Unity

The other day I was surfing the web for an update on the debt limit standoff.

And I came across some results from an Internet survey.

It had been conducted by NBC and Esquire Magazine.

To determine just how divided the American people are.

It probably wasn’t the most expertly crafted or analyzed survey.

But the answers enabled them to plug each respondent into one of eight categories.

Starting from far left-wing and moving to far right-wing—

The somewhat colorfully-named categories were:

   The Bleeding Hearts

   The Gospel Left

   The Minivan Moderates

   The MBA Middle

   The Pick-up Populists

   The #WhateverMan

   The Righteous Right

   The Talk Radio Heads

They found that 51% fell into the middle four of those eight categories.

And they dubbed those groups the New American Center.

Even though they’d already done their analysis, you could still take the survey.

I did and, as expected, I fell within those center regions.

What I didn’t expect from that type of survey was so many questions about my prayer life.

How important is faith to you?

Do you pray and reflect on your faith regularly?

Did you go to church last weekend?

Do you pray often, daily, seldom or never?

In our Gospel passage today, Jesus tells us that it’s necessary to pray always.

Without becoming weary.

Elsewhere in the Gospels, he says we must pray without ceasing.

The survey folks didn’t think to provide a selection for that level of prayer.

What does it mean to pray always; to pray without ceasing?

It could be taken most literally—

At every instant have a prayer on our lips or in the front of our mind.

But that would be impossible, even for the cloistered monks and nuns.

We all have to sleep and eat and work.

And at least at some times give full attention to the world we’re in.

Praying always could mean—always have a prayer in our heart.

Cultivate a relationship so close and constant with God that we’re always conscious of Him.

That everything we do is with an attention and dedication to God.

In a sense then, our every act and every thought becomes a prayer.

A communication with God.

Some people do achieve that near perfect level of being a contemplative in action.

But that level of perfection may seem out of reach to many of us.

Still, that unity with God is a worthy goal for all of us.

The necessity of praying always and without ceasing could simply require—

Praying regularly, repeatedly and consistently.

In fact today’s parable supports that interpretation.

The widow doesn’t plead with the judge every waking moment.

But she does keep coming to him, persistently and consistently over a long period of time.

There are many types of prayer and ways of praying.

One acronym for the major categories of prayer is PACT—our PACT with God.

Prayers of: Petition, Adoration, Contrition and Thanksgiving.

All of these can be rote recitations of prayers we’ve learned over the years.

Or ad hoc conversational prayers that simply flow from within as we talk with God.

As we compose our own thoughts and words, and listen for God’s words.

They can be private or public, solo or group.

We can pray directly to Jesus, or to God, or to Father, Son, or Spirit. 

We can even petition the saints and the angels to intercede for us.

We pray all of those types of prayers often—they’re all in the Mass.

We can make analysis of our prayer life as simple or complex as we want.

It can be as structured or unstructured as we choose.

We’re all familiar with the rote prayers—and they have great value.

But the ad hoc conversational prayers are often the ones that take us deeper.

Deeper into our own very personal relationship with God.

We all make ad hoc prayers of petition when we desperately want something.

There’s nothing like a true crisis to spur us into fervent prayer.

And surely we make an ad hoc prayer of thanksgiving if we get what we asked for.

If we cultivate our relationship with God through conversation,

We may well touch on all those types of prayer in any single conversation.

One commentary I read regarding today’s Gospel passage said:

Luke sees prayer as the manifestation of our relationship with God.

Those who pray have one.

Those who don’t, don’t.

This Mission Sunday would be a good time to commit to becoming fully evangelized.

Maybe then, others might be evangelized through us.

And the best way to become fully evangelized is to 1et God Himself complete the job.

We cooperate with Him when we build-up our relationship, through prayer.

Our personal cooperation can ensure a positive answer to that question of today’s Gospel.

When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?

That NBC-Esquire survey popped up as an unlikely reminder of the necessity of prayer.

And it did a pretty good job of phrasing the important questions.

Tweaking them just a bit, they become something we might ponder from time-to-time:

Do I pray and reflect on my faith regularly?

Do I pray enough?

How important to me is my faith?

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lk 18:1-8           Read this Scripture @usccb.org