We humans are very good at thinking of God as so very far away from us, that we either stop believing in him, or only communicate with him as if from a long distance. You can see and hear me giving this Homily/Sermon on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKMILmc168s&t=239s
Our problem is that too often we think about our relationship with God by comparing it to the way we communicate with our fellow human beings; and we know that even with those we think know us best, those that we think can read our minds, misunderstandings occur. More often, we tend to think of God as a very important person we do not know well, and completely forget that God is just not like this. God is never distant, God never misunderstands us, even if we think he does; because the God we Christians believe in is actually deep within us. So if we think God misunderstands us, actually that’s because we do not know ourselves as well as he does.
This misunderstanding about God is challenged by St Paul very clearly in our 2nd Reading (Col 2:12-14) where, instead of presenting us with the death and resurrection of Christ as something we can look at from afar and praise God for, something that has the power to bring us salvation; he talks instead of us being “Buried with Christ” and “Raised up with him.” In fact his Greek is even more insistent on this, for he speaks of us being “Co-buried with Christ” and “Co-raised with him.”
Of course there are lots of passages in the Bible where God is presented as separate from us, not least the second half of our Gospel (Luke 11:1-13) where Jesus uses the image of asking help from a friend to encourage us to persist in prayer; but unless we realise that God is also within us, we will be led astray into praying to God in a pagan way, as if he is far away where we need to shout very loudly or pray in a particular way, or be particularly good, if we want to be heard. Indeed, when Matthew tells us of Jesus teaching on the Lord’s Prayer, unlike Luke he includes an important warning from Jesus as an introduction that is on this very point, for Jesus says: “In praying do not heap up empty phrases as the pagans do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
Now this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ever pray to God as if he were separate from us, for God accepts whatever kind of prayer we choose to offer; but if we simply try to communicate with God as if he is far away, we’ll eventually only think of him in this way, and miss so much of what our faith is all about. This is why any prayer that uses words, must be accompanied by a kind of inner silence in which rather than us praying to God, God prays within us. The classic passage about this is also from St Paul when he writes “The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26) And this is why the Lord’s Prayer is such an important prayer for all of us, (as in our Gospel Luke 11:1-13) because instead of us making up lots of our own words to pray, we pray in and with Jesus by using his words, using the words he taught us.
Once again, this doesn’t mean we should never use our own words. Of course we should, and indeed I along with many other people first discovered prayer, and therefore God, by realising I could chatter away to God with as many words as I wanted to, sharing with him all my joys and sorrows. But I also quickly discovered, as a new and enthusiastic Christian, that I often ran out of words, and it was then that I discovered the great Christian treasury of teaching on how to pray using silent meditation rather than lots of words. But silent meditation does not mean that our mind is silent, though it can mean that, more often it means mulling things over with God quietly in our mind. Here the example from our 1st Reading of Abraham doing this helps us, (Gen 18:20-32) for he is prepared to argue things out with God in a most familiar even in a slightly shocking way, although he does keep apologising for going on like this, doesn’t he? This Reading, and the Gospel, both show us that persistence in prayer is very important; but please note that persistence is not the same as just repeating the same words over and over again. That would be the pagan way. Instead, given that God is very close to us, what we need to do when we are concerned about someone or some situation is to spend time, lots of time, not just thinking about it by ourselves, but thinking about it with God, sharing our hopes and our fears, and pondering with God on any action that might be a useful thing to do.
However there is a place for repetitive prayer where it is used to help us to meditate, and this is very different from using lots of words. The Rosary is the most obvious example because the repetition of the Our Father and the Hail Mary calm our mind and help us to dwell in God rather than frantically trying to get in touch. Others, like me, prefer to use the Jesus Prayer; but it is the same basic principle. But it must not be used as if it is some magic formula that will bridge the gap between us and God if we do it often enough, rather it is a way of opening up to the God who is already with us.
It is the same with the words we use at Mass. Some parts of the Mass, like the Readings, are meant to make us think, often to challenge us, if we are prepared to listen. But others, the words we hear or say every week, are actually there to help us become more aware of God’s presence; and it is as we get to know them well and say or sing them week by week that they can be used more and more in this way, as the familiar words and our own thoughts merge with one another in and with God. However we pray, at Mass or alone, it is essential that we regularly remember this essential truth, that God is very close to us, in our hearts and in our minds, and not far away.
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