29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

There is no risk in praying. When one is facing some difficulties in life, he may choose to pray or not. But when he prays, he risks nothing. Why? If his prayers are answered then he would learn to believe in God. And if ever nothing has changed despite his effort to pray, well he would just stay where he is by then (No more, no less). An example for this is a man who is dying due to cancer. If he prays and regains his health, he learns to love God more. If he prays but still his condition does not improve, well what else can one expect from having a cancer. However, this is not the case when he chooses not to pray. When he does not pray, his circumstances may improve or not but surely he misses the most important fact of life, i.e. our help is in the name of the Lord. Our Gospel conveys this message to Jesus' followers when "Jesus told them a parable to show them they should always pray and not lose heart." (Luke 18:1). The said Gospel passage reminds us that prayer is the weakness of God and the strength of man. So we must not stop praying. Anyway, God will still be God even if man does not pray. But man is never a man when he knows not the necessity of prayer.