Only A Prayer Away!

Thursday, October 9, 2025

Mal 3:13-20b; Lk 11:5-13

Today’s Gospel highlights that the goodness of God is the reason for persistence in prayer. 

The parable that Jesus gives us to explain persistence in prayer might sound strange because it appears to liken the reluctant friend to God Himself. But that is not true. 

Jesus employs the technique of contrast to show that God is not like the friend who is unwilling to help out his friend in need. Instead, Jesus insists that when we pray, we pray to a God who is good and who will certainly help us. 

The technique of contrast that Jesus employs clarifies things further. Through the example of the unwilling and reluctant friend, Jesus shows that we do not have to convince the good God to grant our wishes. Unlike the friend in the parable, the good God is already inclined to give us good things even before we ask.

Providing this clarification, Jesus wants us to hold on to God’s goodness because, when we pray, we do not knock on the door of someone unwilling to give us anything but on the heart of a loving Father who will grant all the good things we need, with or without us asking Him. 

Thus, Jesus underlines the fact that we do not have to wear God down with our endless requests or prayers. God is only a prayer away.

Hence, when we pray, we pray to a God who is already near. Jesus wishes that this thought emboldens us to cling to the good God always. 

Let us always submit ourselves in prayer, trusting in the infinite goodness of God.

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar