25/06/2025
๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐?
๐
๐ซ. ๐๐ฆ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ฎ๐๐ฅ โ๐๐จ๐ง๐จโ ๐๐ฅ๐๐จ๐ง๐ฌ๐จ, ๐๐
Does God answer all our prayers? When I was still a seminarian, my eldest brother, had a stroke and went comatose. I remember Cardinal Chito Tagle then telling me that he had asked the Pink sisters in Tagaytay to pray for his immediate recovery. I was very touched. But then after sixteen hours, my brother passed on. The family was devastated of course, but in the midst of it all, I was perplexed, what happened to all our prayers for my brother, including the supposedly very powerful and persuasive prayers of the Pink sisters in Tagaytay?
Fast forward to 2017, this time it was my mom who was dying of cancer. Cardinal Chito again, a good friend that he was, told me that he had asked the Pink sisters to pray this time for my momโs recovery. He even sent me the miraculous mantle of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I joked to him, โ๐ค๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ต๐๐ โ๐๐, โ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ข๐๐ข๐ข๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐ .โ But of course, I still hoped for a miracle. My mother however passed on after almost three months in the hospital. So, does God answer all our prayers? What do you think?
I remember all this because in the Gospel today, and in the feast we celebrate today, we have to remember that John was an answered prayer. Remember what the angel told Zechariah, his father, when he was astounded by the presence of the angel at the templeโฆthe angel said, โZechariah, rejoice, God has heard your prayers.โ And Zechariah was incredulous. He and Elizabeth his wife had been asking that prayer for a long, long time. Imagine those long years of Zechariah as priest burning incense, keeping vigil at the temple, Elizabeth praying the rosary all day long (ay wala pa palang rosaryo nun), but I am sure they were praying all the time for an offspring.
But God tarried. I am certain by this time, in their old age, Zechariah and Elizabeth did not expect anymore that God would still grant them their only prayer in life. Heck, with failing memory, they must have forgotten by now even this prayer. But God did grant them their prayer, albeit belatedly. And that is why the two as we hear in the Gospel today insisted that the childโs name be John, which means God is gracious. After all the years of waiting, God had finally given them their only desire. He remembered them and thatโs what Zechariah means God remembers, proving that truly God is lavish or prodigal as we say, and thatโs what Elizabeth means God is abundance.
So back to the question we poised at the start, does God answer all our prayers? It would initially appear that in those long intervening years before the birth of John the Baptist (it would appear) that God said NO to Zechariah and Elizabeth. It must have seemed that way, like the times my prayers for my brother and later my mom seemed to have been rejected by God.
But now we know that God was just taking his precious time. Indeed, he could not have granted right away their wish because Mary was still very young then or in other words, it was not yet as scripture tells us about the birth of Jesus, โthe appointed time.โ After all the fate and destiny of John was to be Christโs precursor, the one that prepared the way of the Lord.
To sum it up then, yes, God answers all our prayers. But not as we want them answered. He answers them according to what is really good for us which means according to his plan of salvation, mysterious as it is. As Jesus would tell the disciples walking towards Emmaus, โeverything is happening according to Godโs plan.โ And that is why we say prayer in the end, is not meant to change Godโs mind, but ours.
We pray that we may truly see and understand his great plan for all of us beyond our individual desires and wishes. In the movie Bruce Almighty, Jim Carrey as part time God just said yes to all the prayers asked of him and the result was as expected total chaos. Morgan Freeman, the real God, after bringing back order, asked him, since when does anyone know what they really want?
๐โ๐๐ ๐ป๐๐๐๐๐ฆ ๐ค๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ฃ๐๐ ๐
๐๐๐ฆ๐ ๐พ๐๐ก๐๐๐ข๐๐๐โ๐ ๐พ๐๐๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐น๐๐๐กโ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ก ๐ฝ๐ข๐๐ 24, 2025, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ฆ ๐๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐๐๐ก๐๐ฃ๐๐ก๐ฆ ๐๐ ๐๐ก. ๐ฝ๐โ๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐ต๐๐๐ก๐๐ ๐ก
