Equal in prayer

No matter our rank or status in this world, we can all come before God in prayer and are equal in his eyes. Fr Richard reflects on the daily mass readings.

Readings for Thursday in the first week of Lent can be found here.

There was a moving moment during the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022. Just before the prayer of committal, all of the royal regalia – the crown, orb and sceptre – were removed from the coffin and placed on the altar of St George’s Chapel, Windsor. Then, unadorned, the Queen’s body descended to the earth just like the lowliest of her subjects. 

Death is a great leveller – it does not respect rank or status. The same is true of prayer. In our first reading, another queen, Esther, comes before God to plead with him for her people. Esther, a Jew in exile, had married the king of Persia. One of the king’s henchmen was planning to exterminate all the Jews in Persia, and Esther is about to plead with her husband that he might intervene and save them. Before she does this, she seeks God’s help in prayer. Esther acknowledges that her status counts for nothing: “I am alone”, she prays, “and have no helper but you”. In a verse missed out from the passage we heard, she also takes off her royal robes and covers her head with ashes and dung.

In the Gospel, Jesus is encouraging his listeners in the practice of prayer. Each and every person, prince or pauper, duke or dustman, can ask, search and knock, for all we all share the same heavenly Father. It can be tempting, as human beings, as Christians, and as a church, to compare ourselves with others. “I wish I was more like that person, who seems more accomplished than me”, we might think. “Why can’t our church be more like that one down the road, which appears more successful.” And then we are tempted to think it all depends on us, to strive more keenly, or work harder. And yet, when we come to God in prayer, there are no distinctions. All we need to do, like Queen Esther, is to throw ourselves on his mercy. Sometimes, that is all we have left, but what a treasure it is. 

Mass today is in St Dyfrig and St Samson, Grangetown at 10am

If you’d like more resources for daily prayer, check out our Day By Day pages.