For some years I have been making a “prayer deal” with family, friends, inlaws, outlaws, and perfect strangers. Here’s how it goes: “Let’s make a prayer deal. I pray for you and your family and you pray for me and mine.” No one has ever refused my outstretched hand and we have always shaken hands to seal the deal. That’s when I tell them the fine print. “OK. You’re going to get to heaven before I do so two things, 1. When you look down into Purgatory and see me, you promise not to laugh, or not to laugh too loud; and 2. You pull me up.”
I got this “pull me up” idea from Father John Sokolski, Oblate of Mary Immaculate, who taught Latin to me and other freshman “mullets” in the Oblate minor seminary in 1961. When he knew he would be dying soon, he told me, “Mac, there is something I want you to tell everyone I taught. My Mom told me, John, you’re gonna need some help, so I’m going to cut a hole in the floor of heaven and pull you up to be with me. Mac, you tell them all that’s what I’m gonna do for you and for each of them. I’ll cut that hole in heaven’s floor and pull y’all up.”
It wasn’t until I paid attention to the 18th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel some weeks ago that I realized the “prayer deal” concept is divinely inspired:
Again I say to you, that if two of you shall agree upon earth, concerning anything whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done to them by my Father who is in heaven. For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them (Matthew 18:19-20).
It’s right there, the prayer deal, if two of you on earth agree. To be fair there is a well-accepted view about the scope of these words and their significance. It is this: they must be read in the context of the entirety of this entire chapter of Matthew which, for many scholars and commentators, focuses primarily on Jesus telling the apostles how things should be done and taken care of within the church; for example, two or three of the apostles should gather together to pray about: assisting the apostles in the ministry of the word; converting sinners; in the performance of a miracle; for the confirmation of the Gospel; in the administration of ordinances; for the comfort of saints; in laying on of censures; and for the reclaiming of backsliders.
Many believers have expanded the scope of verses 18 and 19 to apply to everyone praying to God in any circumstances, for things that are good and in accord with God’s will. I accept the accepted view and thank God for letting me read those words; and, since they deal with the church – which is all of us (see below re: Mystical Body and Communion of Saints) – I am going to hope they include any two or three praying together, and they apply to all my prayer deals.
The Book of Acts tells us that in addition to the apostles praying as the words from Matthew describes, the early disciples “all joined together constantly in prayer” (Acts 1:14). I have to believe that Jesus was there with them.
Jesus tells us in John 14:12-14:
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
He does not restrict this to the apostles doing churchy (ecclesial or theological) things. Logically this does not prove anything, but nowhere does Jesus say wherever two or three are gathered together in prayer to the Father I am not there. I’m not as dumb as I look (to quote a beloved relative, how could you be?), and I know that you can’t simply get together with a buddy and you both pray together, in God’s name, that you win the lottery or your yard mows itself. Your prayer has to be aligned with God’s will and in accord with goodness, justice and charity.
Praying alone is one form of prayer. Praying with others is another, different form. God hears it all. When you pray with someone else or with several someone elses, you all are united in a special way. You all are speaking with God, and He is there. Jesus, your divine brother, is there. The Holy Spirit is there, and everyone involved knows, relies on, and appreciates this. There is strength, contentment, and peace in this unity.
Each person there knows all the others are praying for her or his intentions, and vice versa. For those with whom I have done my “prayer deal,” I know that there are times when we are not together and I am not praying and they are – for me and everything I have spoken to God about
The prayer deal groups, two or more pray-ers, are a very small part of the group of all catholics together with Jesus in charge at the head, The big group has been called the ”Mystical Body of Christ” (MBOC) and the “Communion of Saints” (COS).
The Catholic Church started when Jesus redeemed all of us on the Cross. The birthday of the church is celebrated on Pentecost when the promised Holy Spirit came. St. Paul refers to all of us and Jesus as one body (e.g.,1 Cor 12:12-31; Col 1:18; 2:18-20; Eph. 1:22-23; 3:19; 4:13). This is the Mystical Body of Christ.
The COS includes all the saints and it also includes us would-be saints:.
After confessing “the holy catholic Church,” the Apostles’ Creed adds “the communion of saints.” In a certain sense this article is a further explanation of the preceding: “What is the Church if not the assembly of all the saints?”The communion of saints is the Church….961 The term “communion of saints” refers also to the communion of “holy persons” (sancti) in Christ who “died for all,” so that what each one does or suffers in and for Christ bears fruit for all. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 947, 861).
When (only) two or three of the MBOC and COS are together praying, they are praying, among other things, for everyone else who is not there, every time they say “us,” and Jesus is there with them. If they are praying publicly, in any place, in any arena, they are witnessing to and for the entire Mystical Body of Christ and the Communion of Saints.
Does such public witnessing ever matter? There are thousands of examples, not the least of which is the public witness of martyrs in the Roman circuses and the Colosseum as they prayed before they were killed.
Here’s one real world, present day example. About a dozen of us were praying at an abortion business and, by midday after the murders had usually ceased inside, 17 young girls had gone in and none had exited quickly, indicating that each of their babies had been killed. By around 2:00 PM the last girl had left and the staff and the abortionist had gone. To say the least, we were down. We went to a local restaurant and a young woman came up to our table and asked, “Were you the ones praying at the clinic?” Somewhat apprehensively someone replied, “Yes, that was us.” The woman smiled and said, “I just want to thank you. I drove up there for my appointment and saw y’all praying. I thought about my baby. I drove away. She pointed at her tummy, “I’m still pregnant thanks to you all.”
Jesus must have been with us.
Dear Reader, let’s do the Prayer Deal and I will cut a hole in the floor of heaven for you.
