We Have a Dad (part 1 of 5)

WE HAVE A DAD (part 1 of 5)
the infallibility of prayer

We sometimes tend to doubt if God really hears our prayers, or that He listens to us and will grant our petitions. Yet Jesus assures us: “Whatever you ask in My name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (Jn 14:13). This is the newness of prayer in the New Covenant, as modeled to us by our Lord. He wants us to go to God as our Father.

Of course Jesus is the only co-eternal Son of God (by nature). He revealed to us his unique relationship with the Father. “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.” (Mt 11:27). But after his Resurrection Jesus tells Mary Magdalene: “...go and tell my brethren, I am ascending to My Father and YOUR Father, to my God and your God.” (Jn 20:17) Why? Because by his Redemption he merited for us the Holy Spirit Who unites us to him making us his brethren, children of God by grace. And so we dare to say “Our Father…” For “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Gal 4:6).

One holy preacher put it this way. Consider a carpenter who built a table. Now that table is, in a loose sense, his creation. But what if he tells that table, “call me dad”. Yet that is what God our CREATOR asks of us, His creatures– to call Him Dad, and relate to Him as His dear children.

Now consider the implications of this gift of FILIAL ADOPTION. All throughout the gospels Jesus reveals to us his eternal, unique, and intimate relationship to the Father. “His exclamation, ‘Yes, Father!’, expresses the depth of his heart, his adherence to the Father's good pleasure…” (CCC 2603). And in his prayer he says: “‘Father, I thank you for having heard me’, which implies that the Father always hears his petitions.” (CCC 2604). And even more he says “the Father and I are one” (Jn 10:30). This reveals to us the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, the inner life of ‘knowing and loving’ within the Godhead, to which we are invited. Thus the Catechism teaches that the Blessed Trinity is the central mystery of our Faith and life. And again, “the ultimate purpose of the divine economy is the entry of God's creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity. (CCC 260, cf. Jn 17:21-23)

Indeed we are invited to this inner life of God through the gift of filial adoption. We are children of God by grace. This is not symbolic but real.The gift of the Holy Spirit Who is God is real. In our filial adoption we get the GENES, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, God Himself; unlike in civil adoption where the paperwork doesn't give us a real share in the life of the adopting parents. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit unites us to Jesus, making us adopted children of the Father (IN CHRIST).

The question now is: do we have the dispositions of a true child of God? Jesus, in teaching us how to pray not only teaches the content but the dispositions of a true pray-er: “conversion of heart, reconciliation with one's brother…, purity of heart, and seeking the Kingdom before all else. This filial conversion is entirely directed to the Father.” (CCC 2608). “Once committed to conversion, the heart learns to pray in faith. Faith is filial adherence to God beyond what we feel and understand.” (CCC 2609). This should be our attitude toward our loving Father, a loving confidence which implies reverence and filial fear, but also FILIAL BOLDNESS.

On this we rest secure. Yet from experience we do not always get what we ask for. That is because prayer is also cooperation with God’s will. Jesus Himself prayed in his agony in the garden. Yet God did not spare him from the Cross, but instead raised him after three days. So also our prayers are always answered according to God's will. He may give us what we ask for, or he may delay, or he may give a substitute, or the answer is no, because it is not good for us. God sees everything, past, present, future. Nothing escapes the eyes of our loving Father. He knows best and wills the best for us.

If we human fathers, imperfect and selfish as we are, so love our children, whether we are expressive of it or not, and even if we sometimes have to give ‘tough love’, how much more does our infinitely perfect and loving Heavenly Father loves us. A preacher once shared his experience in his visit to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the streets of the Holy City he heard a boy calling ‘Abba, Abba’. Then as he turned he saw it was a little boy calling his dad. This deepened his understanding of our filial adoption.

And so let us ask anything, ask big time, like a child to his Dad, but in a spirit of total commitment to our loving Father's will. For prayer is cooperation with God’s will. Yes He is our God, our Lord, but He is also our Dad. And He is delighted when we call him  'Dad’.Those of us who are dads know this. And let us grow in our union with Jesus, for it is only in Christ that we can call God, ‘Abba, (Dad, Papa) Father’.