in the rock and passed by him so that Moses was aware of his glory, but never saw his face.  God assured Moses that he would always be with him and his people.  And so it went as they moved from Sinai to the Promised Land.  God was with them in the Pillar of Fire and the Pillar of Cloud that guided them.  God provided manna when they were in need of food, and Moses’ staff struck the rock and they received water when they were thirsty.  They were taken care of by God for the years that they wandered the desert; and finally they were brought to the land that they had been promised.

            These were a surly people, never entirely faithful, always questioning.  They were a people just like you and me.  That’s why I always want assurance that God is with me. But I have seen God’s face a number of times.  God was in the face of the doctor who took out my brain tumor when it threatened my life.  God was in the face of the Bishop of Pittsburgh when he listened to me about wanting to go to seminary and found a way to get me enrolled in a matter of months.  God has been with both me and Rosie when we have had things happen to us that were beyond our control, and we have been sustained and made whole again.  God is with all of us, whether we know it or not.  God sees beyond our egoism and our hypocrisy and helps us to get through the turmoil of our lives.  Even when we die, God is with us.  We have been given the promise of eternal life by our God and that is not an idle promise. 

            To show us that promise in its completeness, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ to be with us, to teach us and to ultimately give himself up to death for all of us.  When Jesus went to the cross, it was something that we all did.  We crucified Jesus because he threatened our power.  The religious leaders of his time saw that our Lord was teaching a different kind of faith than they were teaching.  They liked the power that they had over the people; but Jesus constantly challenged that.  When the poor widow put her small coin in the offering plate, Jesus praised her for giving more than the rich religious leaders.  The Widow’s Mite became a symbol of God’s eternal love.

            Once when my grandson was about three, he went outside the house and got into the car that was parked in the alley.  Somehow he released the brake and the car began to drift down the alley.  My daughter came out into the yard, saw what was happening and shouted, “Jesus Christ.”  When she told us about this, she apologized for what she thought was bad language.  I told her that what she had said was a prayer; a prayer from a worried mother about her child.  And God heard that prayer.  Somehow the car stopped and my grandson was all right. 

            I offer prayers constantly for the people whom I know.  Sometimes I see concrete evidence that the prayers made a difference, and sometimes I see no evidence at all.  That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t answer the prayers.  Frequently the answers are just not what we were expecting.  I have been with a number of people when they have died.  Once I was wakened at two in the morning to go to the intensive care unit of our local hospital to see a young woman who had been there for some time.  I went and had a prayer with her and the next day she died.  I grieved when she died and wondered what it was that I had done when I had seen her the night before.  I know that my call to her side had a purpose; it certainly provided her with care as she died; and it also helped me to understand something about my role as a priest.  It was another moment of God’s touch in this world and my opportunity to respond. 

            The religious leaders wanted to challenge Jesus because they didn’t like him.  They asked him if it was “lawful” to pay taxes to the emperor.  Jesus asked for a coin and they gave him one.  “Whose picture is on this coin,” he asked.  They told him that it was the picture of the emperor.  “Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.”  The religious leaders didn’t ask him any more questions.  I know that if we live our lives with that in mind, we will always be close to God and that God will be close to us.