PRAYER AS REVELATION OF GOD


THURSDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Rom 8:31-39; Ps 109:21-22,26-27,30-31; Lk 13:31-35

The Revelation of the Son and the Father in Prayer

Like newborn babies, we grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ through feeding regularly on Him, the eternal Word of God. As we commune daily with the Holy Spirit and follow his inspiration, we eat of the word of God, which illuminates every event of our daily life and makes us grow in the knowledge and spiritual stature of the Son of Man. We have explained this spiritual eating as constitutive of our interior life as Christians. If we are not living and drawing life from our new spirit, then we are not nourishing our spiritual life, but only our physical one. When this is the case, we will only grow in the knowledge of the physical reality without growing in spirit. To grow spiritually, we must live interiorly and from the spirit we have received at our profession of faith in Jesus Christ. The new spirit is a principle of life that connects us immediately with the Holy Spirit. Hence, the duty of prayer is a bounden one on us. Prayer is the life of a Christian, for it is a seeking of the heavenly food and spiritual well-being. It is the path leading to the fulfilment of the purpose of our creation, namely, to be made like God. It is not only our life, but it also sets us apart from other animals that seek their natural well-being on earth. Being what makes us unique as men, it is also our greatest means of salvation from the temporal and spiritual dangers we face daily.

The aspect of prayer as a means of salvation is what Saint Paul expounded in the passage from his letter to the Romans. Because prayer is cooperation with God, whose presence is with us as grace, it is our defence against every evil and danger. Thus, Saint Paul writes: “With God on our side who can be against us?  Since God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up to benefit us all, we may be certain, after such a gift, that he will not refuse anything he can give.” Prayer is therefore also a revelation of the Father, for as we feed and grow in Jesus Christ through prayer, we come to know better the love of the Father that prompts His gift of the Son to us and for our salvation. The knowledge of the Son and the Father increase our awareness of grace, or the presence of God with us to accomplish his divine will. The awareness grows so strong that even temporal afflictions or evil cannot overcome or diminish our conviction. “Nothing therefore can come between us and the love of Christ, even if we are troubled or worried, or being persecuted, or lacking food or clothes, or being threatened or even attacked.” In fact, Paul recognises these trials as indicators of God’s love for us, which purifies us for the heavenly glory. “These are the trials through which we triumph, by the power of him who loved us.”

These trials and the prayerful contemplation of them enable us to grow into the fullness of knowledge and the stature of the Son of Man. The Gospel shows us the same mindset in our Lord Jesus Christ when he was threatened by Herod. “Some Pharisees came up to Jesus. ‘Go away’ they said. ‘Leave this place, because Herod means to kill you.’ He replied, ‘You may go and give that fox this message: Learn that today and tomorrow I cast out devils and on the third day attain my end. But for today and tomorrow and next day I must go on, since it would not be right for a prophet to die outside Jerusalem.” Our Lord, who had absolute trust in the plan and will of his heavenly Father, knows that nothing happens without the Father’s knowledge and permission. Herod and the people of Jerusalem would only fulfil the plan of God and nothing more. Our prayerful contemplation of the mysteries of our Lord as they flow into our daily lives helps us to grow into the mindset of the Son of Man. To fail in our prayers is to gradually lose sight of these mysteries and become part of Jerusalem that persecutes and kills the prophets and those God sends to her. If, through grace gained in prayer, we are able to recognise everything that comes to us daily as coming from the hand of God, we would praise and bless his holy will, which plans all things for our love and salvation. Paul testifies to this: “For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, or height or depth, nor any created things, can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

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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