Answered prayers

Throughout my life, I’ve often asked God: “When will my prayers be answered?”  “How will my prayers be answered?”

In Scripture, we see plenty of instances of God working through people to answer prayers.

In Genesis, we find Abraham, burying his wife, Sarah.  He believes what God has promised him, that his descendants will inherit the land and be as numerous as the stars.  So, he prays for the next generation, and enlists his trusted servant to find his son Isaac a suitable wife (Genesis 23:1-19).  This leads to a series of conversations; between Abraham and his servant, between the servant and God, between the servant and Rebekah, and with her family.  In the end, Rebekah agrees to leave her family and home, and go with the servant and marry Isaac (Genesis 24:1-67).

In the Gospel of Matthew, we hear Jesus call Matthew the tax collector to be one of His apostles.  Matthew agrees and invites Jesus to his home for dinner.  Matthew and his fellow tax collectors were despised social outcasts because they collaborated with the foreign occupying power, the Romans, to extract taxes from their own people.  Yet Jesus and the other apostles eat at their table and converse with them. Everyone there heard Jesus say: “I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” (Matthew 9:9-13).  Matthew changed his life and became a leader in the early Church after Jesus died.

Some doubt God’s presence working in our world today because they don’t see overt divine interventions.  Often in the Scriptures we see God working through ordinary people who were open and willing, who entered into conversations and built relationships.  Rebekah is revered as a matriarch in Judaism and Christianity, and St. Matthew is a pillar of the Christian faith.

We may ask ourselves: Are my conversations today building up community, and promoting justice and peace?  How am I the answer to someone’s prayer?