Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year C John 17,20-26

Brothers and sisters, today, as we listen to the words of the Holy Gospel, we find ourselves together with the apostles in Jerusalem in the Upper Room on the eve of the Passion of the Lord Jesus, at the moment when he instituted the sacrament of love, the Eucharist. It is Jesus’ farewell to the apostles, and he recites his high priestly prayer, a short part of which we have just heard. The Lord Jesus often prayed and willingly, frequently withdrawing to a deserted place, especially in the evening, and he prayed until morning. For him, prayer was like breathing. Surely it was also an experience for the apostles to see the Lord Jesus in prayer, and they asked him to teach them to pray, and he taught them and us the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus Christ, in his prayers, asked his Heavenly Father to bless the people to whom he preached the Gospel, so that the message he proclaimed would penetrate their hearts. At the same time, he gives us an example of how we should pray.

If we realize what an immense blessing prayer is, we would pray without ceasing. For it is through prayer that we encounter God, speak to God, and listen to God’s voice. We pray with words but much more with silence. We pray at work, on the road, at home, in church, and in the hospital. We pray in the morning, during the day, in the evening, and at night, in moments of joy and pain.

Furthermore, we pray with our hearts, with our mouths, by reciting prayers, and with our own words, through meditation and contemplation. We pray at every age: children, young people, adults, and the elderly. The poor and the rich, the educated and the uneducated, pray; all who want to be saved pray. For without prayer, we cannot attain salvation. Our salvation depends on prayer. If we do not neglect prayer, we will surely be saved, but our damnation is inevitable if we do not pray. Those who pray receive the necessary grace from God and are saved. All the saints were saved and became saints because they prayed; all the damned were damned because they did not pray. This is the source of the greatest despair in hell, the thought of how easily they could have been saved if they had prayed. Let us remember how the Lord Jesus encourages us: “Ask and you shall receive, seek, and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you!” (Lk 11:9) “Ask, and it will be given to you!” (Jn 15:7). Someone may object, “I pray a lot, and yet I have not received from God what I ask for.” The Apostle James explains this: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly.” (James 4:3). Yes, not all prayer is the same. Those who want to pray well must observe several conditions.

First, prayer must be humble, because: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6). The prayer of the humble soul immediately penetrates heaven before God’s throne and does not return unheard. However sinful a person may be, God cannot reject the prayer of a heart that humbles itself and repents for its sins: “God, you do not despise a contrite and humiliated heart!” (Psalm 51:19).

Second, prayer must be full of trust. The Lord told Saint Gertrude that whoever begs him with confidence does violence to him in a certain way, but it is kind and pleasant violence, so he cannot not hear him. So it is enough to pray confidently for what we desire to receive from God. When the Lord puts so much on our hearts to ask for the necessary graces, wouldn’t he want to give them to us?

Third, prayer must be persistent. The grace of salvation is not a one-time grace, but a chain of graces that are then united with the grace of perseverance in good until the end. God commands us to ask and grieve when we do not ask him. The Lord wants to save us and give us all graces for salvation, but at the same time, he wants us to be persistent and persistent in prayer; therefore, through the holy apostle Paul, we receive encouragement: “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

The Lord wants us to pray all the time, always ask him for help, this is how we should act not only in the morning when we get up from bed, but often during the day when we are present at Holy Mass, during meditation, at thanksgiving after Holy Communion, during the visit of the Blessed Sacrament to the church, during the evening examination of conscience. Let us pray at a time of various temptations, especially when it is a temptation against purity. Whoever flees to God, invoking the holy names of the Lord Jesus and the Virgin Mary, will not so easily fall into sin. So let us pray and seek God’s grace to save ourselves. May prayer be the most valuable thing for us, and may it become our lifelong activity so that at the end of life, we can say, as the first martyr, Stephen, “I see heaven open…. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”