In St. John's Gospel, the man
born blind said, “Now we know that God doth not hear sinners: but
if a man be a server of God, and doth his will, him he heareth.”
So is it true that the Bible teaches that God does not hear sinners? No, this is
not true, according to St. Alphonsus Liguori:
But a person might say, I
am a sinner, and God does not hear sinners, as we read in St. John's
Gospel: God does not hear sinners [Jn,
9:31]. I answer, that these words were not spoken by our Lord, but
by the man who had been born blind. And the proposition, if taken
absolutely, is false; there is only one case in which it is true, as
St. Thomas says, and that is when sinners pray as sinners, that is,
ask something that they require to assist them in their sin. As, for
instance, if a man asked God to help him to take vengeance on his
enemy; in such cases God certainly will not hear.
But
when a man prays and asks for those things that are requisite for his
salvation, what matters it whether he is a sinner or not? Suppose he
were the greatest criminal in the world, let him only pray, he will
surely obtain all that he asks. The promise is general for all men,
everyone that seeks, obtains: Everyone that asketh
receiveth [Luke:11;10]. “It
is not necessary,” says St. Thomas, “that the man who prays
should merit the grace for which he asks. By prayer we obtain even
those things which we do not deserve.”
In
order to receive, it is enough to pray. The reason is (in the words
of the same holy Doctor), “merit is grounded on justice, but the
power of prayer is grounded on grace.” The power of prayer to
obtain what we ask does not depend on the merit of the person who
prays, but on the mercy and faithfulness of God, who has
gratuitously, and of his own mere goodness, promised to hear the man
who prays to him. When we pray it is not necessary that we should be
friends of God in order to obtain grace; indeed, the act of prayer,
as St. Thomas says, makes us friends” “Prayer itself makes us of
the family of God.”
And
Jesus Christ, to give us more encouragement to pray, and to assure us
of obtaining grace when we pray, has made us that great and special
promise: Amen, amen I say to you, if you ask the Father
anything in My name, He will give it to you
[John 16:23]. As though he had said, come sinners you have no merits
of your own for which My Father should listen to you. But this is
what you must do, when you want grace, ask for it in My name, and
through My merits, and I promise you (“Amen, amen I say to you,”
amounts to a kind of oath) you may depend on it, that whatever you
ask you shall obtain from My Father: Whatever you ask He
will give it to you.
Oh
what a sweet consolation for a poor sinner, to know that his sins are
no hindrance to his obtaining every grace he asks for, since Jesus
Christ has promised that whatever we ask of God, through his merits,
he will grant it all!
Ask for temporal goods
profitable to our souls.
It
is, however, necessary to understand that Our Lord's promise to hear
our prayers does not apply to our petitions for temporal goods, but
only to those for spiritual graces necessary, or at any rate, useful,
for the salvation of the soul; so that we can only expect to obtain
the [profitable] graces which we ask in the name and through the
merits of Jesus Christ, as we said just now. “But,” as St.
Augustine says, “if we ask anything prejudicial to our salvation,
it cannot be said to be asked in the name of the Savior.” That
which is injurious to salvation cannot be expected from the Savior;
God does not and cannot grant it. And why? Because he loves us.
Many
people ask for health or riches, but God does not give them, because
he sees they would be an occasion of sin, or at least of growing
lukewarm in his service. So when we ask these temporal gifts, we
ought always to add this condition, if they are profitable to our
souls. And when we see that God does not give them, let us rest
assured that he refuses them because he loves us, and because he sees
that the things which we ask would only damage our spiritual
well-being.
So, I
repeat, all temporal gifts which are not necessary for salvation
ought to be asked conditionally; and if we see that God does not give
them, we must feel sure that he refuses them for our greater good.
But with regard to spiritual graces, we must be certain that God
gives them to us when we ask him. St. Teresa says that God loves us
more than we love ourselves. And St. Augustine has declared that God
has a greater desire to give us his grace, than we have to receive
it. And after him, St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi said that God feels a
kind of obligation to the soul that prays, and, as it were, says to
it, “Soul, I thank thee that thou askest me for grace.” For then
the soul gives him an opportunity of doing good to it, and of thus
satisfying his desire of giving his grace to all.
Perseverance
in Prayer.
Let
us pray then, and let us always be asking for grace, if we wish to be
saved. Let prayer be our most delightful occupation; let prayer be
the exercise of our whole life. And when we are asking for
particular graces, let us always pray for the grace to continue to
pray in the future, because if we leave off praying we shall be lost.
Let us pray, then, and let us always shelter ourselves behind the
intercession of Mary: “Let us seek for grace, and let us seek it
through Mary, “ says St. Bernard. And when we recommend ourselves
to Mary, we can be sure she hears us and obtains for us whatever we
want. Let us then in our prayers always invoke Jesus and Mary, let
us never neglect to pray. If you pray you will be certainly saved.
Eternal
Father, I humbly adore thee, and thank thee for having created me,
and for having redeemed me through Jesus Christ. If Thou does not
constantly guard and succor me with thy aid, I, a miserable creature,
shall return to sin, and shall certainly lose thy grace. I beseech
Thee, for the love of Jesus Christ, to grant me holy perseverance
until death. Through the merits, then, of Jesus Christ, I beg for
myself and for all the just, the grace never again to be separated
from Thy love, but to love thee forever, in time and eternity. Mary,
Mother of God, pray to Jesus for me.
Excerpts
from “A short treatise on Prayer”, pp. 440-447, in the book by
St. Alphonsus de Liguori, The Way of Salvation and
Perfection.
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