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“Then she prayed to the Lord, the God of Israel, saying, ‘My Lord, our King, you alone are God. Help me, who am alone and have no help but you for I am taking my life in my hand.” (Esther 4C:12)
God’s Word has power! Jonah converted the entire pagan city of Nineveh with what are in Hebrew, seven words, “Forty days more, and the Lord shall destroy Nineveh.” With seven words, Jonah changes the course of Nineveh’s history, and changes the relationship between its people and God.
Interesting, not with seven words, but in seven days, the Lord creates the universe, so giving us all a history and a relationship with him.
And from the cross, Jesus makes seven statements, speaks seven words that gave us a new relationship to God;
“Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”
“Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother.”
“I thirst.”
“Amen I say to you, this day you will be with me in paradise.”
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
“It is consummated.”
“Father, into your hands I commend my Spirit.”
When Queen Esther prayed to God, she was not able to see the power of God directly, but we see the power of her words, in the form of prayer.
Esther and her people, the Jews, are about to be exterminated by order of the King’s royal Vizier, Haman. Esther is the queen by marriage, although the King is unaware that she is also Jewish, so she is the only one that can stop this order. But if the King learns that she’s Jewish, he may order her execution as well.
Whose side will the King take; hers, or Haman’s? She doesn’t know.
And so after fasting for three days, Esther prays these words, “Help me, who am alone and have no help but you.” And the Lord does indeed answer her for the King takes Esther’s side. Then the King orders Haman to be hung on the very gallows he had erected for executing Esther’s uncle, Mordecai.
But what I used to ask myself about this story, and what you may be wondering yourself is, yeah, yeah, God answers prayers, but why does God sometimes wait until the last desperate minute to answer those prayer?
And the answer is, because very often, that’s when our prayers get really passionate, and really sincere.
Very often the only time when we get down on our knees, really down on our knees, spiritually down on our knees, is when we’re too weak and worn out to stand anymore.
Now this is not the ideal circumstance to pray under, but hey, from God’s perspective; whatever works.
God doesn’t will evil things to happen in our lives.
God doesn’t want us to go through life sad, or frightened.
But God can use those times to draw us closer to him.
Haven’t you ever had one of those times in your life when you promised God anything, as long as he’d help you out of a present turmoil? I think we’ve all done that at sometime in our lives. When you think about it; that was probably the most honest, sincere, prayer we’ve ever offered.
In the Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples to ask, seek, and knock.
Ask what? Ask the Lord anything and everything, because the Lord is a generous giver. The problem is we ONLY want to ask. We only want our needs met. There’s more to it than that. We have to seek.
Seek what? We have to seek to be good children of God. Jesus goes onto say, ‘If you sinners know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give to you?’
But do parents give things to their children when they’re good, or when they’re being brats? God is Father to a lot of brats, because we ONLY ask. We’re not seeking. We’re not seeking to be good children by seeking to be good brothers and sisters to our neighbors on earth.
And finally knock. At what? Knock at the doors of heaven to explore the Divine mysteries. That means Scripture reading, meditation, sacraments. In other words, embracing a spiritual lifestyle, because it’s in spirituality that we grow in our relationship with God. Think about it.
Parents love giving to their children, but what parent simply wants to be used by their children? No one. God, like any parent, wants a relationship.
Brothers and sisters, yes we must make time to pray, but we also have to work at making our prayers sincere, so God can bless us with every good thing.
And blessed be God forever.
Father Michael Anthony Sisco, Visitor to the Confraternity of Penitents
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Taken from: http://www.penitents.org/siscoEsther4.htm
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