Homily | June 18, 2026 | Why The Our Father Reorders Everything In Prayer | (Episode 165)

I think many Catholics struggle with prayer for the same reason.

We secretly believe that prayer is about convincing God.

We bring him our needs, we bring him our problems, our worries.

And sometimes, if we're honest, we spend most of our prayer trying to persuade God to do what we want him to do.

But Jesus says something remarkable in today's gospel.

Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

God already knows.

Before the prayer is spoken, before the tears fall, before the anxiety, before the diagnosis, before the difficult conversation, before the uncertainty about the future, God already knows.

So you may be asking yourself, so then why should I pray?

If God already knows, what's the point?

Well, here's the answer.

Because prayer is not primarily about changing God's mind, prayer is about changing our hearts.

Prayer is where God slowly teaches us to see the reality that He sees.

Prayer is where our fears encounter His providence.

Prayer is where our plans encounter His wisdom.

Prayer is where we, our wills, encounter His will.

That is why Jesus gives us the Our Father.

And notice how different it is from the prayers we often pray.

Most of the prayers begin with us, our problems, our needs, our concerns.

But Jesus begins with God, our Father who art in heaven.

Hallowed be thy name.

The first concern is God's glory, thy kingdom come.

The second concern is God's kingdom, thy will be done.

The third concern is God's will.

Only after that do we arrive at our needs.

Give us this day our daily bread.

That order matters.

Because Jesus is teaching us something very fundamental.

Prayer is not about getting God to join our agenda.

Prayer is about joining His.

And that's not always easy.

Why?

Because most of us have experienced moments when God's will seemed confusing.

Why did this happen?

Why wasn't this prayer answered?

Why did this door close?

Why am I suffering so much?

Those are not new questions.

The saints all asked them too.

Elijah certainly knew something about that struggle.

Listen to how the first reading describes him.

Fire came down from heaven.

The dead were raised, kings trembled before him.

His words carried extraordinary power.

It is one of the most impressive descriptions of any prophet in Scripture.

But the secret of Elijah's greatness was not his miracles.

The secret was his friendship with God.

The miracles were visible, the friendship was hidden, the miracles were public, the prayer was private.

Long before Elijah stood before kings, he stood before God.

Long before he confronted the world, he allowed God to shape his own heart.

And that's where spiritual power always begins.

Not with activity, not with influence, not with success, but with prayer.

I sometimes think we admire the wrong things in the saints.

We admire their accomplishments.

God admires their surrender.

We admire all the beautiful things they did.

God sees what they became.

And what they became happened because of prayer.

Then Jesus ends today's gospel with something that almost feels abrupt.

He moves from the Our Father to forgiveness.

If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you.

Well, because one of the greatest obstacles to prayer is a heart that refuses to forgive.

A resentful heart cannot fully receive mercy.

A bitter heart cannot fully experience freedom.

Many people carry wounds for years.

A harsh word that was said to them, a deep betrayal, a disappointment, an injustice.

And that hurt begins to build and becomes part of their identity.

Yet every time we say the Our Father, we say, forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

In other words, Lord, treat me the way I treat others.

That's a frightening prayer if we really think about it.

And so perhaps today's gospel invites us to examine two things.

First, do I trust God's will?

And second, is there anyone I still need to forgive?

Because the saints understood both.

They trusted God even when they did not understand him, and they forgave others because they themselves had been forgiven.

When Jesus teaches us to pray, he teaches us far more than words.

He teaches us how to live, how to trust, how to surrender.

Teaches us to forgive and ultimately to say, with our whole lives, thy will be done.

Why?

Because for the Christian, there is no more powerful prayer than that.

Amen.