Efficacy and necessity of prayer
“God, be merciful to me a sinner.”—Luke 18:13
In this day’s gospel we read that two men, a Pharisee and a publican, went up to the temple. Instead of humbling himself and begging God to assist him with his grace, the Pharisee said: Lord, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, who are sinners. Deus gratias ago tibi, quia non sum sicut caeteri homines—“God, I give thanks to thee, that I am not like the rest of men.” The publican, on the other hand, prayed in all humility: “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” St. Luke tells us that this publican returned home pardoned by God, while the Pharisee went home as guilty and as proud as when he had entered.
From this, most beloved brethren, you may judge how pleasing to God, and how necessary for us, are our humble petitions to obtain from the Lord all the graces we need for salvation. In this sermon I will show, in the first point, the efficacy of prayer; and in the second, the necessity of prayer.
First Point.—On the efficacy of prayer.
1. To understand the efficacy and value of our prayers, we need only consider the great promises God has made to everyone who prays. “Call upon me, and I will deliver thee” (Ps. 50:15). Call upon me, and I will draw you out of every danger. “He shall cry to me, I will hear him” (Ps. 91:15). “Cry to me, and I will hear thee” (Jer. 33:3). “You shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7). Ask as much as you wish, and it shall all be granted to you. There are a thousand such passages in the Old and New Testaments.
By his very nature God is goodness itself, as St. Leo writes. Deus cujus natura bonitas—“God, whose nature is goodness.” And so he has a supreme desire to make us share in his own good things. St. Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi used to say that when a soul prays to God for some grace, he in a certain manner remains obliged to her, and thanks her; for by her prayer she opens to him a way to satisfy his desire to dispense his graces to us. Hence, in the divine Scriptures, there seems to be nothing the Lord urges and presses upon us more than to ask and to pray.
To show this, the words we read in the seventh chapter of St. Matthew are enough: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you” (Matt. 7:7). St. Augustine teaches that by these promises God has bound himself to grant the petitions we make to him: “By his promises he has made himself a debtor” (Sermon 2 on the Word of the Lord). And the saint adds, in the fifth sermon, that the Lord would not exhort us so earnestly to ask for graces if he did not wish to grant them: “He would not exhort us to ask, unless he wished to give.” This is why we see that the Psalms of David and the books of Solomon and of the Prophets are full of prayers.
2. Theodoret has written that prayer is so efficacious with God that, “though it be one, it can obtain all things.” Oratio cum sit una, omnia potest—“Prayer, though it be one, can do all things.” St. Bernard adds that when we pray, the Lord, if he does not give the grace we ask, will grant another more useful than it: “He will give either what we ask, or what he knows to be more profitable to us” (Sermon 5 on Wednesday). And who has ever called on God for aid, and been despised by God refusing to hear him? “Who hath called upon him, and he despised him?” (Ecclus. 2:12).
Scripture says that among the nations there is none whose gods are so ready to hear their prayers as our true God is to hear ours: “Neither is there any other nation so great, that hath gods so nigh to them, as our God is present to all our petitions” (Deut. 4:7). The princes of the earth, says St. Chrysostom, give audience only to a few; but God grants it to everyone who desires it. Aures principis paucis patent, Dei vero omnibus volentibus—“The ears of a prince are open to few, but God’s truly to all who wish” (On Prayer, Bk. 2).
And David tells us that this goodness of the Lord, in hearing us whenever we pray to him, shows us that he is our true God, who loves us more than all others: “In what day soever I shall call upon thee, behold I know thou art my God” (Ps. 56:10). He wishes to grant us his graces, and ardently desires to do so, as we have said; but he wishes to be asked. One day Jesus Christ said to his disciples: “Hitherto you have not asked anything in my name; ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:24). As if he said: You complain that I have not made you perfectly content; but complain rather of yourselves, for not having asked of me all you needed. Ask from this day forward, and your prayer shall be heard. Many, says St. Bernard, complain that the Lord is wanting to them; but the Lord complains far more justly that many are wanting to him, by failing to come and ask him for his graces. Omnes nobis causamur deesse gratiam, sed justius forsitan ista sibi queritur deesse nonnullos—“All blame the grace for being wanting to us, but perhaps more justly she complains that some are wanting to her” (St. Bernard, On the Triple Custody).
3. The ancient fathers, conferring together to find the exercise most useful for eternal salvation, concluded that there is none other than to pray continually and to say: Lord, assist me; Lord, hasten to my aid. “Incline unto my aid, O God; O Lord, make haste to help me.” This is why holy Church has these two prayers repeated so often in the canonical hours by all the clergy and by all religious houses, who pray not only for themselves but for the whole Christian world.
St. John Climacus says that our prayers do a holy violence to God, that he may hear us: “Prayer piously does violence to God.” And so, when he is asked, he answers at once by dispensing to us the graces we seek: “At the voice of thy cry, as soon as he shall hear, he will answer thee” (Isa. 30:19). Hence St. Ambrose writes that “he who asks of God receives while he asks” (Ep. 84, ad Demetr.). And he not only grants us his graces at once, but abundantly, giving us more than we ask. St. Paul tells us that God is rich—that is, generous with his graces toward everyone who prays to him: “Rich unto all that call upon him” (Rom. 10:12). And St. James writes: “If any of you want wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men abundantly and upbraideth not” (Jas. 1:5). “He upbraideth not”: when we pray to him, he does not reproach us with the offenses we have committed against him, but seems then to forget all the displeasure we have caused him, and takes delight in enriching us with his graces.
Second Point.—On the necessity of prayer.
4. God wills all men to be saved, as St. Paul has written: “God will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). And he does not will that anyone should be lost, as St. Peter has written: “The Lord dealeth patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance” (2 Pet. 3:9). Hence St. Leo teaches that, as God wills us to keep his precepts, so he goes before us with his help, that we may keep them. Juste instat praecepto qui praecurrit auxilio—“He justly urges the precept who runs ahead with help” (Sermon 16 on the Passion).
And St. Thomas, on the words of the Apostle, “God, who will have all men to be saved,” writes: “Therefore grace is wanting to no one; but he, on his part, communicates it to all” (In Epist. ad Hebr., cap. 12, lect. 3). And in another place the holy doctor writes: “It belongs to Divine Providence to provide every man with the means necessary for his salvation, provided that on his part he puts no obstacle in the way.” But this help of grace the Lord grants only to those who pray for it, as Gennadius says: “We believe that no one works out his salvation but by God’s assistance, and that he alone who prays merits aid from God” (On Ecclesiastical Dogmas).
And St. Augustine teaches that, except for the first graces of vocation to faith and to repentance, all the others—and particularly the grace of perseverance—are granted only to those who ask for them: “It is evident that God gives some graces, such as the beginning of faith, even without prayer; but other graces, such as perseverance to the end, he has prepared only for those who pray” (On the Gift of Perseverance, ch. 16). And in another place he writes that “God wishes to give, but he gives only to those who ask” (In Ps. 100).
5. Hence it is the common teaching of theologians, following St. Basil, St. John Chrysostom, St. Augustine, Clement of Alexandria, and others, that for adults prayer is necessary as a means of salvation; that is, that without prayer it is impossible to be saved. This is what the Scriptures mean when they say: “We ought always to pray” (Luke 18:1). “Ask, and you shall receive” (John 16:24). “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). The words we ought, ask, pray, according to the common teaching of the doctors with St. Thomas (Summa III, q. 39, a. 5), imply a grave precept that binds, particularly in three cases: first, when a man is in the state of sin; second, when he is in great danger of falling into sin; and third, when he is in danger of death.
And at other times the doctors hold that whoever neglects prayer for a month, or at most two, cannot be excused from mortal sin; for without prayer we cannot obtain the helps necessary to keep the law of God. St. Chrysostom teaches that, as water is necessary to keep trees from withering, so prayer is necessary to keep us from perishing. Non minus quam arbores aquis, precibus indigemus—“We need prayers no less than trees need water” (Father Segneri, vol. 1, Homily 77).
6. Far too unjustly, then, did Jansenius assert that there are some precepts impossible for us to keep, and that the grace to make them possible is also wanting; for the Council of Trent teaches, in the words taken from St. Augustine, that although man is not able to keep all the commandments with the help of ordinary grace alone, he can nonetheless obtain through prayer the greater help he needs to keep them: “God does not command impossibilities; but, by commanding, he admonishes you both to do what you can and to ask for what you cannot, and he assists you, that you may be able” (Session 6, ch. 11). To this we may add that other celebrated saying of St. Augustine: “By the very fact that we most firmly believe that God could not have commanded impossibilities, we are admonished both what to do in things that are easy, and what to ask for in things that are difficult” (On Nature and Grace, ch. 69, n. 85).
7. But why does God, knowing our weakness, permit our enemies to assail us when we are not able to resist them? The answer is that he permits it so that we may ask him for his help, seeing the great good that the necessity of prayer brings us. And so whoever is overcome cannot excuse himself by saying that he had not the strength to resist; for he would have had it, had he asked it of God. Therefore God will punish him if he is overcome, since, had he prayed, he would have come off the victor.
St. Bonaventure says that if the commander of a fortress were to lose it through not having sought timely aid from his king, he would be branded by the king as a traitor. Reputaretur infidelis, nisi expectaret a rege auxilium—“He would be considered unfaithful, if he did not expect help from the king” (St. Bonaventure, ch. 5). And so God holds himself betrayed by the man who, finding himself assailed by temptation, does not have recourse to him for aid. St. Teresa writes: the Lord says that whoever asks receives—“Ask, and you shall receive”; therefore, the saint concludes, whoever does not ask does not receive. This accords with what St. James wrote: “You have not, because you do not ask” (Jas. 4:2).
St. John Chrysostom says that prayer is a great weapon for defending ourselves against all enemies: “Truly prayer is a great armor” (Hom. 41, ad Pop.). And St. Ephrem writes that whoever fortifies himself beforehand with prayer bars the entrance of sin into the soul: “If you put prayer before your work, the passage into the soul will not lie open to sin” (Sermon on Prayer). David said the same before them all: “Praising I will call upon the Lord, and I shall be saved from my enemies” (Ps. 18:4).
8. If, then, we wish to live well and to save our souls, we must learn to pray. “He who knows how to live well,” says St. Augustine, “is he who knows how to pray well” (Hom. 43). Now, in order to obtain God’s graces by prayer, it is necessary, first, to put away sin; for God does not hear obstinate sinners. For example: if someone harbored hatred toward another, so that he wished to take revenge, and prayed, God would not hear him. “When you multiply prayer, I will not hear; for your hands are full of blood” (Isa. 1:15). St. Chrysostom says that whoever nourishes an evil will and prays does not pray, but mocks God. Qui orat et peccat, non rogat Deum sed illudit—“He who prays and sins, does not ask God but mocks him” (Hom. 11, in Matt. 6). But if he were to pray that God might take the hatred from his heart, then the Lord would indeed hear him.
Second, it is necessary to pray to God with attention. Some imagine they are praying when they say many Our Fathers, but so distracted that they do not know what they are saying. These speak, but do not pray. Of them the Lord speaks through Isaiah: “With their lips they glorify me, but their heart is far from me” (Isa. 29:13).
Third, it is necessary to take away the occasions that hinder us from praying, as the Holy Ghost exhorts us: “Let nothing hinder thee from praying always” (Ecclus. 18:22). Whoever busies himself with a thousand affairs and pursuits useless to the soul sets before his prayer, as Jeremiah says, a cloud that prevents it from passing to God: “Thou hast set a cloud before thee, that our prayer may not pass through” (Lam. 3:44).
Nor will I omit here the exhortation of St. Bernard, that we seek graces from God through the intercession of his divine Mother: “Let us seek grace, and let us seek it through Mary; for she is a Mother, and her prayer cannot be in vain” (Sermon on the Aqueduct). And St. Anselm adds: “Many things are asked of God and are not obtained; what is asked of Mary is obtained—not because she is more powerful, but because God has decreed thus to honor her, that men may know that all things can be obtained from God through her.”
Points for Reflection
1. “Whoever busies himself with a thousand affairs and pursuits useless to the soul sets before his prayer a cloud that prevents it from passing to God” (§8)
2. “If, then, we wish to live well and to save our souls, we must learn to pray” (§8)
3. “God does not command impossibilities; but, by commanding, he admonishes you both to do what you can and to ask for what you cannot, and he assists you, that you may be able” (§6)