A leper asks Jesus to heal him, but with some reluctance, as if he’s afraid to ask, or feels as though he’s being a bother, or a burden. “…if you wish…” How often do we feel the same, asking God for things only when it seems impossible otherwise, thinking He has more important things to do, or cannot be bothered with our miniscule requests. “Surely,” we think to ourselves, “there are people suffering worse than I am.”
Surely there are. But why would that matter to a God who is all-powerful? “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him,” Jesus says (Matthew 6:8), teaching us that God anticipates our prayers, not only planning to receive them but planning to do something about them. In other words, God desires to answer our prayers: His disposition is to say “yes.”
Jesus says in our Gospel today, “I will do it.” But the Greek is a little different: the word used here is the same word used when the leper asks “…if you wish…”. In essence Jesus is saying, “I wish it” or “I will it.”
When we pray, we must remember that we are not merely appealing to our Creator, to our God, but our Father, and even when we appeal to Jesus in prayer, this is the Jesus who says to Thomas, “If you know me, then you will also know my Father,” (John 14:7), and Jesus says of prayer, “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him?” (Matthew 7:11).
Pray, and trust that the One to Whom you pray loves you.