SpiritMatters Monthly May 2009

There is a wonderful episode of The Simpsons in which Lisa spies on her older brother Bart praying to get out of a test and states: “Prayer: The last refuge of a scoundrel.” Lisa, who was misquoting Samuel Johnson, still makes the point that many people only turn to prayer as a last resort after every device of their own has been exhausted. Bart wanted his desires granted, and if forced to he would even pray for them. Now we may not all be scoundrels, but I do think that there is a strong tendency for us to misplace the role of prayer in our lives. Rather than praying daily for continued health and vitality, we wait until we become gravely ill and then pray for a miracle; rather than praying for God to meet our needs, we decide first what our needs are and then become frustrated when God doesn’t give us what we want; or even worse, God does give us what we want, only for us to discover that it’s not actually what we needed.

When it comes to prayer many of us have a strong tendency to treat God like a genie in a bottle: there more for granting wishes than for granting wisdom. In ancient Greek plays there is a plot device called a deus ex machina, in which a character playing a god is dropped onto the stage from out of nowhere and solves all of the characters’ problems. Perhaps it is human nature, but I think we often expect God to be like that Greek character: coming around only to fix the unfixable and leaving the rest to us.

Despite all of the apocalyptic things we read and see on television, there has been a strong tendency in the Judeo-Christian traditions, and in many pagan traditions as well, to push against this idea of God only being concerned with the beginning and end of life and nothing in between. The Psalms are beautiful examples of mankind petitioning God to be present, not just to our needs, but also to our joys and sorrows. Many of the stories of the patriarchs and prophets from the Hebrew Scriptures are meant to show that God is not just a puller-of-strings, but a vibrant life-force in the midst of a faithful people. According to tradition, King David, the poet to whom many of the psalms are ascribed, was born and died on the feast of Shavuot, a festival that celebrates the harvest and the Torah (or God’s provision of material and spiritual blessings). It was on this feast of Shavuot that the early followers of Jesus Christ experienced God’s gift of the Holy Spirit, also known as the Paraclete, or the helper. This gift, which is celebrated today as the Christian feast of Pentecost, was a clear demonstration to this community of faithful people that God wished to be a dynamic life and wisdom giving force in their lives and not just a detached observer and judge. The idea that God is present to us and is our helper in everyday life has guided the Church in its understanding and use of prayer. Asking God to provide for our needs was seen as such an important practice that the Church designated a few days in the year to be specific Rogation Days (in Latin the word rogare means: to ask). These days often involved parishes processing around their community and their fields with their clergy asking for God’s protection and provision for the needs of the community. To many modern Christians processions (with the possible exception of funeral processions), may seem like a quaint relic of a bygone age, but they do make an important statement: God is not hiding in our churches and chapels, aloof and uninterested in our daily lives and needs. No, processions make the statement that God is alive and in the world and in our streets and hallways. Processions claim that God is present to everyone that has needs, not just to the regular church-goer. While of course we should always pray whenever and wherever the need arises, there is something to be said for having special moments when we recognize the value and importance of regular prayer. The psalms, like Rogation Day processions, remind us that God hears the cries of those in distress, but they also show us by example that first and foremost prayer ought to be an act of devotion, not desperation.

May it be so.

Blessings,
Fr. Kevin