Fr Chris Alar Homily Thursday, October 9 2019

In Fr. Chris Alar's homily today he talks about prayers he says, no prayer is wasted, even prayers for someone that it didn't seem like the prayers helped. His homily goes on to talk about death and suicide...in he words:

"... but father I've been praying and praying and praying and there's no answer to my prayer.

Well, every prayer is answered. It just may not be in the way you want, or in the timing you expect. In fact, some prayers may not even be answered in this lifetime.

You pray for somebody. I remember my cousin, unfortunately, was hooked on drugs and alcohol. And we all prayed for conversion but it never happened before he passed away.

And I remember my father saying, gee, there's 20 years of prayer wasted. Really, 20 years of prayer wasted?

No prayer is wasted. None. Oh yeah, they never had the conversion. Okay, then you might want to look at diary passage of St. Faustina #1698.

This diary passage says (paraphrasing) that while you might pray for someone, it looks like nothing happened. It may look like all hope is lost.

Like my grandmother. When she took her life. It looked like all hope was lost. It didn't look like there was any time to repent, it looked like when she took her life, she despaired, gave up, and there is no time to repent.

Jesus says otherwise in 1698 of St. Faustina’s diary, He says, ‘what it looks like to you — to be no hope, no repentance and all despair is nothing. Because to me, I'm at work on that soul.’

He says earlier, in the diary #1486, “I come to the soul three times. I give them the opportunity to repent.

And then in 1698, He says, ‘many times the soul outwardly and externally looks like nothing's going on, yet inwardly, I saw it work in the soul. Many times the soul at the last minute accepts me and my mercy, and is saved. But you don't see it. It looks like to you, nothing has happened. But to me, this miracle has happened. This soul now internally has accepted my mercy and my grace and has said yes.’

And guess what the biggest factor in that soul being able to say 'yes', is. In addition to the their own disposition, there’s one other factor that is critical to that soul being able to say yes to God: Your prayers.

Your prayers can help that soul that looks like it's in despair externally to us, accept and say yes to God when it's at the moment of their death.

And those prayers, don't have to be at the same time. They could be years later, because God is outside of time, because there is no past or future for God. Everything is one big eternal present moment.

So your prayers, even years later, can make that soul at the moment of their last breath, help them to say yes to God.

You can’t say yes for them. They have to do that. But you certainly can help them.

You know, nobody can force me into doing something if I don't want to. But if somebody sits me down. Let’s suppose I got a hurt leg. And by myself I can't get from point A to point B. But if somebody comes and helps me, I might be able to get from point A to point B.

That's the point of this Gospel passage, your prayers can help people from point A to point B.

Point A looks like it's all despair and giving up. Point B is accepting God's mercy in salvation.

You can get your loved ones to safety. And you can do it, through persevering in prayer. It may look like all hope is lost, Jesus says, but it isn’t. Your prayers now can make the difference for anybody even years ago.

And so I finish by saying I just finished a book. It tells this whole concept. It's called “After Suicide”.

There’s still hope for them, meaning those who died, and you, those left behind. It's not just about suicide. It's about losing someone, any kind of loss: death, car accident, cancer, natural causes.

But the spiritual principles in that book help get us through that regardless of the cause of death, or the cause of loss. But in it, you will see, it all boils down to the power of prayer. Just like we hear about, in the Gospel today.