PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT OF JESUS

20151008 PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT OF JESUS

Readings at Mass

First reading

Malachi 3:13-20 ©

You say harsh things about me, says the Lord. You ask, ‘What have we said against you?’ You say, ‘It is useless to serve God; what is the good of keeping his commands or of walking mournfully before the Lord of Hosts? Now we have reached the point when we call the arrogant blessed; yes, they prosper, these evil-doers; they try God’s patience and yet go free.’ This is what those who fear the Lord used to say to one another. But the Lord took note and heard them: a book of remembrance was written in his presence recording those who fear him and take refuge in his name. On the day which I am preparing, says the Lord of Hosts, they are going to be my own special possession. I will make allowances for them as a man makes allowances for the son who obeys him. Then once again you will see the difference between an upright man and a wicked one, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him. For the day is coming now, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and the evil-doers will be like stubble. The day that is coming is going to burn them up, says the Lord of Hosts, leaving them neither root nor stalk. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will shine out with healing in its rays.

Psalm

Psalm 1:1-4,6 ©

Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.

Happy indeed is the man

  who follows not the counsel of the wicked;

nor lingers in the way of sinners

  nor sits in the company of scorners,

but whose delight is the law of the Lord

  and who ponders his law day and night.

Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.

He is like a tree that is planted

  beside the flowing waters,

that yields its fruit in due season

  and whose leaves shall never fade;

  and all that he does shall prosper.

Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.

Not so are the wicked, not so!

For they like winnowed chaff

  shall be driven away by the wind.

for the Lord guards the way of the just

  but the way of the wicked leads to doom.

Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.

Gospel Acclamation

Jn14:6

Alleluia, alleluia!

I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, says the Lord;

No one can come to the Father except through me.

Alleluia!

Or	cf.Ac16:14

Alleluia, alleluia!

Open our heart, O Lord,

to accept the words of your Son.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Luke 11:5-13 ©

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him in the middle of the night to say, “My friend, lend me three loaves, because a friend of mine on his travels has just arrived at my house and I have nothing to offer him”; and the man answers from inside the house, “Do not bother me. The door is bolted now, and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up to give it you.” I tell you, if the man does not get up and give it him for friendship’s sake, persistence will be enough to make him get up and give his friend all he wants.

  ‘So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him. What father among you would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread? Or hand him a snake instead of a fish? Or hand him a scorpion if he asked for an egg? If you then, who are evil, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’

PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT OF JESUS

SCRIPTURE READINGS: Malachi 3:13-20; Ps 1:1-4,6; Lk 11:5-13

Very often we hear the sentiments of those good Israelites in the first reading accusing the Lord of being unfair towards them.  Like them, in our anger we say, “It is useless to serve God; what is the good of keeping his commands or of walking mournfully before the Lord of Hosts? Now we have reached the point when we call the arrogant blessed; yes, they prosper, these evil-doers; they try God’s patience and yet go free.”   Indeed, we wonder why we should live a good and holy life when we see the dishonest and evil people seeming to have the best things in life.  They are thriving and prosperous while we who walk the ways of the Lord are suffering and seem to be getting a worse deal.

But this is not true at all.  The Lord is faithful to those who are good and true to the Law.  This is what the prophet wanted to reassure the good people who were tempted to give up doing good because they seem to suffer even more.  The prophet said, “But the Lord took note and heard them: a book of remembrance was written in his presence recording those who fear him and take refuge in his name.  On the day which I am preparing, says the Lord of Hosts, they are going to be my own special possession.  I will make allowances for them as a man makes allowances for the son who obeys him.  Then once again you will see the difference between an upright man and a wicked one, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him.”

It is within this context that the gospel of today invites us to cultivate the right spirit in prayer, which involves having the right attitudes towards God and our images of Him.  Today’s gospel reading is a sequence to yesterday’s gospel text on the Lord’s Prayer.  In the gospel yesterday we read that “once Jesus was in a certain place praying, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’”  Clearly, the disciples must have been impressed and edified by the way Jesus prayed and the way He related with His Father.  They therefore wanted to enter into the same spirit of prayer so that they too can enjoy the intimacy with His Father.

To the request of His disciples on how to pray, Jesus gave them the “Our Father.”  This prayer is more than just a prayer composed by the Lord Himself, or summed up by the primitive Christian community.  It is a prayer that is the basis and pattern for all prayers.  The principles of prayer, the content that should be included in every prayer and the object of prayer are all concisely contained in the Lord’s Prayer.  In fact, the Lord’s Prayer summarizes all our petitions and therefore is a fitting conclusion to the Liturgy of the Hours as it sums all the prayers of the psalmists.  So the Lord’s Prayer gives us the “what” to pray.

Today, the Lord tells us how to pray. It is not enough to know the Lord’s Prayer or to know the content of what should be prayed.  The trouble with us is that we are all reciting the Lord’s Prayer many times a day without imbibing the Spirit contained in that prayer.   We just repeat it like a parrot without consciously entering into the Spirit of Jesus when He taught us that prayer.  Thus, we must have the right spirit in praying the Lord’s Prayer, or any other prayer, if we want our prayers to be heard.  What, then, is this spirit that we are called to cultivate?

Firstly, we must believe that God is our Father who loves us because this is how the prayer begins, “Our Father.”  The question is: Do we truly believe that God who is our Father loves us and will look after us?  To underscore this point so that we have confidence when we pray, the Lord tells us the parable of the reluctant man who was forced to get up from his bed to answer the request of his persistent neighbor who came to ask for food for his guest.

This is a parable of contrast; not of similarity.  Jesus remarked, “If the man does not get up and give it him for friendship’s sake, persistence will be enough to make him get up and give his friend all he wants.”  In saying this, Jesus is not suggesting that we need to badger the Lord before God answers our petition. On the contrary, He is saying that God will do much more for us because we are His children.

Yet, we must be persistent in our prayer.  Hence, he said, “So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him.”  Why should we be persistent in prayer if God is more than willing to give us what we need?  Why do we still have to ask, search and knock?  In another text, Jesus seems to contradict Himself when He said, “Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”  (Mt 6:8) Hence, why then do we need to keep asking from the Lord if He knows what we need?

The problem is not on God’s side.  It is on ours.  We do not know what we want or rather what we need and what is truly good for us.  This is what Jesus said, “What father among you would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread? Or hand him a snake instead of a fish? Or hand him a scorpion if he asked for an egg? If you then, who are evil, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”  In truth, God would only give us the best but unfortunately we are so blind and ignorant that we ask for the wrong things.  We mistake stone for bread, snake for a fish, and scorpion for an egg.  In other words, we are seeking for the wrong things that are truly good for us in life.

So we must ask, search and knock so that we will come to know the will of God for us.  We must not think that because of our persistent prayers, we force God to change His mind.  Rather, when we pray with perseverance and persistence, we come to understand deeper and clearer the plan of God for us.  This was the way of our Lord when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane.  The heavenly Father did not take away His cup of suffering but helped Him to understand that was His divine will.  So it was in the struggle at prayer in the

Garden that Jesus came to align His human will with the Divine will.

We need to be persistent in prayer and persevere so that we can intensify our desire for what we seek from the Lord.  If a person is truly sincere in wanting something, he or she will not just pray but also cooperate with the grace of God.  For example, if you truly want to have good health, then besides praying you will also do exercise and observe a proper diet and live a balanced lifestyle.   But if one continues to live an unhealthy lifestyle, then that prayer lacks sincerity.   If you are suffering from a stroke and you want to get well, then besides praying for the strength to get well, we must pray for the strength and discipline to go through the rehabilitation program as well.  Praying alone without cooperating with His divine grace shows the lack of real desire or sincerity in what we want.

In the final analysis, as Jesus said, what we need to pray for is the Holy Spirit which the Father wants to give to us.  We need to pray that we have the same spirit as Jesus in the way He prayed and lived His life.  As St Paul says, “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”  (Room 8:27f)

When we pray in this way, then the psalmist assures us, “Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.  He is like a tree that is planted beside the flowing waters, that yields its fruit in due season and whose leaves shall never fade; and all that he does shall prosper. Not so are the wicked, not so! For they like winnowed chaff shall be driven away by the wind. For the Lord guards the way of the just but the way of the wicked leads to doom.”

Written by The Most Rev William Goh

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore

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