The Unchangeable God and Prayer
“There is no way on earth that Dad is going to change his mind and allow you to attend that school,” the sister authoritatively advised her brother. However, her brother still retained hope that his father would consent to allowing him to attend the high school of his choice, rather than the one to which his father had enrolled him. “Dad is not that unchangeable; he is flexible on some things,” the brother unconvincingly challenged his sister’s opinion. She just rolled her eyes and firmly advised, “You will never change his mind on education issues. He is a fanatic on having us attend the best academic school, not the best school for sports.” His sister evaluation of the issue was correct. When he approached his father about attending the more sports oriented school, the son was turned down quickly and with finality. Accompanying that rejection was his father’s time tested lecture on the importance of education for the son’s future. Dejected, the son tried a second time to change his father’s mind, but to no avail….and with a warning not to approach the subject again. No petitions or pleadings would solicit the response the son so desperately desired. His dad’s mind was firm; it was unchangeable.
In many of life’s circumstances, occasions arise in which individuals change their minds. Yes, even Moms and Dads occasionally change their minds and accede to previously rejected requests from their children. A woman may, at first, rebuff a suitor’s request for marriage and then change her mind and gladly accept the marriage offer. Employers change their plans as business circumstances change. It is a fact that change is part of the very fabric of life.
Yet there is one instance where change is not a given; this is in the basic nature of God. While throughout Catholic literature and history, man has been advised to pray frequently, even constantly, for God’s favorable intervention in life, such as for a sick relative or for success in marriage, the most notable thinkers in the history of Catholicism have described God as being unchangeable, all knowing, and eternal. From the earliest church fathers through Augustine, Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, Robert Bellarmine, and others, the Catholic Church has firmly accepted that God is the perfect, singular, unchangeable reality. Even the early leaders of Protestantism, including Luther, Calvin, John Wesley, and many others, were firm in their doctrine of the unchangeable nature of God.
St. Augustine clearly stated God’s unchanging nature, “God’s mind does not pass from one thought to another. His vision is utterly unchangeable. Thus, He comprehends all that takes place in time-the not-yet existing future, the existing present and the no-longer-existing past in an immutable and eternal present . . . [Neither] is there any then, now, and afterwards in His knowledge, for, unlike ours, it suffers no change with triple time present, past, and future. With Him, there is no change, nor shadow of alteration.” God is unchangeable.
During the First Vatican Council (1868-1870) the Church authoritatively declared, “The holy, Catholic, apostolic Roman Church believes and professes that there is one true and living God, the Creator and Lord of heaven and earth. He is almighty, eternal, beyond measure, incomprehensible, and infinite in intellect, will and in every perfection. Since he is one unique spiritual substance, entirely simple and unchangeable, he must be declared really and essentially distinct from the world, perfectly happy in himself and by his very nature, and inexpressibly exalted over all things that exist or can be conceived other than himself.” The council thus emphatically declared the unchangeable nature of God.
Assuming the unchangeable nature of God, then why should we pray as we are encouraged to do so by the prophets, Jesus Christ, the saints, and the Church? What effect will our prayers have on an unchangeable, all-knowing, perfect God? The answer is that prayers do have a significant effect. Thus keep praying. God knows from all eternity whether we will sufficiently and persistently pray for a good, which will benefit His plan for us and creation and He factors those prayers into his plan from eternity. St. Thomas Aquinas comments thusly, “For we pray not that we may change the Divine disposition, but that we may impetrate that which God has disposed to be fulfilled by our prayers in other words “that by asking, men may deserve to receive what Almighty God from eternity has disposed to give.” In other words, God has foreseen our prayers from eternity and thus included them in his plan for the universe, to give us (and others) what he knew we would ask for. In fact, there is no higher use we can make of our liberty than to freely choose to pray.
Pray always and trust in God!
Suggested Reading
The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas – Section 2, Part 2, Question 83, 2nd issue on Prayer.
The Catholic Catechism, P. One, Section 2, Profession of the Christian Faith, Ch 1, Article 1.
“The Catholic Catechism” by John Hardon, published by Doubleday. Section II, The Living God.
St. Augustine’s “City of God”