His word Today: Persistence

Good morning everyone,

Today's gospel passage places us with Jesus amidst a crowd of people who had gathered.  Some of them had heard that he was back in town and had probably come to visit, others may have heard about his deep concern for those who are sick, so perhaps they had come hoping that he would grant them a cure as well.  I think that some of the crowd was probably also made up of people who were just curious.  Have you ever seen a crowd of people gathering somewhere, and stopped or slowed down as you pass by, hoping to catch a glimpse of the action?

In the midst of the crowd, we find a group of friends who perhaps had witnessed Jesus' miracles.  They came bringing a paralytic (Mk 2:3).  It must have been quite a struggle for them to get close to the place where Jesus was.  They would have had to make their way through the crowd, and I'm willing to bet that at least some in the crowd wouldn't have been too willing to allow them to pass by.  Nevertheless, they made their way toward the house.  Perhaps they recognized that it would have been impossible for them to get close to the door, but they were determined to get their friend to Jesus.  They were resourceful!  They climbed up on the roof and tore a hole so that they could lower their friend into the house where he could get close to Jesus (cf Mk 2:4-5).

Like those friends, we too come to the Lord in prayer.  We bring our own friends, family members and relations to the Lord in prayer, but sometimes it seems difficult for us to believe that God is truly listening to us, almost as though we have to fight through the obstacles that keep us at a distance from him.  It takes some creativity and a bit of patience for us to realize that the bonds of trust between us and Jesus are indeed intact, even if it might seem that our prayers are not answered right away.

Those friends had to be creative in order to get close to Jesus, to present their prayers to him, and so must we.  If we ourselves have doubts about whether Jesus will hear our prayers, let us ask him to strengthen our ability to persist.  With the gift of persistence in our prayer, we can be creative in our approaches when we come to Him, and we can find it within ourselves never to give up until we succeed in speaking with Him about our deepest desires.

Have a great day.