On many occasions Jesus reminds His disciple about being persistent in prayers and never give up. However, many of us get discouraged especially when we pray often, but it doesn’t seem that God listens to us and does not answer our prayers. That’s why some decide to give up, stop praying, and even lose their faith. In the Gospel reading for today, we have a great example of some very persistent people who really wanted their paralyzed friend to be brought to Jesus and to be healed. It wasn’t easy, as you can imagine. Jesus was inside the house, and since He was already a very popular man, He was surrounded by a great crowd and therefore there was no way to get any closer to Him. On the top of that, those people were carrying a paralyzed man on a stretcher. They could have given up, they could have said: this is impossible, we have to try some other day. Or they could have said to their paralyzed friend: sorry, we have tried, but couldn’t get that close. But they didn’t. They were persistent and decided to climb up onto the roof “and they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.” Despite all the difficulties they didn’t give up, and their friend was healed in body and soul. That scene should remind us that we should never give up in our prayers and should use every opportunity to get closer to Jesus.
