Each Wednesday night,
Chicago/Hammond TV station WJYS, which is primarily devoted to religious
broadcasting, airs a Wednesday night bible study from Salem Baptist Church Salem Baptist Church Catholic Church.
Last night, the theme of
Reverend Meeks’ lesson was that prayer is capable of changing the mind of
God. He cited passages from the Book of
Exodus
(I think the 33rd
chapter.) in which Moses persuaded God not to exterminate the “stiff-necked” (a
quote from Exodus) Israelites and from the First Book of Samuel, in which
Hannah pleaded with God to allow her to have a child and promised to dedicate
that male child to God. As it turned
out, God did not exterminate the Israelites and Hannah did indeed have a child,
Samuel, who turned out to be one of the great judges of Israel
A few weeks ago, the
Wednesday night Salem Baptist bible study featured a guest preacher, the
Reverend Terri Owens, who is pastor of the First Christian Church of Downers Grove , a Disciples of Christ church. To say that the Reverend Owens is impressive
is an understatement, and this particular homily was spellbinding; I, for one,
couldn’t stop listening. Her main point
is that we must pray without ceasing and to be specific in our prayers. One of the examples she used was especially
pertinent and illustrative yet humorous at the same time. She advised any woman in the audience who
was looking for a man not to just ask God to send her a man but, rather, to be
specific. Ask for a man who is a good
man, a responsible man, an honest man, and a man who can at least support himself. If you just ask for a man, she advised the
women, you don’t know what you’ll get.
Everyone laughed, but everyone got the point as well.
We Catholics take a similar,
though in some ways radically different, approach to petitioning God. We, too, think it’s okay, even good, to ask
God for things for ourselves and for others.
But we seem to think it is also, perhaps particularly, efficacious for
us to enlist the aid of the saints in this endeavor. We petition the saints to petition God. So we will ask (Some even say “pray to,”
which, according to not all that strict a definition of prayer, is nearly heretical
in yours truly’s opinion), say, St. Mark to ask God for something for us or for
someone we love or for someone we might not even know or like. A particular favorite in this practice is
Mary, the Mother of Jesus. The Church
endorses many rituals and prayers, like the Memorare, in which we ask Mary to
ask her Son to grant us favors of some kind.
After all, He can’t say “No, Ma,” can He? Another favorite saint to enlist in our
cause is St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes. St. Jude has been a particular favorite of
yours truly of late, but I digress. In
what looks like another digression but most decidedly is not, let me emphasize
something that was only implied in the first sentence of this paragraph: neither Reverend Meeks nor Reverend Owens,
being Protestants, would endorse petitioning of the saints; that is an approach
to God that is peculiar to the Catholic Church.
I have problems with all of
these sometimes complementary approaches.
First, why would we want to
change God’s mind? Do we know better
than He does what He should do? Do we
have better ideas than He does? One
might cite the Reverend Meeks’ examples: of course destroying the Israelites
and leaving Hannah “barren” were bad ideas.
So didn’t both Moses and Hannah have better ideas than God? One could easily answer that question with
another question: Did God really intend
to “exterminate” the Israelites or to deprive them, once spared that fate, of
Samuel, or was something else at work here?
But, in any case, those are arcane and not altogether relevant
examples. In life, spiritual, material,
or otherwise, what business do we have trying to change God’s mind? Are we smarter than He is? Of course not.
Second, why should we be
asking God for anything specific? Doesn’t He already know what we need and
thereby stands ready to give it to us?
Does He have to be talked into giving us good things? Of course not. He is a loving Father who knows what we need
and is ready, and eager, to give it to us.
What He wants to give us may not be what we want, but it is, indeed,
what we need. Often what we want is not
what we need and in fact would be deleterious to our happiness or even our
existence…or to the happiness or existence of others. Should we be insisting on what we want when
God wants to give us what we need?
Again, do we know better than He, Whom we profess to be omniscient, what
is good for us? To ask the question is
nearly to answer it. God knows what we
need and is striving to give it to us.
We often don’t get it because we, in our efforts to get what we want, or
think we need, get in God’s way. He is
indeed omniscient but He is not omnipotent; He has to work through stiff necked
people, like us, who often say “No.”
To put it succinctly, God is
indeed a loving Father; He is not a short order cook.
Third, even if we believe
that we should try to change God’s mind in order to get things we specifically
ask for, why do we need the saints, even Mary, the Queen of All Saints, to
intercede for us? Can’t we just ask God
directly? Do we Catholics, who seem to
want to petition saints most of the time for things we deem beneficial for
ourselves or others, assume that God is some kind of cosmic grouch who doesn’t
want to be bothered by those pesky humans and therefore has to be mollified by
those He loves more? Do we believe that
Jesus can somehow say “No” to us but, as a nice Jewish boy, simply can’t say
“No” to His mom? I can see why
non-Catholics might have this view of us.
I can also see why some accuse us of being idolaters, but that’s another
issue.
To hear some Catholics talk,
God is just a mean old ogre who would just as soon blow us all off, but if we
ask His Mother nicely enough, maybe she can talk Him out of it and actually get
Him to give us a break here and there…but only because His mom, not we, asked. I didn’t say ALL Catholics; I said SOME Catholics.
And if you think I’m exaggerating, just sit down and listen to some
people who share my devotion to, but not my attitude toward, the Blessed
Virgin. She’s our loving Mother, not a
way to get on God’s good side…because WE ALREADY ARE ON GOD’S GOOD SIDE . And I
strongly suspect nobody agrees with me on this more strongly than Mary does,
but I nearly digress on this point.
I’m not saying that I know
that the Reverends Meeks or Owens is wrong on changing God’s minds or asking
for specific things. They are much more
learned in these matters than I am.
Further, I hedge my bets on having the saints, or anyone, pray for me;
when the litany of the saints (“St. Anthony, pray for us….St. Patrick, pray for
us…St. Stanislaus, pray for us….”), starts, I am never silent. And I never hesitate to pray for others or
ask them to pray for me. (See my 1/21/13
piece, DO YOU REALLY NEED ME TO PRAY FOR YOU?) In fact, I sort of hope Reverends Meeks and Owens are right on changing
God’s minds and praying for specific things, and, partially, the Catholics who
petition God through the saints, are right; there are many things, e.g.,
·
health for sick
friends,
·
peace for friends
and family struggling with the deteriorating health of a parent,
·
a financial break
or two for myself and some friends,
·
one or both of my
books to sell in meaningful numbers
·
for me to be able
to make a living writing and/or speaking,
·
for some
resolution to the problems in the Middle East ,
·
that this once
great country get off the path to hell in a hand basket,
·
etc.
