Jesus Teaches us to Petition
May 12, 1996
Brother John Raymond
For Jesus, to do the Father's will was the focus of all His
energy. He had a "loving adherence of His human heart to the mystery
of the will of the Father." (Catechism #2603) Jesus' will and the
Father's will were one. Even though this was so, Jesus constantly
offered up prayers of petition. We learn this from the miracle of
the raising of Lazarus from the dead. (Cf. Jn. 11:41-42) Before
actually raising Lazarus Jesus thanks His Father for having heard
His prayer. This tells us that Jesus must have already petitioned
His Father in prayer for this miracle. The fact that Jesus thanks
His Father before the event "implies that the Father always hears
His petitions." (#2604) Not only does His Father hear Him, Jesus
next says that His Father "always" hears Him. The catechism tells us
that implies "always" here that Jesus did, in fact, petition His
Father constantly. (#2604)
Jesus petitioning His Father might come as a surprise to us. But
we should keep in mind that "Jesus, the Word Who has become flesh,
shares by His human prayer in all that 'His brethren' experience."
(#2602)
We may question that the Father always heard Jesus' petition when
it seems He did not in the Garden of Olives. His petition there was,
"Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from me." (Lk. 22, 42)
We normally presume Jesus was referring to His Passion when He spoke
of "this cup." If He was, how can we say His petition was heard? St.
Thomas Aquinas, the great Angelic Doctor of the Church, attempts to
answer this. He begins with the fact that we know the human and
divine wills in Jesus could never disagree. Further, His human will
could never even waver in its agreement with the divine will. He
tells us this is because such a hesitation would have compromised
Jesus' perfect obedience that brought about our redemption. Having
established this, St. Thomas then makes a distinction in that we can
will something on three different levels. The will's desire
according to the senses naturally tends against suffering and death.
The will's desire according to the intellect necessarily seeks its
own good and is inclined against suffering and death also. So Jesus,
on these two levels of His will, could rightly say, "remove this
cup." But on the level of His will choosing a means to a goal, where
morality enters in, Jesus always chose His Father's will. Therefore,
we have the second part of Jesus' petition, "Nevertheless not my
will, but Yours be done."
Jesus' prayer of petition has something to tell us when we
petition. First, we should offer our petition with thanksgiving. Our
Father always hears us. This does not mean that He always grants our
petition. Unlike Jesus, our petition is not always in line with
God's will or the way we perceive His will in a certain
circumstance. But God will do something in response to a sincere
petition. There is no such thing as a wasted prayer. We can be
absolutely certain that God will do what is best. What God actually
does with our petition we may know only in heaven. Still, in faith,
we can always be thankful that our Father has listened and acted on
our petition.
Second, in offering thanks to His Father Jesus shows us that the
"Giver is more precious than the gift" when we petition for
something. (#2604) We can easily get caught up in what we have
received and forget about the One Who has granted our petition. When
Jesus cured the ten lepers only one came back to thank Him. (Lk. 17:
11-19) We should be like that one. The other nine were caught up in
the gift.
Finally, in petitioning the Father it would be good to conclude
with "Not my will but Yours be done." We should be willing, like
Jesus, always to do the Father's will.