Prayer is Hope

Gospel: Luke 18: 1-8

There are moments in our individual lives when the struggles we face and the difficulties we endure seem so overwhelming that we find ourselves near despair.  We find ourselves burdened by our own imperfections; our desire to do and be better fail time and again.  But we remember the stories of the man born blind, the woman with a blood loss, the man at the pool, the demoniac - all who struggled for so long and finally found healing in the person of Jesus.  These stories give us hope for ourselves.

There are times as a community of people when we encounter great forces of evil that threaten so many. We find ourselves close to despair at the enormity of the evil we face in the world.  But we remember the parables of Jesus: the mustard seed, the vineyard, the fig tree. No authentic good comes overnight. It takes time and perseverance.  It begins with the planting of some good deed which stands as a witness against the evil all around us.  We light a candle rather than curse the darkness.

So we begin again with prayer.  To pray is to hope for a better world, to hope that one day I myself might be the best version of myself.  To pray is to dig the hole that will hold the seed of good that you will plant in the world, the good that will stand against the evil that besets us as individuals and communities.  For one day, the good that you plant will overcome the evil we face, and we remember it all began with that prayer, that hope, that hole we dug for a better world.