Prayer works!
17th Sunday C
Cobh
27 July 2025
My friends,
“Ask, and it will be given to you;
Search, and you will find;
Knock, and the door will be opened to you.”
In Joseph Plunkett’s novel, Strumpet City, a novel set in Dublin’s inner city during a time of great poverty; there’s a character called Rashers Tierney. Rashers was in poor health. In fact, he was dying. One of his mates said to him, “When you die and knock on God’s door, what will he say to you?” Rashers emaciated face lit up and he said, “God will say, ‘Come on in, Rashers, I know your knock’.”
It's an endearing observation on the nature of prayer – the intangible mystery of the intimacy that comes from our faith and trust in God.
The big question for many ‘round the experience of prayer is what’s the point of it? What use is it? It’s an understandable question in a time that focuses so much on results and productivity. It is of course a misguided question which comes from a misunderstanding of the nature of prayer. If we understand our prayer as a form of barter between us and God, we’ll have missed the point.
All the scripture readings today together point to two key elements of all prayer – that of God’s fidelity, the Lord hears our prayer – the Lord is ever patient, merciful and loving of each of us who place our trust in Him. The other element is the call to fidelity and perseverance in our prayer, whereby, we respond in love to the abiding presence of God. While the readings today speak of prayer the Responsorial Psalm is a prayer - indeed a beautiful personal prayer – really worth revisiting.
In the Gospel reading from St.Luke you have a disciple having seen Jesus praying asked that he teaches them to pray. His response is the Our Father which is the model for all prayer.
We begin with praise and thanksgiving
We pray for the personal needs of daily bread
We ask for forgiveness for our sinfulness
And the strength and generosity to forgive in turn
These simple and clear spiritual insights take us to the heart of the Christian life, to the grace that comes to us through our sincerity and devotion.
We should add that prayer has often gotten a bad name because of the lack of sincerity and attention. Prayers rattled off without regard or attention are just noise – they are like booming gongs or clashing cymbols (St. Paul to the Corinthians).
In that regard we realise that we ran pray effectively without words – indeed silence and inner quiet are what really helps us to consciously place ourselves, our inner self, in the presence of God – often in a designated sacred space like this beautiful Cathedral but often equally in a favourite place in nature which helps evoke the presence of the divine in life.
The final point for us who seek to walk the Christian way, the path of pilgrims is our need for shared prayer as an expression of solidarity in faith and in life. We know how important our gathering for Mass is to us – but there are many whose lives are poorer for giving up their religious practice. There are many ills that have befallen individuals and families because the thorns and briars of daily demands have choked the echo of the life-giving words of Jesus.
“Ask and it will be given to you
Search and you will find
Knock and the door will be opened to you.”
