p. 15Prayer Is All-Powerful

“AMEN, amen I say to you, if you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you. . . . Ask and you shall receive” (John 16. 23, 24).

Who but a divine Person could have made so generous a promise and been able and absolutely reliable to keep it faithfully? But this is not a mere promise, for its very wording shows that it is equivalent to an obligation taken, so to say, under oath, for such seems to be the meaning of the expression “Amen, amen” (in truth, in truth), which our divine Saviour used whenever He wished to emphasize His words. Moreover, this wonderful promise, though addressed on this occasion only to the apostles, who were then alone present, is made to all men without exception, for Jesus, on another occasion, made no restriction of persons, but said plainly: “Every one that asketh, receiveth, and he that seeketh, findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened” (Mat. 7. 8). Nothing is excepted, when we ask, or pray, in the name of Jesus Christ: “Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My name, that will I do” (John 14. 13). “You shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15. 17).

Both the Old and the New Testaments are full of examples of the efficacy, of the unlimited power of prayer. Let us examine a few instances. Josue, who led the Israelites in the conquest of the Promised Land, seeing on one occasion that the day was too short to enable the Israelites to reap the fruits of their victory, prayed to God and commanded the sun, which was about to set, to stand still; and the sun obeyed and remained above the horizon, and did not set until the victory was complete, “the Lord,” says Scripture, “obeying the voice of man” (Jos. 10. 44). Some time previous to this occasion, when the Israelites, under the leadership of Moses, were on their way to the Promised Land, the Amalecites barred the way, and a battle ensued. Whilst Josue was with the army giving battle, Moses was praying on a neighboring hill for the success of the Israelites; “and when Moses lifted up his hands (to heaven), Israel overcame; but if he let them down a little (slackened in his prayer), Amalec overcame. And the hands of Moses were heavy; so they (his companions) took a stone, and he sat in it, and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands on both sides; and his hands were not weary until sunset. And Josue put Amalec and his people to flight” (Exod. 17. 10-13). We learn from King David how powerful prayer is to obtain forgiveness for the sinner. David had committed two great crimes and thereby given great scandal to the whole nation. When he had been made aware of p. 16the extent of his guilt, he repented most sincerely and earnestly and bitterly implored the mercy of God, and obtained forgiveness. It was by prayer that the pious king Ezechias, when dangerously ill, obtained the prolongation of his life, as we read in the thirty-ninth chapter of the Prophet Isaias: “In those days Ezechias was sick even to death, and the prophet Isaias said to him: Thus saith the Lord: Take order with thy house, for thou shalt die and not live. And Ezechias turned his face towards the wall, and prayed to the Lord. Then God sent Isaias again to him to say to him: I have heard thy prayer: behold I will add to thy days (life) fifteen years.” In like manner, the same King Ezechias, when Sennacherib with an army of two hundred thousand soldiers was laying siege to Jerusalem, had recourse to prayer for help and deliverance, and his prayer was granted, for God sent an angel at night into Sennacherib’s camp, and the angel slew one hundred and eighty-five thousand of his soldiers. Manasses was a very wicked king of the Jews. In punishment of his evil deeds he was conquered, captured and cast into a dungeon; there he repented of his crimes, prayed to God for mercy, and was forgiven and even recovered his kingdom. God sent the prophet Jonas to threaten Nineve with destruction on account of its wickedness. But at Jonas’ preaching the Ninevites did penance and prayed God for mercy, and thereby escaped destruction. Judith by her prayer obtained the opportunity and the courage to save her city Bethulia from capture and destruction. It was by prayer that the three heroic young men cast into a glowing furnace at Babylon were wonderfully saved from being burned to death, that Tobias and Sara were freed from their misfortunes, that Esther obtained the safety of her people, that Daniel remained unhurt in the lions’ den, and that the chaste Susanna obtained the proof of her innocence and thus saved both her reputation and her life.

In the New Testament the proofs of the boundless power of prayer are almost countless, especially in the cures Jesus Christ effected in answer to prayer. In the Acts of the Apostles we read that St. Peter was on the eve of being put to death for the faith, but was miraculously freed from prison and death by an angel, for the whole Church was praying for his deliverance. The first conversion among the pagans to the Christian religion was that of the centurion Cornelius and his household, as the angel told him; it was in answer to his prayers and alms-deeds. That St. Peter restored the holy woman Dorcas to life after her death was owing to the prayers gratefully offered for her by the poor women who had been the recipients of her charity (Acts 9. 36-41).

The psalmist asks: “O God, Thou art terrible, and who shall resist Thee?” (Ps. 75. 8). Yes, God is terrible in punishing the wicked; He is almighty; and, nevertheless, there is one thing that p. 17can successfully resist, and even overcome His justice. It is an humble and earnest prayer. To such a prayer God’s infinite justice and power will yield, and the almighty God Himself is compelled by such prayer to show mercy. One of the most beautiful examples of this power of prayer over God Himself is given us by Moses. Whilst Moses was spending on Mount Sinai forty days in fasting and prayer, communing with God and receiving from Him the tables of the Ten Commandments and the necessary directions to draw up the Old Law for the Israelites, these latter fell into idolatry, adoring the golden calf and imitating the idolatrous rites and orgies of the pagans. “God said to Moses: Go, get thee down; thy people whom thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, hath sinned. They have quickly strayed from the way, which thou didst show them; and they made themselves a molten calf, and have adored it and sacrificed victims to it. . . . Let Me alone, that My wrath may be kindled against them, and that I may destroy them.” Why does God ask Moses to let Him alone and not to prevent Him from destroying the Israelites? What could Moses do against God’s will and His almighty power? Of himself he could do nothing! But Moses could pray for the Israelites and implore God to forgive them. The very words of God were a sufficient hint to Moses about the power he could wield in restraining God’s justice and obtaining mercy for the idolatrous people. Moses took the hint and “besought the Lord, saying: Why, O Lord, is thy indignation enkindled against Thy people? . . . Let Thy anger cease, and be appeased upon the wickedness of Thy people. . . . And the Lord was appeased from doing the evil which He had spoken against His people” (Exod. 32. 1-14). This clearly shows us the almighty power of prayer, that its power is so great as to be able to stay the divine justice irritated against the sinner, and, as it were, to compel God to show him mercy, however numerous and enormous his sins may be. Wherefore St. Augustine says: “In order to escape the punishments of God’s justice, we sinners have only to pray to Him for mercy.” Prayer is, as it were, more powerful than God Himself, since it is able to overcome Him. Our confidence in prayer should, therefore, know no bounds.

Our salvation, under one aspect, is entirely God’s work; under another aspect, we may even assert, that it depends entirely on ourselves. In the first place, we may consider it as entirely God’s work. As we have seen in Chapter I, without God’s grace we cannot have even a good thought, a good desire, invoke God’s help or even the name of Jesus, nor can we do anything good or keep the commandments without God’s grace. Wherefore St. Paul says expressly: “It is God who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish” (Phil. 2. 13). Hence without God’s grace we cannot have even the desire to be saved, to pray to Him to help us, or to p. 18accomplish our salvation by the performance of good works and the keeping of the commandments. Therefore, under this aspect, our salvation would depend wholly on God.

Secondly, God’s grace alone, though in itself infinitely powerful, cannot save us, for we are rational and free beings, and not mere machines, and God will not save us against our will, for He has endowed us with a free will and ever respects our free will and never will deprive it of its freedom. To be saved, we must have the sincere desire, the will to be saved. If we have this and nourish this sincere desire, this will, we shall devote ourselves to the work of our salvation, and finding the work above our weak, unaided efforts, we shall pray God to help us in this most arduous work, and the more earnest and persistent our prayer, the more powerful will be His help, and His help added to our own earnest exertions will enable us to secure our place in heaven for all eternity. Therefore, our salvation is, under this aspect all in our own power. The desire of our salvation, our own efforts and labor, and God’s necessary help being the result of our prayers, all these are therefore ours. Hence if we are not saved, but are lost, we shall have only ourselves to blame for not having done what we could do to be saved. Wherefore, God says to the lost sinner: “Destruction is thy own (work), O Israel; thy help is only in Me” (Osee 13. 9). To do our share in the work of our salvation, we need to have the earnest desire, the firm determination to be saved, cost what it may. If we lack this earnest desire, this firm determination, let us persistently pray God for it, and He will grant it to us.