The Pharisees’ Request

Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time A-1

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 31 (30):3-4 Be my protector, O God, a mighty stronghold to save me. For you are my rock, my stronghold! Lead me, guide me, for the sake of your name.

Collect O God, who teach us that you abide in hearts that are just and true, grant that we may be so fashioned by your grace as to become a dwelling pleasing to you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: James 1:1-11; Psalm 119:67, 68, 71, 72, 75, 76; Mark 8:11-13

The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply and said, Why does this generation demand a sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it. Then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side. (Mark 8:11-13)

The Pharisees’ Request One of the most striking and consoling teachings of our Lord in the Gospels is his teaching on prayer. He tells us that we are to approach our heavenly Father with confidence and persistence. Ask and you will receive, he assures us. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. Then he tells a parable of the widow who importunately persisted with her demands of the unjust judge and gained her requests. We too are to be persistent with our heavenly Father. St Alphonsus Ligouri writes that the reason why we do not receive a lot more from God our Father is that we ask so little of him, and he goes on to say that the prayer of petition is crucial for our very salvation. But now, there are times in the Gospels when our Lord does not grant petitions. For instance — and this is a petition presented to him by those who loved him dearly — he was once approached by the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her two sons in order to ask a favour of him. What do you want me to do for you? he asked. Grant that these two sons of mine receive first places at your side in your kingdom. Our Lord did not grant that request, even when they assured him — and he confirmed their assurance — that they would share in his “baptism” of suffering. But in fact, by his assurance he was granting them that greater favour of suffering and dying with him in the future. On a later occasion, during his Passion, our Lord was hauled before King Herod, and Herod had a request too. He wanted our Lord to perform a sign. He wanted to be entertained. All he received from our Lord was a profound silence. Our Lord refused so much as to speak to him. So, for a variety of reasons, some requests are unavailing. In our Gospel passage today (Mark 8:11‑13) we have something similarly awry. The Pharisees, no less, come to him with a request. Their request was that he perform a sign — not as entertainment, but as a test. What did they receive from our Lord? All they got was a profound sigh, in effect telling them that their case was virtually hopeless. Their request received a stony silence and, furthermore, our Lord’s immediate departure from them.

All through the Gospels our Lord is shown to be granting requests. People come to him with their afflictions and he heals them. A person comes telling him of someone they love who has actually died. Our Lord gives back that person alive and well. The blind see, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised. Our Lord is revealing not just the power of God but the kindness of God and his readiness to hear our prayers. As St John expresses it, the works of Christ are signs. But it is also very clear that in all our petitions we must address them to God recognizing that he is God. Anything you ask the Father in my name, our Lord assures us, he will grant. Indeed, anything you ask me, I will do. But our prayer must be true prayer, expressed with a lively sense of who we are and of who God is, otherwise we are addressing an idol of our own creation and not the living God who has revealed himself in Jesus. Now, granted this and on this basis, we ought fill up our lives with earnest petitionary prayer. Consider all that we need to pray for! Think of the members of our own families, our parents, our brothers and sisters, our children. Think of their material and spiritual welfare that needs so much the care and help of God. Think of all those we have known who have died and who await our prayers that their period of purification will be hastened and that they will be admitted into God’s presence in heaven. Let us pray for the dead. There is no doubt that great numbers would be in Purgatory — that stage of purification from the effects of sin prior to entrance into the all‑holy presence of God for eternity. They depend on our prayers for they are unable to merit, now that life for them has ended. Think of the vast numbers who have no one to pray for them either in this life or in the next. Prayer is our most powerful weapon because in it we are enlisting the aid of the great God himself, Creator and Lord of all.

Let our Lord’s response to the request of the Pharisees remind us of prayer and of our Lord’s teaching on prayer. How abundantly he answered the prayers of those who approached him! But we must pray properly and approach Christ with the right dispositions. Let us ask our Lord to teach us to pray so that our prayer may serve his interests and those for whom he died. Our true prospects depend on our prayer, and the one who prays for others serves mankind greatly.

(E.J.Tyler)

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