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Q) Why do Catholics pray to God to change things? God gave free will to everyone, including dictators, murderers and politicians. I believe free will means that God will not influence man’s decisions, so why pray to God for these changes?

A) The apparent contradiction between God’s sovereign will, which rules all things, and human freedom is one of the perennial topics of theology. Ultimately, it is a mystery, though one that is not completely obscure. Tradition speaks of God’s “active will,” in which he actively causes things (such as creation, the ensoulment of the person at conception, the Incarnation, the infusion of divine grace in the celebration of the sacraments), and his passive will, in which he allows things but most certainly does not actively cause them (sin is perhaps the easiest example). But these distinctions do not completely eliminate the fact that this side of the veil we will never really fully understand why God allows certain things and prevents others. What we do know is that God provides us the grace to endure any cross, and in uniting them to the Lord’s while in a state of grace, we actively participate in the salvation of the world.

Now, when it comes to the importance of petitionary prayer, specifically petitionary prayer to change the behavior of another human being, we hold on to two truths: First, that petitionary prayer does make a difference and is explicitly willed by God, and second, that human beings are ultimately at liberty to receive the saving assistance of God or to reject it. Frankly, I don’t agree with the writer’s premise that these two truths are contradictory. There are many ways that we attempt to influence the decisions of others, some good and some bad, but these influences do not negate the final choice which must be made by the person. Virtuous habits, marketing, speeches, fear-based rhetoric, the positive or negative influence of family and friends — all of these affect the calculous of our choices, and yet we still must make the choice ourselves. So too it is with divine grace. Indeed, everyone who has been baptized has received the graces necessary to be saints, and yet sinners still we are. Why? Because we choose to be.

We most certainly should pray for one another and pray for those in our life who are far from God’s presence through human weakness and sin. He wants to heal them and bring them into his presence more than we want it, but he also wants us to participate in this economy of salvation. So — pray! Your prayers do make a difference, in God’s time and in God’s way.

Father Erickson is pastor of Transfiguration in Oakdale. Send your questions to [email protected] with “Why Do Catholics Do That?” in the subject line.