You will never let me down

He kept calling out all the more. 

Soon-to-be-Blessed Solanus Casey was a Capuchin friar and priest who lived in a friary in Detroit, Michigan.   Fr. Casey’s job was to be the porter, the man who answered the door and offered hospitality to visitors.   This job allowed everyone who came to the friary to come to know this humble, unassuming man.

Over time, the visitors became so comfortable with Fr. Casey that they began sharing their prayer requests with him—some of them quite personal.   Fr. Casey assured them that he would pray, and he always told them, “Thank God ahead of time.”   Such was his faith that God would surely answer their prayers!

Solanus Casey’s faith has some similarity to the faith of the blind beggar.   Both had a high degree of confident expectation in the Lord.   Despite the crowd urging him to quiet down, the blind man “kept calling out all the more”.   He was sure that Jesus would help him if he could just get his attention.   And that’s just what happened. Jesus recognized this man’s trust, so he told him, “Have sight; your faith has saved you”.

In some ways, each one of us is like this blind beggar.   We all have a certain degree of blindness in that we cannot see precisely how and when God will answer our prayers.   Like this man, we may feel we have been crying out to God for a long time but without any answer.

As we continue to call out to the Lord, we have the opportunity to deepen our faith.   The “crowd” of our own worry, fear, and doubt may try to make us give up, but we can be sure that our persistence will be rewarded.   We can be sure that, just as he did for this blind man, Jesus will hear and answer us.

So go ahead and be like Fr. Casey.   Use your gift of faith.   Act on it.   Persist.   Even thank God ahead of time!   Follow Jesus’ three-step approach to intercession: ask for it in prayer, believe that you will receive it, and “it shall be yours”—according to God’s good timing and his great wisdom.

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