OUR FOUNDATION IN PRAYER


WEDNESDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Rom 8:26-30; Ps 13:4-6; Lk 13:22-30

The Faith Foundation of Prayer

When we receive the gift of faith from God, our innate desire finds a direction to God. Before we received the divine gift of faith and the spiritual life subsequent to it, the innate desire in us roamed the material world, seeking a proportionate good that would satisfy us. Our craving for creatures only increased our hunger and emptiness without God. It follows that prayer or desire is innate in us because of our original longing for God, which God put in us when he made us in his image. We prayed to our idols, creatures in which we hoped to receive fulfilment in our land of exile from God. The divine light shines in our darkness when we receive the word of God, and through the gift of faith it confers, we receive a new spirit that defines our true prayer to God. The new spirit we receive from the Holy Spirit brings order and harmony to our disordered desires for creatures and purifies them at the origin of our souls, and redirects them to God the Father. Without our encounter with the word of God and the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us, it is impossible to pray or desire properly. Once the Holy Spirit has established this new centre of spiritual desire within us, prayer becomes a supernatural activity or operation that is vital for our spiritual life. Just as breathing is necessary for natural life, prayer must never stop, or we lose the spiritual life.

Because of the fundamental importance of prayer for a Christian, Saint Paul explains how the Holy Spirit joins or cooperates with our spirit to pray. At its deepest root and meaning, prayer is our reaching out to God for spiritual life. Hence, it simply means ‘Abba Father’, according to Paul. Still unable to distinguish between spiritual and material goods, we often devote time and interest to seeking material benefits. The Holy Spirit understands how irrelevant such petitions are before the Father, so he comes to help us to pray properly. “The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words, and God who knows everything in our hearts, knows perfectly well what he means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God.” Oftentimes, the petitions we make consciously are at variance with what our spirit is asking through the help of the Holy Spirit. The difference diminishes as we become more spiritual through the process of divine purification. Hence, genuine praying in tongues or sighs may diminish as we make progress in spirituality. The growth rate depends on our willingness and humble acceptance of God’s purifications. “We know that by turning everything to their good God co-operates with all those who love him, with all those that he called according to his purpose.”

When our fixation on material goods and pleasure prevents us from cooperating with God’s purifying graces, we get stuck on the spiritual journey. The Holy Spirit can only help us with our cooperation through faith, hope, and charity. The lack of our willing cooperation may cause newcomers to spiritual life to overtake us on the journey. Our Lord teaches this in the Gospel when someone asked him about the number of those to be saved. He replied: “Try your best to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed. Once the master of the house has got up and locked the door, you may find yourself knocking on the door, saying, “Lord, open to us,” but he will answer, “I do not know where you come from.”” Truly, the Lord does not know where those locked out are coming from, for they were occupied by creatures, and failed to give their minds, hearts, and will to the purifying word of God in them. Some would be delayed along the way because of attachment to creatures, and regain their desire for God before the master locks the door. So, the Lord added: “Yes, there are those now last who will be first, and those now first who will be last.” Since none of us is sufficient for this divine end, we pray for grace to be awake and vigilant, with our oil of desire and love for God burning steadily in our attendance to the Master. We pray to be with him when he stands to lock the door of salvation. “As for me, I trust in your merciful love. Let my heart rejoice in your saving help. Let me sing to the Lord for his goodness to me, singing psalms to the name of the Lord, the Most High.”

Let us pray: Almighty ever-living God, increase our faith, hope and charity, and make us love what you command, so that we may merit what you promise. 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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