I am sure that all of us at one time or another in our prayer life have wondered whether or not God is listening to our prayer. As we lift up our hearts, our needs, our praises and our whole lives to God we may for a moment ask ourselves if anyone is really present to receive our offering. For some this question may not really matter as they are intent on just getting through their prayer ritual and moving on to something else. For others who have understood prayer as a dialogue with God, the experience of someone listening to our deepest yearnings and sharing in our most significant experiences is vitally important. The silence of God can be very disconcerting. It is much like that moment in a telephone conversation when we pause suddenly to ask, “Are you still there?” We fear that our connection may not be a good one and that our call has been dropped and so we ask, “Can you hear me now?”

Does God listen to our prayers? Jesus seems to suggest in the gospel (Luke 18,9-14) that whether God listens to our prayers or not depends more on “how” we pray rather than on “what” we pray. All of us have a false self and a true self. The false self is an illusion that we have created in our pride and self-love that is self-satisfied and that feels that God is obligated to listen to us because we have worked so hard to gain his favor. The prayer of our false self tries to appeal to God’s justice and convince God that we are worthy of being heard and receiving whatever we ask for. Often we try to manipulate God and we seek our own self will rather than God’s will. Our false self is a Pharisee filled with pride and self righteousness. We exalt ourself and cast judgment on others. In our false self we may have deceived ourself into believing the illusion that we have projected, we may even have deceived others but we can not deceive God. God is no fool. God knows us better than we know ourselves. God does not judge by appearances, rather, he judges the heart. The prayer that comes from a false self falls far short of heaven and usually is no better than our talking to ourselves in vain self affirmations. The true self comes from a place of humility and truth. The true self knows that we are sinners and have fallen short of God’s glory. The prayer of the true self appeals to God’s mercy and admits that we are unworthy servants, depending upon God’s grace to redeem us. The true self knows our poverty and that God is rich in mercy and knows that we are beggars before the good God. The true self seeks God’s will in all things and surrenders himself to God’s providential care. The true self is the Publican that lowers his eyes and beats his breast and humbly takes refuge in God and prays, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner.” Thomas Merton says, “For that very reason the dimensions of prayer in solitude are those of man’s ordinary anguish, his self-searching, his moments of nausea at his own vanity, falsity and capacity for betrayal. Far from establishing one in unassailable narcissistic security, the way of prayer brings us face to face with the sham and indignity of the false self that seeks to live for itself alone and to enjoy the “consolation of prayer” for its own sake. This “self” is pure illusion, and ultimately he who lives for and by such an illusion must end either in disgust or in madness.”

The wisdom writer in Sirach affirms, “The one who serves God willingly is heard; his petition reaches the heavens. The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest till it reaches its goal, nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds, judges justly and affirms the right, and the Lord will not delay.” (Sirach 35, 16-18) “The Lord hears the cry of the poor.” God doesn’t have much patience for the self-righteous who exalt themselves in their pride and who despise those who are less worthy than themselves and condemn them. God hears the prayers of the humble, who know their poverty, their sin, their need for God’s mercy and who feel a sense of solidarity with sinful humanity and are able to call down God’s blessings. Jesus teaches us that our prayer must be humble and simple. To open a window to heaven where our prayers may ascend to our Lord we must first open a window in our own hearts where his grace and mercy may penetrate to the depths of our being and illuminate the dark places of our own true self and heal us of our brokenness. Once we have embraced our poverty then we can ask God to enrich us in his mercy and know in confidence that he will hear the cry of the poor.