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| Chapter XXXIV. Answer on the different reasons for prayer being heard.
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Chapter XXXIV.
Answer on the different reasons for prayer being
heard.
Isaac: That there are
different reasons for prayer being heard in accordance with the varied
and changing condition of souls the words of the gospels and of the
prophets teach us. For you have the fruits of an answer pointed out by
our Lord’s words in the case of the agreement of two persons; as
it is said: “If two of you shall agree upon earth touching
anything for which they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my
Father which is in heaven.”1630
You have
another in the fulness of faith, which is compared to a grain of
mustard-seed. “For,” He says, “if you have faith as a
grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain: Be thou
removed, and it shall be removed; and nothing shall be impossible to
you.”1631
You have it in
continuance in prayer, which the Lord’s words call, by reason of
unwearied perseverance in petitioning, importunity: “For, verily,
I say unto you that if not because of his friendship, yet because of
his importunity he will rise and give him as much as he
needs.”1632
You have it in
the fruits of almsgiving: “Shut up alms in the heart of the poor
and it shall pray for thee in the time of tribulation.”1633
You have it in the purifying of life
and in works of mercy, as it is said: “Loose the bands of
wickedness, undo the bundles that oppress;” and after a few words
in which the barrenness of an unfruitful fast is rebuked,
“then,” he says, “thou shalt call and the Lord shall
hear thee; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here am I.”1634
Sometimes also excess of trouble causes
it to be heard, as it is said: “When I was in trouble I called
unto the Lord, and He heard me;”1635
and again: “Afflict not the stranger for if he crieth unto Me, I
will hear him, for I am merciful.”1636
You see then in how many ways the gift
of an answer may be obtained, so that no one need be crushed by the
despair of his conscience for securing those things which are salutary
and eternal. For if in contemplating our wretchedness I admit that we
are utterly destitute of all those virtues which we mentioned above,
and that we have neither that laudable agreement of two persons, nor
that faith which
is
compared to a grain of mustard seed, nor those works of piety which the
prophet describes, surely we cannot be without that importunity which
He supplies to all who desire it, owing to which alone the Lord
promises that He will give whatever He has been prayed to give. And
therefore we ought without unbelieving hesitation to persevere, and not
to have the least doubt that by continuing in them we shall obtain all
those things which we have asked according to the mind of God.
For the Lord, in His desire to grant what is heavenly and
eternal, urges us to constrain Him as it were by our importunity, as He
not only does not despise or reject the importunate, but actually
welcomes and praises them, and most graciously promises to grant
whatever they have perseveringly hoped for; saying, “Ask and ye
shall receive: seek and ye shall find: knock and it shall be opened
unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh
findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened;”1637
and again: “All things whatsoever
ye shall ask in prayer believing ye shall receive, and nothing shall be
impossible to you.”1638
And therefore
even if all the grounds for being heard which we have mentioned are
altogether wanting, at any rate the earnestness of importunity may
animate us, as this is placed in the power of any one who wills without
the difficulties of any merits or labours. But let not any suppliant
doubt that he certainly will not be heard, so long as he doubts whether
he is heard. But that this also shall be sought from the Lord
unweariedly, we are taught by the example of the blessed Daniel, as,
though he was heard from the first day on which he began to pray, he
only obtained the result of his petition after one and twenty
days.1639
Wherefore we also ought not to grow
slack in the earnestness of the prayers we have begun, if we fancy that
the answer comes but slowly, for fear lest perhaps the gift of the
answer be in God’s providence delayed, or the angel, who was to
bring the Divine blessing to us, may when he comes forth from the
Presence of the Almighty be hindered by the resistance of the devil, as
it is certain that he cannot transmit and bring to us the desired boon,
if he finds that we slack off from the earnestness of the petition
made. And this would certainly have happened to the above mentioned
prophet unless he had with incomparable steadfastness prolonged and
persevered in his prayers until the twenty-first day. Let us then not
be at all cast down by despair from the confidence of this faith of
ours, even when we fancy that we are far from having obtained what we
prayed for, and let us not have any doubts about the Lord’s
promise where He says: “All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in
prayer believing, ye shall receive.”1640
For it is well for us to consider this saying of the blessed Evangelist
John, by which the ambiguity of this question is clearly solved:
“This is,” he says, “the confidence which we have in
Him, that whatsoever we ask according to His will, He heareth
us.”1641
He bids us then
have a full and undoubting confidence of the answer only in those
things which are not for our own advantage or for temporal comforts,
but are in conformity to the Lord’s will. And we are also taught
to put this into our prayers by the Lord’s Prayer, where we say
“Thy will be done,”—Thine not ours. For if we
also remember these words of the Apostle that “we know not what
to pray for as we ought”1642
we shall see
that we sometimes ask for things opposed to our salvation and that we
are most providentially refused our requests by Him who sees what is
good for us with greater right and truth than we can. And it is clear
that this also happened to the teacher of the Gentiles when he prayed
that the messenger of Satan who had been for his good allowed by the
Lord’s will to buffet him, might be removed, saying: “For
which I besought the Lord thrice that he might depart from me. And He
said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for strength is made
perfect in weakness.”1643
And this
feeling even our Lord expressed when He prayed in the
character1644
| 1644 Ex persona
hominis assumpti. The language is scarcely accurate, but it must be
remembered that the Conferences were written before the rise of the
Nestorian heresy had shown the need for exactness of expression on the
subject of the Incarnation. Compare the note on “Against
Nestorius,” Book III. c. iii. | of man which He
had taken, that He might give us a form of prayer as other things also
by His example; saying thus: “Father, if it be possible, let this
cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will but as Thou
wilt,”1645
though certainly
His will was not discordant with His Father’s will, “For He
had come to save what was lost and to give His life a ransom for
many;”1646
as He Himself
says: “No man taketh my life from Me, but I lay it down of
Myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it
again.”1647
In which
character there is in the thirty-ninth Psalm the following sung by the
blessed David, of the Unity of will which He ever maintained with the
Father: “To do Thy will: O My God, I am willing.”1648
For even if we read of the Father:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son,”1649
we find none the less of the Son:
“Who gave Himself for our sins.”1650
And as it is said of the One: “Who spared not His own Son, but
gave Him for all of us,”1651
so it is written
of the other: “He was offered because He Himself willed
it.”1652
And it is shown
that the will of the Father and of the Son is in all things one, so
that even in the actual mystery of the Lord’s resurrection we are
taught that there was no discord of operation. For just as the blessed
Apostle declares that the Father brought about the resurrection of His
body, saying: “And God the Father, who raised Him from the
dead,”1653
so also the Son
testifies that He Himself will raise again the Temple of His body,
saying: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it
up again.”1654
And therefore we
being instructed by all these examples of our Lord which have been
enumerated ought to end our supplications also with the same prayer,
and always to subjoin this clause to all our petitions:
“Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”1655
But it is clear enough that one who does
not1656
| 1656
“Non” though wanting in most mss. must be read in the text. | pray with attention of mind cannot observe
that threefold reverence1657
| 1657 Reading
“curvationis” with Petschenig: the text of Gazæus has
“orationis.” | which is usually
practised in the assemblies of the brethren at the close of
service.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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