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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