God Hears even the Prayers of Sinners.
But a person might say, I am a sinner, and God does not hear sinners, as we read in St. John s Gospel: God doth not hear sinners. 1 I answer, that these words were not spoken by our Lord, but by the man who had been born blind. And the proposition, if taken absolutely, is false; there is only one case in which it is true, as St. Thomas says, and that is when sinners pray as sinners; 3 that is, ask something that they require to assist them in their sin; as, for instance, if a man asked God to help him to take vengeance of his enemy; in such cases God certainly will not hear. But when a man prays and asks for those things that are requisite for his salvation, what matters it whether he is a sinner or not ? Suppose he were the greatest criminal in the world, let him only pray, he will surely obtain all that he asks. The promise is general for all men; every one that seeks obtains: Every one that asketh receiveth? " It is not necessary," says St. Thomas, " that the man who prays should merit the grace for which he asks." " By prayer we obtain even those things which we do not deserve." In order to receive, it is enough to pray. The reason is (in the words of the same holy Doctor)," merit is grounded on justice, but the power of prayer is grounded on grace." 5 The power of prayer to obtain what we ask does not depend on the merit of the person who prays, but on the mercy and faithfulness of God, who has gratuitously, and of his own mere goodness, promised to hear the man who prays to him. When we pray, it is not necessary that we should be friends of God in order to obtain grace; indeed, the act of prayer, as St. Thomas says, makes us his friends: "Prayer itself makes us of the family of God." And that which we cannot obtain through friendship, we may (as St. Chrysostom in a similar way affirms) obtain by prayer: " That which friendship could not accomplish, has been accomplished by prayer." And Jesus Christ, to give us more encouragement to pray, and to assure us of obtaining grace when we pray, has made us that great and special promise: Amen, amen, I say to you, if you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it you. 3 As though he had said, Come, sinners, you have no merits of your own for which My Father should listen to you. But this is what you must do; when you want grace, ask for it in My name, and through My merits, and I promise you (" Amen, amen, I say to you," amounts to a kind of oath) you may depend on it, that whatever you ask, you shall obtain from My Father: Whatever you shall ask, He will give it you. Oh, what a sweet consolation for a poor sin ner, to know that his sins are no hindrance to his ob taining every grace he asks for, since Jesus Christ has promised that whatever we ask of God, through his merits, he will grant it all !
