Unanswered Prayers?

This Friday’s Gospel Reflection on John 14: 6-14 - 3 May 2024

     In the Gospel today, Jesus promises, “if you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it." (John 14:14 NABRE) Yet there have been times in my life when I have felt that my prayers just don’t seem to make it all the way to God’s ear. Though I have begun and ended my prayer with the sign of the cross and in the name of the most Blessed Trinity, my prayer seems unanswered. There are many who claim that “unanswered prayers” are in some way defective citing Old Testament text. Can you really pray wrongly such that God does not answer? Musician Garth Brooks seems to think so. In his song, Unanswered Prayers, Brooks sings,

Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers

Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs

And just because He may not answer doesn't mean He don't care

'Cause some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered ... prayers

(Brooks Unanswered Prayers)

     Although Brooks concludes that God doesn’t answer all prayers because He has something better in store; he nonetheless thinks there are prayers left, “unanswered.” Experience seems to bear this out. How many amid great tragedy pray earnestly and do not receive the answer they want? How many go to a community of friends and ask for prayers, and they are not answered as they would wish? How often do we, like the friends of Job, basically judge prayers are not answered because we, or the petitioner, have somehow earned God’s ire and He is “deaf” to the prayer. To this Job cries out in despair,

“Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand how I have erred.” (Job 6:24 NABRE)

     In the Gospel today, the Lord puts only one condition on our prayer, that we pray in His name, we go to Him who is love! He does not say, “I will only answer the prayers that have a correct intention”. He promises, “ask anything.” Jesus does not say that He will answer some prayers and not others. He tells us to ask Him and “I will do it”. Jesus assures us that EVERY prayer is answered. Thanks be to God, through the Holy Spirit, even the worst prayer from the greatest sinner is a perfect prayer. St Paul writes in his letter to the Romans,

… the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because it intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will. We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:26–28 NABRE)

     When we go to the Lord, He answers EVERY prayer. Though we may fail in the rightness of our intention; we fail in our battle against sin in our life; “we do not know how to pray as we ought;” God is always faithful. The Lord has given us the Holy Spirit, and “with inexpressible groanings” the Holy Spirit takes EVERY prayer and perfects it. Though the answer we receive may not immediately seem to be the answer we wanted, we are assured that the answer is always for our good and to God’s great purpose. (Romans 8:28)

     Like the intricate patterns of a tapestry, every event, every encounter, every challenge we face is part of a larger, divine design. The front of a tapestry is a thing of beauty. If you remove the backing from the tapestry, you see a tangle of colors, threads tied off, while some other threads weave in and out incomprehensibly. In the moment we pray, we often see only the back side of the tapestry. Our lives and our wants seem a tangled mess. It is often only in hindsight that we see God’s divine artistry in the answer we receive to EVERY prayer. Each answer is wondrously woven with care and beauty into the great tapestry of Love’s perfect plan.

     There is never, ever, such a thing as an unanswered prayer. God hears every word and answers each intention with perfect love. Dutch Concentration Camp survivor, Christian author, and speaker Corrie Ten Boom expressed this point in her poem, “Life is but a Weaving,”

My life is but a weaving

Between my God and me.

I cannot choose the colors

He weaveth steadily.

Oft’ times He weaveth sorrow;

And I in foolish pride

Forget He sees the upper

And I the underside.

Not ’til the loom is silent

And the shuttles cease to fly

Will God unroll the canvas

And reveal the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful

In the weaver’s skillful hand

As the threads of gold and silver

In the pattern He has planned

He knows, He loves, He cares;

Nothing this truth can dim.

He gives the very best to those

Who leave the choice to Him.

(Corrie Ten Boom “Life is but a Weaving”)

     God's greatest gifts come with every prayer. He answers each perfectly.

End Notes:

Garth Brooks – Unanswered Prayers. Genius. (n.d.). https://genius.com/Garth-brooks-unanswered-prayers-lyrics.

New American Bible. Revised Edition (NABRE). Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2011. Print.

Ten Boom, Corrie. (2018, February 22). “Life is but a Weaving” (the tapestry poem). The Poetry Place. https://thepoetryplace.wordpress.com/2018/02/21/life-is-but-a-weaving-the-tapestry-poem-by-corrie-ten-boom/