GOD'S RESTORATION OF OUR GOOD DESIRE AND PRAYER

SUNDAY, EIGHTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Exod 16:2-4,12-15; Ps 78:3-4,23-25,54; Eph 4:17,20-24; Jn 6:24-35

God conditioning Man to Desire and Pray rightly

In the opening prayer, the Church asks God to draw near to us and answer our prayers with unceasing kindness, restore what he had created, and safeguard what he has restored. Since it is not the case that God ceases to answer men’s prayers, for genuine prayers are indeed inspired by him, it becomes clear that he needs to restore in man what was damaged by original sin. What needs restoration in man is the ability to desire according to the will of God. Knowing that desires are flights of love, God needs to fix the love of true good in us. This is necessary for God to answer our prayers. God will never alter his will. Hence, to receive answers to our prayers, we must learn to pray according to the will of the Father. This forms the core of God’s self-revelation to man. God draws near to teach us his will so that we may enter into communion with him. We see this in the first reading, narrating the experience of the children of Israel in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. God’s first work on them was to start correcting their desires. That children of Israel desired wrongly is made evident in their complaint: “Why did we not die at the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we were able to sit down to pans of meat and could eat bread to our heart’s content! As it is, you have brought us to this wilderness to starve this whole company to death!”

They did not know what constituted their true good; hence, they desired and prayed wrongly. Subsequently, God’s fulfilment of their inordinate desire was not an answer to their wrong prayer but to test or train them to love, desire, and pray rightly. “Now I will rain down bread for you from the heavens. Each day the people are to go out and gather the day’s portion; I propose to test them in this way to see whether they will follow my law or not.” It follows that God’s coming close to the Israelites is to grow their ability and willingness to follow God’s will or law. Do you now understand why God grants our inordinate desires sometimes? What we desire and pray for very often are not evil; they are good things inordinately desired because we place their satisfaction before God. God grants them in such a way as not to perpetuate our inordinate love and desire but to open our eyes and hearts to love him, who is our true Good. He granted their desire in such a way as to open their eyes to the miracle he worked for them. The Psalmist meditates on this marvel the Lord did for them. “The glories of the Lord and his marvellous deeds he has done, … Yet he commanded the clouds above and opened the gates of heaven. He rained down manna for their food and gave them bread from heaven.” He gave them what they desired in such a way that beat their imagination.

We see the same manner of acting in the Gospel when our Lord fed the five thousand men with five barley loaves and two fish. The setting of the miracle is to help us connect it to the Exodus event. The crowd came to him in a wild and lonely place to listen to his teaching and receive healing. The Lord himself discerned their need for food, for he was the one who asked Philip about food for them, while knowing what to do. John said he asked this to test Philip. Our Lord wanted to find out if they would recognise the divine gift. Again, he provided for their needs without their asking, in such a way that provoked their thoughts about him; they resolved to force him to be their king. Did they learn the lesson the miracle was intended to teach them? Certainly not, for they came to him again with a desire for food and drink.

The intention to force him to be their king was not because of their love for him, but because of their desire for food and drink. “I tell you most solemnly, you are not looking for me because you have seen the signs but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat.” Many of us come to Church, pray and do novenas, fast and keep vigils, not because of our love for God and desire to be close to him, but because of our love for material things and our desire to receive one favour or the other. His answers to our prayers and His provision of our needs have not turned our hearts to love him who is our supreme Good. Like the people seeking him in the Gospel, we have not seen in Jesus Christ the sign or sacrament of God’s love and providence. So, we have not responded with hearts full of love and devotion to God for his loving providence. “It is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven, the true bread; for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

It is this knowledge and the corresponding love that God comes close to restore in us through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is the life characterised by this love and desire for Jesus Christ, our Bread from heaven, that St. Paul urged us to make progress in living, and not the empty life characterised by illusory desires for passing goods and pleasures. “You must give up your old way of life; you must put aside your old self, which gets corrupted by following illusory desires.” God comes close to us, as he will come in the Eucharist today, to restore this love and desire in us. When God has restored it, we will know that the heavenly Father has provided for all our needs in Jesus Christ, our Bread from heaven.

Let us pray: Draw near to your servants, O Lord, and answer their prayers with unceasing kindness, that, for those who glory in you as their Creator and guide, you may restore what you have created and keep safe what you have restored.