Chains and Intercessory Prayer

“The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.” – James 5:16

In today’s first reading we read of Peter being freed from prison by an angel and led outside the city gates. At first glance I wondered why doesn’t God send angels to help me. He sent them to Abraham, Tobit, and Sarah. He sent an angel to Zechariah, Joseph, and of course Mary. Why not me?

This self-centered approach blinded me to a very important lesson from that reading in the Acts of the Apostles. When I read it again, like Tobit, my eyes were open. The key to opening the gates of my blindness was this – “Peter thus was being kept in prison, but prayer by the Church was fervently being made to God on his behalf.” (12:5)

Not all healings, not all releases from prisons come to an individual because of their own prayers or righteousness. Many are the direct result of intercessory prayer, prayers on their behalf from the hearts and lips of others. The request, made by the friends of the man lame on his mat brought about his healing. The centurion’s servant was healed by the request of the centurion not the servant. The official’s son was brought back to life as a result of the request, intercession, of his father. The woman, who begged for even the crumbs from the table, sought and received the healing of her daughter. St. Monica prayed for her son, St. Augustine, for many years but eventually her prayer was heard and answered in spades! St. Peter was freed from his guards, shackles, and prison not because the Big Fisherman asked for it but because prayers were being fervently offered on his behalf.

We should not limit our examples of the power of intercessory prayer to only those instances of the living praying for a loved one or friend. The Church’s annals are filled with miraculous healings through the intercession of the Saints in Heaven as well. Even to this day the Church is ever examining miraculous healings attributed to the prayers of those who have, as St. Paul tells us today in the 2nd reading, “…finished the race.”

Why have I never been freed by and angel or brought to the city gates by a celestial being? Looking back with clear eyes, I believe I have. The chains of a former way of life “fell from my wrists” many years ago. The shackles of alcohol addiction were broken and I was set free to walk in the light of day once more. The dark gates of anxiety and depression were opened for me and now I continue down the alley of life unhindered. Though I never saw an angel working in any of these situations it is not because the angel(s) weren’t there, I simply couldn’t see them.

What prompted God to send these angels? Not my goodness or holiness. Not my good works or my own prayers – Lord knows I wasn’t praying for myself during those prison days. No, it was the prayers offered on my behalf by Church – the Church militant and the Church Triumphant; it was through the prayers of righteous men and woman, here and in Heaven, that my release was brought about. It was the prayers of my mother and father, my wife, my patron saints, my ancestors, my friends, my relatives, my pastors and bishops that won for me my freedom. To them I am eternally indebted and through my own intercession for friends, family, those addicted, and those in the same prisons I begin in some small way and attempt to repay that debt. A debt I happily and joyfully seek to repay all the days of my life and hopefully beyond. 

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