A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. On entering Jericho, Jesus passed through the city. There was a man there named Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector, and a very wealthy man. He was trying to see what Jesus looked like, but being small of able to do it because of the crowd. I remember being a tax collector made him extremely unclean, in quotation marks.
So as Ichaius first ran on in front of the crowd, then climbed up a sycamore tree, which was along Jesus' route, in order to get a good look. When Jesus came to the spot, he looked up and said, Zacchaeus, hurry up and come down. I mean, to stay in your house today. Now remember, Zacchaeus was the sinner of sinners. And our lord is saying, without being invited, Zacchaeus hasn't said anything.
And here our lord is going to go into his house, which would which would make him unclean, and he's going to eat with him, which would which add adds insult to injury. It was terrible. So our lord says, come on. Get out of that tree. I wanna eat in your house with you today.
So Zacchaeus quickly came down and welcomed Jesus with delight. When this was observed, when the Jews saw this, they began to murmur and complain. He has gone to a sinner's house as a guest. Can't do anything worse than that. Zacchaeus stood his ground and said to Jesus, Lord, I give half of my belongings to the poor.
If I had defrauded anyone in the least, I pay him back fourfold. The IRA doesn't do that. And Jesus said to Zacchaeus, today salvation has come to this house. For this is what it means to be a son of Abraham. The son of man has come to search out and to save what was lost, and this is indeed the good news of the lord.
In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, Amen. Of the two there are two problems, and there are others, but two of the most oppressive, persevering, tantalizing problems, frustrating problems, which face anyone who does a little bit of thinking about life and God and our relationships with a God, if there be a God. But that's a good question, remember. Because that's what's involved in one of these, and that is the problem of evil. And the second one, if you do believe in God, and if you do believe what he said through his son Jesus Christ about the efficacy of prayer, how is it so many and so much of our praying are not answered?
Now, I of these I think the problem of evil is less pervasive? Because that requires a lot of or some thinking, a good bit of thinking, a good bit of observation, a lot of questioning. And our blessed Lord never specifically dealt with it as a philosopher. You see, the difference between the philosopher and Christ is that Christ is the son of God. Just keep that in your mind.
He was no Socrates. He was no Aristotle. But But this other problem of prayer, every Christian has to come up and face this. That on the one hand, our lord says, look, if you had the faith of a tiny insignificant piece of seed, the mustard seed, you could move mountains. And yet you offer prayers for the most the most acceptable, the most holy, the most the most wonderful things, and you get what?
A big resounding no. Oh, your prayer was heard alright, but you don't move any mountains. Now, I told you yesterday prayer is a is a mystery. Let's face it. That if you if you admit there's a benevolent, omnipotent God, all loving, all all powerful, and if he says, look, pray to me and you'll get what you ask for, and you do it and you don't get it, what do you make of it?
Now this remember, I'm dealing here with a sensitive stuff. Every Christian faces this. And when we pray, most of the time we're praying for something which is beyond all dispute, worthwhile and availing unto salvation as we see it. As we see. Now, I can go into a lot of philosophical rationation on this matter, but I was years ago visiting down in old Gallinger Hospital.
And I'm going to give you I may have mentioned this, but they're certain of my stories which they never lose their their worth. Because it's not the story, it's what they point out. Now this matter of getting an answer to your prayer is pragmatic. It has to do with experience. You pray and you get an answer to your prayer, and you pray you don't get an answer.
What's the difference? And then finally, is it worth praying at all? And then the next step is, the heck with it. I was in Gallinger Hospital. Hospital.
In those days, we had great big wards. I don't know, maybe there were four rows of beds, maybe 50 or 60 people. And this was the women's ward. And I went in there one Wednesday. We had a very specific job to do.
We weren't just YMCA boys. And I was talking with a young Catholic Catholic woman who had a very badly mangled arm. She had got it caught in a she had got it caught in a mangle in a laundry where she worked. She was an orphan. But there she was with this arm and in the best of spirits.
This was Wednesday. And, because she was going to get out and she was seeing her boyfriend Saturday. Well, that's enough to lift anybody's spirits even with a broken arm. So she was fine. God was good.
The world was fine. Everything was just dandy, and prayer was great. Oh, yes. She she loved God and all that. Well, the next Wednesday I come in.
Now remember, this is a great big room, and it was the city hospital. It was called Gallinger then, now it's called the district general, I think. And there she is. Well, I was little astonished to see her. And my great praying Christian was a quite changed person.
Boy, did she she just relaunched into me with with everything she had, telling me prayer what what you are praying to God. What's happened to her. I said, well, what's happened to you? But what had happened was this. After seeing her the previous Wednesday, they took an x-ray of the arm that they had worked on, and they found that they had to take off the cast.
It had to be broken again. It had to be reset. And above all, she wasn't meeting her boyfriend on Saturday. So there's no God now. There's no use praying.
And the the and the more this went on, the louder her voice got. Well, so I think the only thing to do when you're dealing with it with that kind of unreason is just keep quiet. And, you know, think of pleasant things, like what you're going to have for dinner or something. When she finished, way back in some corner, an equally shrill voice came up and said, father, wasn't a preacher, she didn't know it. But, father, don't listen to a word you're saying.
I'm an old woman, and I have lived a rough life. But I want to tell you that prayer does work. Well, you could have heard a feather drop in that wart. Now I'm not that I'm just giving you that as a big little slice of life. That empirically, and this is we are dealing here with experience, not with metaphysical truths.
We're dealing here with what happens in fact. And here you have the two cases. There's one person who prays and doesn't get what they want, so there's no God. There's no use praying. It's all a sham.
Whereas here you have another person who tells us she's old, she's had a rough life, but that prayer does work. Take your pick. Take your pick. Now to come back to something sensible, because, you know, this doesn't prove anything. My point is this, and now this is theoretical.
It's not nearly as persuasive as the as these two ladies. It's this, when we say our prayer is not answered, how do we know that? Because anyone who's had a little experience of life well, let's let's quote our blessed lord. He said, if a son asks his father for a loaf of bread, does the father give him a snake? And just yet last evening, was reading a play of Oscar Wilde, The Ideal Husband.
I recommend it highly. Great great play, Oscar Wilde, in which he says, the gods answer the prayers of those they hate. So when we say our prayer is not answered, how do you know that? That your prayer because what are you praying for? Are you praying for a recovered alcoholic?
Are you praying for a child to recover itself? Are you praying for a job? Are you praying to have a baby? Are you praying for this? Are you praying that?
What are you praying for? Are these the things that are the ultimate goods? And when you pray to God, you're dealing with ultimates. You're not dealing with means to ends. You're dealing with ends and purposes and goals.
And who are we to say what is good or not good for me here and now? Well, there's one thing I know about prayer or petition, and that is I'm praying to God. And if God is benevolent, he's also omniscient. He knows everything, and I'm willing to rest my case on that. I do not think I'm godlike in my knowledge.
In the name of the father, the son, and holy spirit. Amen.