PRAYER AS YEARNING FOR GOD
TUESDAY OF FIRST WEEK OF LENT
Isa 55:10-11; Ps 34:4-7,16-19; Mt
6:7-15
Our Father in Heaven
From
yesterday’s meditation on the precept of charity, which is the summary and
essence of all the commandments of God, we understood charity as God’s presence
in our souls. From that understanding, we explained the act of charity as a
divine act reflected or mediated through us and with our cooperation. Today’s
readings deal with the prerequisite for God’s indwelling in our souls. They are
about prayer in its most basic form and expression. For God to dwell in our
souls, we must yearn for him. Again, this yearning for God is not what we can
produce within and by ourselves. It originates from God, who made us for the
singular purpose of dwelling within us through his word. The reading from
Isaiah is about God sending his word to us; it compares the coming of the word
of God to the falling of rain. “As the rain and the snow come down from the
heavens and do not return without watering the earth, making it yield and
giving growth to provide seed for the sower and bread for the eating, so the
word that goes from my mouth does not return to me empty, without carrying out
my will and succeeding in what it was sent to do.” God himself creates the
yearning within us. As the early dawn, wrapped in darkness, yearns for the sun,
we yearn for the word of God that gives spiritual light and understanding.
The
innate yearning God created within us corresponds naturally to his word. In
this sense, we understand ourselves spiritually as the living temple of God.
The innate yearning increases as we receive and appropriate his word. It turns
to darkness when we cease yearning for God and turn to creatures. When our
yearning for creatures replaces our desire for God, the word of God ceases to
make us fertile and productive in spiritual life by changing our dawning
spiritual life into darkness that afflicts the soul. God allows the forces of
evil to enter the fortress of our souls through our desire or yearning for
creatures in place of the Creator. He grants this permission to correct us and
call us back to the right path of spiritual desire for God. Our Psalm for the
day is the exultation of a poor sinner who calls out to God in his affliction
and receives deliverance. “Glorify the Lord with me. Together let us praise his
name. I sought the Lord and he answered me; from all my terrors he set me free.
Look towards him and be radiant; let your faces not be abashed. This poor man
called, the Lord heard him and rescued him from all his distress.” The Lord
answers us in our afflictions because he sent them through his word for our
conversion to him.
The change of our desire from creatures to God begins the life of prayer, a spiritual rebirth that commences our transformation into the likeness of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man. Because prayer has this deep and spiritual root within us, the Lord admonishes us not to babble in prayer like those who do not know God and are regenerated. The prayer he taught us expresses the deep spiritual desire. “So you should pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be held holy, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us. And do not put us to the test, but save us from the evil one.’” He sends out his word to satisfy this desire we express in prayer each day. His word gives us spiritual growth. The Eternal Word became man for us to feed adequately and properly on God. The Church’s Eucharistic banquet ritualises our feeding as children of God redeemed and regenerated by the blood of the Lamb. Through the Eucharist, our desire for God is constantly satisfied and expanded. Therefore, by establishing our communion with God, prayer keeps us safe from the evil one, who deceives us to desire creatures in place of God.
Let us pray: Look upon your family, Lord, that, through the chastening effects of bodily discipline, our minds may be radiant in your presence with the strength of our yearning for you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
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