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 OMETIMES
PRAYER CAN BREAK OUR HEARTS. Did you ever try with
all your will to get God to do something, only to have him
not do it? At one time or another, most of us have wanted
something very badly and prayed ourselves to exhaustion in a
futile attempt to get God to come through. Pleading,
offering bargains, whatever we could think of; I hesitate to
use the term manipulation, but I remember...
 Our
oldest son was a colicky baby. For the uninitiated that
means his colon was not fully developed at birth, resulting
in "gas attacks", which in turn resulted in loud, sustained
screaming. The effect of this on many adults is to drive us
out of our minds. Temporary lulls are possible by pacing up
and down while patting the baby on the back...generally all
night. This being a lonnngggg way to spend a night, I once
tried working my faith to a fevered pitch (which took about
20 seconds), and prayed "in the name of Jesus" for God, to
be blunt, to shut the kid up! God did not. Mike kept
screaming.
What
went wrong? I think that instead of truly praying in the
name of Jesus, I was more trying to reduce God to a sort of
an omnipotent baby-sitter. Rather than conforming myself to
his kingdom, I wanted God to arrange things to relieve me of
my obligation of love to my son.
What a dumb example!
Okay,
you may be thinking that praying to stop a baby from crying
is a pretty dumb example.[1] But,
when you stop to think about it, it is difficult to come up
with a good example of unanswered prayer. Take the example
of praying for a loved one not to die. Dying is one thing we
are all guaranteed in this life, so praying to avoid it
could sometimes be like praying to stop a baby from crying.
Maybe a person who needs a job badly prays for it but does
not get it. When you think about that one though, only one
person can get any given job. So, praying for one person to
get a job is really praying for all the other applicants not
to get it. In other words we could be using prayer for an
unfair competitive advantage. Wielding prayer as a tool to
extend our will has certain failure built into it.
I
am not saying not to pray for these things! We can and
should pray for anything. It is very important to bring the
power of prayer into everyday situations. Jesus cares deeply
about the crying baby, the dying loved one and the person
who needs a job. However, we need to surrender to the Holy
Spirit and let God form our prayer. What does that mean?
When we are concerned for someone or something, it is often
difficult to see God's will. Although we might think we see
it very clearly, we are more likely to be applying human
reasoning to our situation. As we pray we start to relax in
the presence of God and open our hearts in trust. In this
atmosphere the intensity of any immediate threat is
gradually reduced and we are able to repent from our fears,
self-interest, or whatever. Then it is much easier to pray
for God's will to be done, trusting that our loving God will
always care for us and give us the strength to endure any
trial.
One
problem with experiences of unanswered prayer, other than
their potential for embarrassment, is that we are apt to
draw the wrong conclusions from them. Sometimes we might
even go so far as to wonder why we would bother praying if
we cannot get God to do our bidding! Instead of wondering
why God had let me down (again?) my attitude needs to become
one of seeking God's will. To use an analogy, it is like
trying to start a mechanically sound car by simply wishing
very hard that it was running. As long as I confine my
attempts to wondering what is wrong with the car, or even
examining my motives and wish processes, I will not have a
car that works. A different solution is needed: perhaps
looking in the owner's manual might be helpful, or seeking
advice from someone who is successfully driving their
car.
Look out for those false prophets
In
the Old Testament false prophets promised peace and
prosperity when the Lord was warning his people that
disaster was about to strike. The lives of great prophets
like Jeremiah and Ezekiel were made miserable by people who
refused to accept their warnings because the false prophets
were a lot nicer to listen to. King Jehoiakim once listened
to a lengthy scroll which contained all the words Jeremiah
had ever prophesied. At regular intervals the king would
have a scribe cut off the part of the scroll that had just
been read and toss it into the fire, thus hoping to destroy
Jeremiah's dire predictions. However, it is possible that
the prophet Baruch may have been even more upset about this
turn of events than Jeremiah. As Jeremiah's scribe, not only
did Baruch write out the original scroll by hand, it was his
job to write the whole scroll over again - with many similar
words in addition! [2]
In
contrast, today the Lord is coming to his people offering
peace, healing and restoration. Meanwhile, the false voices
are shouting doom and destruction. Listen to modern music,
read a newspaper, watch a television news program -- the
hopelessness and bad news is overwhelming. We should be
reluctant to fill our minds with these things.
New life in God's
kingdom
Jesus'
coming marked a new era in history. Scripture tells us that
Jesus came in the fullness of time, and since his coming we
are in the last days. The entire life of Jesus is a mystery
of redemption, and "the mystery of faith...transcends and
surpasses history."[3] Jesus began
his public ministry with these words:
"The time has come and the kingdom of
God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good
News."[4]
If
we look at Christianity as a restrictive morality or an
unlivable ideal, we are missing the point. A Christian is
first of all a follower of Jesus. It is through our
relationship with Jesus that we are inserted into the
Church, the body of Christ. In Jesus we are given the Holy
Spirit who prompts us to pray; and in Jesus we have access
to the Father of all mercy. The scriptures do more than
simply recount the words and deeds of God to us. As a living
word, they actually make God present to us. When we hear
scripture proclaimed God is speaking to us at that moment.
If we are quiet and listen attentively we will hear him.
Prayer
transforms us. Jesus tells us that we must not doubt when we
pray but pray with faith. This can be extremely difficult
when we are fearful about something, but God will answer our
needs. When we turn to God sincerely, we will often find our
fears easing and the quiet confidence of faith growing as
the Holy Spirit begins to form hope within us. St. Paul
tells us that the power of the Holy Spirit abounds in hope.
Our Christian hope is not fragile or fleeting; it is based
on God and absolutely secure and true. As we worship God we
come into peace and joy, and are drawn into love. In love we
listen to the Lord and respond to him by loving him and
loving his people. [5]
The path of intercession
The
Holy Spirit is always with us, prompting us to turn to God
in prayer and enabling us to pray "in the name" of Jesus. In
prayer we are drawn into Jesus and enriched by grace. The
love which is the end and fruit of our prayer, is also the
source and way of prayer. United with Jesus we are also
united with Mary. The mother of Jesus cares for us and
constantly intercedes that our lives overflow with the
salvation won for us by the shedding of her precious Son's
blood. A mother whose maternal love embraces all whom Jesus
came to save, Mary humbly comes into our homes and warmly
blesses all who, imitating the example of St. John the
beloved disciple, welcome her.
In
a particular way, Mary opens the doors of intercession to
us. Not only can we pray to her, but she prays with us and
teaches us to respond to the Holy Spirit's call to intercede
for others. The habit of obedience to the Spirit's prayer
promptings can lead to wonderful results.
I
remember one night I had to go out in a rain storm to help
an alcoholic who was in trouble. At about 2:00 a.m. I was
driving home in the storm, which had considerably worsened,
when lightning struck about ten feet in front of my car
(which, by the way, is an awesome sight!). The next day I
learned that five minutes prior to this Vickie had been
awakened by the thought that she should pray for someone in
our Community to be protected from being struck by
lightning. I am glad she did not take a few minutes to think
about it before she prayed!
It
is also important that we pray for those God has given to
shepherd us and guide us in our faith. This could include
our parents, teachers, spiritual directors or the like. Our
bishop and parish priests should be prominent parts of these
everyday intercessions. Our prayer helps them, but it also
helps us to come into a deep unity with them in their
ministry. If we are committed to this, the Holy Spirit will
soon start to form our prayer.
Some
of us have taken on a sort of Adopt-a-Priest program, in
which we each ask Jesus to inspire us towards a priest he
wants us to pray for. Then we make a commitment to pray each
day for that priest, asking our precious Saviour to uphold
them and bless their labour in his kingdom. If the
opportunity presents itself (which is not always), we also
try to encourage the priest or bishop by letting them know
that we are praying for them. God has given us these men to
lead us safely into eternal life, we are obliged to do our
part to support and care for them.
An answer to prayer
We
often begin praying with a list of work God needs to do. But
as we persevere in prayer, sincerely seeking his will and
the coming of his kingdom, our perspective changes. We
realize that God is close to us and loves us profoundly, and
the longing to be instruments extending his loving salvation
out to all grows in us.
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