What kind of things does one expect from a priest? It seems a good question to ask  in this ‘Year for Priests’ and as a fellow priest, putting myself into the shoes of a lay person, I would expect priests to help me to know God. But, if a priest is not a person of God, then surely he cannot teach me about God; so therefore, another thing is the priest’s call to Godliness.

What about unanswered prayer? I have a friend who tells me that he is continually praying to God for his help, but never seems to be heard. This has not discouraged him in his quest for God, though I cannot  find any easy answers to his question. There is that ‘corny’ story about the Catholic priest who got very angry with God, because he had prayed and prayed to win the lottery, but God had never let him win.  I didn’t think this would be helpful – but, could it just be so? To take the story to its conclusion, one day God was really fed up with this priest pestering him, so, in the end, he answered the angry man directly: “It’s all very fine,” God said, “but you must do your part and at least buy a ticket occasionally!”

“You must do your part” is the key-phrase. But, if that is true, what then is our part when we are asking for help in difficult situations of betrayal, or loneliness or spiritual battles? I think it is our initial response and effort to join with God in what we are praying for, though our part is taken over by God who is in our response from the beginning. For instance, suppose we are praying for somebody (or even myself) who is in a bad way, say ill, or in financial difficulties, or in disgrace. Then we should not only pray but do our part, practically, to help our case in whatever we can. We must get involved in the answer to our own prayers, and that involvement may take us out of our ‘comfort zone’. If the living God is to help us, we must be prepared to change ourselves, and let God in.

In the Gospels, Jesus teaches that “whatever we ask in his name he will grant”. In his name?  What could that mean? Scholars of scripture and spiritual people tell us that this includes: being united with God, especially in prayer, and for us Catholics, if possible, in the Eucharist, and being reconciled with God in our neighbours. It may be that, sometimes, we think the latter is ‘impossible’, but at least in our hearts we can desire it, and pray for those people with whom there seems to be an irreconcilable break. Jesus also taught us to “love our enemies” after all.

A spiritual writer and priest put it so well: “To ask for something in Jesus’ name does not mean that we invoke him, verbally, and then go on  to desire whatever our turbulent, divided heart, appetite, or wretched mania for everything and anything, happens to hanker after”. That is going about things virtually two-faced.  No, asking in Jesus’ name means entering into him, living by him, being one with him in love and faith. When we pray in his name, what we ultimately pray for is for the Lord to grow in our lives, to fill our existence with himself, to triumph, to gather into one our scattered life”. This is why St. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans: “we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us, praying the one prayer “Abba, Father”.

A few weeks ago, at the Liverpool assembly for Justice and Peace, I met a committed Irish Doctor who helps asylum seekers. He asked me what motivated my life, and I told him that it was living for, and seeking after ‘unity’. When I said: “The start and, perhaps, the greatest challenge is to find that integrity and unity in myself, first of all”, I found him looking at me strangely. He then said: “That is the most difficult thing for us all,” and I then realised we were on the same ‘wave-length’. This is what is asked of us, and this is what can truly motivate our lives.

That priest and spiritual writer has helped me: he is what I would call a good, ordained priest, because he threw light onto my questioning friend about unanswered prayer. He must have been godly to write what he did above. And, it is not just ordained priests who can live out and act on these things – but also the lay person who is called to be a priest, a prophet and king.