Bible
Study: 1 Samuel 3, 1 to 10 and 19 to 20.
And Mark 1, 29 to 39.
Yesterday,
we concluded our reflection on prayer by saying: “Prayer is not a conversation,
it is a relationship. It is not something we do in life, it is rather a life we
live. Prayer is not just a matter of words, it is a matter of deeds. Prayer is
covenant.” Today, our liturgy gives us another dimension to our understanding
of the essence of prayer. Prayer demands that we are alone!
Until we
learn to be alone, we cannot connect with God. Prayer is not something we do by
force or because others are doing it, prayer is something we prepare for,
something we make out time for and bring our whole being into. For prayers to
be effective, there must be a solid connection between you and God.
Since it
is impossible to connect with God and with the whole world at the same time,
you must first disconnect from the world in other to connect with God. This is
why as we read in today’s Gospel passage, Jesus rose early in the morning and
went to a LONELY PLACE to pray. Note that this was his tradition. Jesus was not
like the Pharisees who would stand in a market place or in the open view of
everybody to pray.
In
teaching us to pray Jesus told us exactly what he practiced: “Whenever you
pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in
secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Matthew 6, 6. He would either rise very early in the
morning or he would dismiss the crowd at the end of the day’s activities to be
all by himself to pray.
When it
comes to prayer, location matters. And by location, I refer not just to a
physical location but the inner location of our thoughts, our hearts and
attention. If your mind is busy
calculating or perambulating all over the place, thinking about your worries,
fantasizing about your wishes, unable to stay calm, present and attentive to
hear the voice of God, your prayer is simply a mere pronunciation of words.
As we see
in our first reading, Samuel’s location was a very important factor of his
call. He was just at the right place and at the right time; lying down inside
the Temple directly in front of the ark of the Lord. Take note, even though Samuel
was sleeping, he was very much attentive. His mind was not occupied with
worldly concerns, how to make a lot of money or how to be married to some
beautiful lady; he was not day-dreaming.
Samuel was
able to hear the voice of God because he was alone, not just physically but
mentally as well. Although, he did not recognise it as God’s voice initially,
after three times of running to Eli, Eli realised what was really happening and
instructed the young man on what to do. Go back again, lie down, stay calm,
listen and then respond, “Speak Lord for your servant is listening.” Given his
spiritual maturity, Eli did not make the mistake of saying to Samuel, “Ok,
since you are hearing voices, come and lie down here with me in my room.” He told
Samuel, go back and be alone.
All
through the scriptures, we read of accounts of how God called people in other
to use them mightily and one fact that is fairly consistent with these persons
is that God called them alone. From Abraham, our father in faith who was asked
by God to leave his Father’s land and move to an unknown destination, to the
disciples who left their families and their fishing trade, God continues to
take people out of their comfort zone, out of their attachment to worldly
concerns.
If we must
connect with God, it is important that we go to a “lonely place” where our
minds can focus on nothing else other than God. And even if we are praying with
others, we must be alone with God in spirit, otherwise our prayer would simply
be a matter of talking and listening to the people around us.
And the
truth is that because we are yet to learn how to focus only on God, much of
what we call prayer is a waste of time and energy. We pray so that others can
hear us, we say we are praying yet we are busy analysing English grammar,
taking note of mistakes or trying to correct wrong pronunciations.
Today we
celebrate St. Hilary, a great intellectual colossus whose defence of the
Christian faith both by pen and word of mouth was quite outstanding. Born of
pagan parents, he received a thorough education but would later on become
converted and then devote himself to the study of Church Fathers so as to fight
against the Arian heresy that was devouring the faith at that time. For all his
writing and teachings, he was proclaimed as Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius IX
in 1851.
Let us
Pray:
Lord
Jesus, I teach me to disconnect with the world so as to pray and help me always,
that I may pray well. Amen. St. Hilary, pray for us.
God bless you. Good morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is
well with you.
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