20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Homily for 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A: God's Silence in Prayer
​Readings here: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082017.cfm

What do we do when God is silent to our prayers?
 
In the short time that I have been at San Jose, I have already known several who could relate to the woman in the Gospel today. Whether it be sick children or children who have left the faith, they plead to the Lord with many prayers, but God responds with silence.
 
Perhaps it’s not your kids that cause you to call upon the Lord like the woman in the Gospel today. Perhaps it’s for your friend, or for yourself. Perhaps times are tough and jobs are scarce. Perhaps patterns of sin continue getting the best of you. You call upon the Lord, but nothing changes.
 
What do we do when God is silent to our prayers?
 
The woman in the Gospel today made a good request. Her daughter was being oppressed by a demon, and she wanted Jesus to spare her of that suffering. That is a good desire; she’s not asking for anything evil. Yet Scripture tells us, “But he did not say a word in answer to her.”
 
This is Jesus we are talking about. Jesus, who went to the lengths of a torturous death so that we might be saved from our sins. There is no measuring his love for each one of us. There is no measuring his love for the woman in the Gospel, and yet, he did not say a word in answer to her.
 
What do we do when God is silent to our prayers?
 
The Gospel relates that the woman kept calling after Jesus. She kept making her prayer known. She was persistent. When God is silent to our prayers, we keep praying. Elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus tells us, “Ask and you will receive. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you.” Jesus encourages us to have persistence in prayer. Keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking.
 
But why? Jesus knows we are asking for something good. Why go through the trouble of asking over and over again?
 
Let me propose a possible response to this hard question.
 
The Gospel shows us that two good things come from persistence in prayer. Humility and faith. By asking, and seeking, and knocking, we grow in humility and faith.
 
The woman responds to Jesus, “Even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” She recognizes that Jesus does not owe her anything, and she’s willing to compare herself to a dog who begs. This is great humility.
 
Without humility, we can’t receive any of the other good things that God wants to give us. We can think of God’s grace, what He wants to give us, like the rain that falls from the sky. Rain slides right down a steep hill, but it fills up a deep valley. In a similar way, God’s grace slides right down the person puffed up with pride, but it fills the heart of one who lowers himself in humility.
 
Without having to persist in humble prayer, we might think that God simply owes us what we want, and in our pride, we would never receive what we truly need.
 
And what do we truly need? Faith. The second good thing. Persistence in prayer strengthens our faith.
 
Jesus responds to the woman, “O woman, great is your faith!” The silence of Jesus not only revealed the woman’s humility, it strengthened her faith. And what could be more valuable than faith? Faith is the path to salvation, to eternal communion with God, to perfect happiness.
 
Elsewhere in the Gospel, when four friends lowered a paralytic through the roof so that Jesus would heal him, Jesus responded, “Your sins are forgiven.” … That’s probably not what his friends were expecting, but THAT IS why Jesus came. He wants to give us something more valuable than earthly health; He wants to give us eternal health. He wants to give us salvation.
 
Many around Jesus balked at him when He claimed to forgive the man’s sins, and Jesus knew their thoughts. So in order to help them believe that He can forgive sins, in order to give them faith, Jesus worked a miracle. The Scripture reads: 
 
Jesus immediately knew in his mind what they were thinking to themselves, so he said, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth”—he said to the paralytic, “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.”


The miracle was for the sake of faith. He used the miracle to arouse faith. Faith is Jesus’ goal. It’s more valuable than even our physical health because it is our path to heaven, to communion with God, to perfect happiness.
 
In a similar way to the miracle that Jesus used to arouse the faith of those around him, He can also use silence to build up our faith. When God’s response to our prayers is silence, we turn to him with greater need, with greater fervor, and doing so strengthens our faith – strengthens the greatest gift he could ever give us. Silence is not a break in God’s love for us; it is another moment of his love for us. 
 
His love is never-ending. The cross shows us that in every moment, God wants to give Himself to us.
 
So what do we do when God is silent to our prayers?
 
We trust that silence is not a break in His love for us; it is another moment of his love for us. And we keep praying. Through humility and faith, God is working the unseen miracle that is more valuable than even a physical healing. He is working our salvation.