December is Busy, But Not Too Busy to Pray for a Person in Need
There is nothing as troubling as hearing about family and friends who, for whatever reason, are facing severe life events just weeks before Christmas. The timing is awful, but no time is good. It’s just that the upcoming celebration of the birth of Christ, customarily filled with pleasant memories of the past, must now share its time with less than enjoyable forthcoming days.
Illness or death never consult a calendar before unleashing their menace upon unsuspecting people. No one can predict when sickness or death will occur to those we know and love. The loss of health and life is not the trauma a person must face throughout his life. There is a job loss for a person who needs to support his family. Relationships sometimes explode at the least convenient times, regrettably causing permanent damage to both parties.
We all know cases like this and have been asked to be the ones who pray for those who are presently struggling. In the case of illness, it seems to be a knee-jerk reaction of the Christian to offer prayer, which is a good thing. But what should we pray for? A cure or miracle or a peaceful end of someone’s life? Do we ask God to help someone find a job or those in conflict to enter into some reconciliation? All of them, yes, all of them, because we do not know the mind nor the ultimate will of God for the person we are praying for. In other words, our prayers for them should never require proof of their effectiveness, and we leave that up to God.
If this is true, how do we know that our prayers are helping the person we are praying for? Probably, the best way to explain the spiritual phenomenon of prayer is through the eyes of a woman who received prayers from many of her friends and family members. Sophie is a middle-aged woman, wife, mother of four, sister, and aunt to others. She, like many people, found it difficult when her only living parent was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. Her mother dutifully followed her physician’s guidance with chemo sessions and the rest. Still, her condition nevertheless began to worsen until the fateful morning when her mother passed away in peace.
Until then, the daughter was repeatedly told how many people were praying for her mother. Although there was a flood of prayers going up to heaven, it didn’t seem to make any difference in her mother’s decline and did not save her from death.
At the wake and funeral, another round of thoughtful Christians, many the same who were praying while her mother was alive, shifted their focus to pray for the repose of the soul of her mother and added, this time, their prayers for Sophie and her extended family.
After admitting how much stress she was under during the whole episode with her mother, Sophie made an inspiring comment weeks later about prayer. She confessed she was anxious by nature, which often exacerbates trying moments. But this time, she said, she felt all the prayers people were sending to God on her behalf as a peaceful and secure envelope of God’s peace and presence around her.
Too often, we fail to realize that God is in charge, and our prayers for others can directly affect the outcome of severe situations. Still, they also, in a way, ask God to send his graces to the patient or those in need. Sophie explained this phenomenon as a real sense of peace and security that God (Emmanuel) was with her.
Sophie lived the Advent experience; we can, too, when we pray for those in need, especially during our busiest times.