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Prayer

I once had a very wise spiritual director who said to me about himself, “The most necessary thing in my life is sleep; the most important thing in my life is prayer.” I am sure many of us would agree with his first statement about sleep. It would be good if we also agreed with his second about prayer. Prayer was the most important thing in his life because the most important relationship in his life was his relationship with God.

Prayer is an expression of our relationship with God; prayer helps us to grow in our relationship with God. But who is the God whose friendship and help we experience in prayer? Jesus calls him Father; in fact he calls him Abba which means daddy! To call God Abba Father means that God is not someone who is remote and distant from us, someone who is uninvolved and uninterested in our lives. On the contrary, the God of Jesus is a God who knows each of us personally, who loves us unconditionally and who cares for us faithfully. The Abba of Jesus is a Father who wants what is best for us as parents want what is best for their children.

So how should we pray to this God who loves us to bits? Jesus is clear that we should use simple, honest words when we talk to God. There is no need to babble, to use many complicated words. The best words are those that come from our hearts. The best words are those that are an honest expression of what is in our hearts. What Jesus is asking us to do is talk to God as if we were talking to our best friend.

Jesus is also clear that we should ask God for what it is we need and to keep on asking. Jesus insists that we persevere in prayer. Our prayer must be persistent. Jesus assures us that God does answer our prayers of petition, but we must remember that when God answers our prayers he does so in a way that is best for us. God sees the overall picture of our lives whereas usually we only see the immediate, present really. When God answers our prayers God has our true good, our lasting good at heart.

It is important that we do not get discouraged if we do not get from God what we ask for. What we ask for may not be what we truly need at the time. Our prayers are never wasted on God. After all, God is our Father.

Seven Demons

Because of the human condition we are prone to compulsive behaviour. Indeed our compulsive behaviour can become addictive. In the scriptures our addictions are often referred to as demons. There are demons operating in our lives seeking to control and imprison us. Jesus suggests that these demons may be legion. Here let me focus on seven all of which begin with the letter P. Seven is a significant biblical number and alliteration can help us to remember.

Possessions: I need to own things, plenty of things. I believe that the more things I have the more secure I will be. Possessions are my way of filling the emptiness I feel inside. Because of this I shop, I consume, I buy things I do not need, I waste money. The allure of possessions prevents me from saying, ‘I have enough.’

Power: I need to be in charge and in control. I want to be the one who is making the decisions. My hunger for power makes me ambitious, even ruthless. Because of it I can walk over people and use them for my own advantage.

Pleasure: I invest too much time and energy in the things that give me pleasure – TV, sport, alcohol, music, computer games, the internet , my mobile phone .… I see life as having a good time. It is about fun and games. Pain is to be avoided, so is sacrifice. I use people for my enjoyment.

Productivity: I need to achieve and be productive. I always have to be doing something useful. In fact, I only feel good about myself when I am busy. If I have nothing to do I feel restless, even guilty. My obsessive need to be productive can turn me into a workaholic.

Popularity: It is important for me to be popular, to have people like me, to be highly thought of. I am constantly trying to please other people. I am all things to all men and women. I have no mind of my own, no identity of my own. I get my identity from making other people happy.

Presentation: I am overly preoccupied with my image, my appearance and the way I look. I need to live in the right location and drive the best car. I will not appear in public unless I look presentable. I diet and exercise not because this is healthy but because having a good figure will gain me the affirmation and approval of others. In fact, it is only by appearing attractive that I can feel good about myself.

Prestige: My status in life is a big thing. I need to have a good reputation. I like to be associated with people who are well known or rich or powerful. Being around people who are important makes me feel important. Associating with people who are famous helps me to feel good about myself. The esteem associated with my job, my wealth, my friends is necessary for my own self- esteem.

From Duty to Encounter

It is not a good thing to put people on a pedestal. We are all weak, limited, imperfect and fickle. We cannot not disappoint one another. To expect too much from other human beings is to set ourselves up for constant disappointment.

It is the same with institutions. If we put too much trust in institutions we are going to be let down. In recent times we have seen how self-serving all the big institutions are. The flaws of our politicians, our bankers and our church leaders have been exposed often dramatically and with devastating consequences. No wonder so many people in our society seem to lack any kind of moral compass.

When it comes to the institution of the church it is important for us to realise that the church is not an end in itself but a means to an end. The primary reason the church exists is to bring people into a relationship with God. Our deepest belonging is to God. This means that our security is to be found in the relationship God has with us not in the institutional life of the church. People are often attracted to the church because they believe it will give them the certainty they crave. Those who seek certainty in institutional religion have a tendency to cling to every detail of church teaching and practice. No institution including the church can provide us with absolute certainty. Indeed, the desire for certainty can prevent us from putting our faith in a loving and dependable God.

To mature in our faith we must move from institutional belonging to encounter. It is not enough for us to say that we belong to the church. This will only satisfy some of our needs. Sooner or later we must have an encounter with God. An encounter with God is a uniquely personal experience and it helps us to take possession of the relationship God has with us. Only a relationship with God can nourish the deeper longings in the human heart. An adult Christian is one who has encountered God and who finds love and security in a living relationship with God.

It is an encounter with God that brings us into the mystical stage of religion. In the mystical stage of religion we know that we are loved unconditionally and that we have nothing to fear. This is the stage when we discover that God is our rock, refuge and strength. It is also the stage when we surrender and trust at deeper levels. Ultimately we must live by faith. To live by faith is to anchor our lives in God in the sure knowledge that God who is relentless affection is totally faithful to us.

Accepting our Humanity

There is a saying that familiarity breeds contempt. Whatever about breeding contempt, familiarity can certainly make us blind. When we grow up with people, when we live with people and become accustomed to them, we can find it difficult to believe that there is more to them than meets the eye. We can make assumptions that may in fact be wrong.

This certainly was the case with Jesus. His own town’s people, his neighbours, could not accept the fact that a person who went to school with them, who played with them, who attended the synagogue with them, who socialised with them, who worked for them as a tradesman was in fact a prophet, indeed the long awaited prophet promised by God.

Perhaps the issue for the Jesus’ town’s people was ordinariness rather than familiarity. How can God be present in someone who is so ordinary, who is like the rest of us? Can God’s Messiah be someone who comes from a remote village, who lives in relatively poor circumstances, who works as a carpenter, whose life is full of simple, mundane chores? This is the scandal of Christianity; that God has come to us in and through the life of an ordinary human being known as Jesus of Nazareth. Whether we like it or not, whether we are comfortable with it or not, God is to be found in the humanity of Jesus. This is the fundamental truth of Christianity and it is called the Incarnation.

The Incarnation has two important implications for us. The first is that we need to accept that we experience God in and through the humanity of Jesus. The second is a consequence of the first. We also need to accept that we experience God in our own humanity and in the humanity of other people. God is not to be found in some ethereal world outside and beyond our human experience. God is found in the here and now, in the concreteness and ordinariness of everyday life, in all that is human. To deny our humanity in all its forms of expression is to hide from God. To say ‘yes’ to our humanity is to say ‘yes’ to God.

Trinity

Christians believe that God is a Trinity of Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In other words, Christians believe that there is a community life in the reality we call God. To find out what this means we can read the Scriptures. We can also explore our human experience. If God has created us and our world, and if God is Trinity, then the Trinitarian life of God must be reflected in our human lives in all sorts of ways.

An obvious way is our social nature. We are social beings. We create relationships and we sustain relationships. In fact, without relationships we wither and die emotionally, even physically. John Donne once said that no man is an island unto himself. We cannot survive in isolation. It is in living with others, it is in loving others, that we find meaning and that we become our true selves.

Another way is the power of cooperation. When it comes to a project, a task, an undertaking, the best results are usually achieved when there is cooperation, when people work together as a team. Ask any sports person, any project manager, any government and they will tell you that the team effort is the best effort, it is the most fruitful and successful effort. It is also the effort that gives most satisfaction and fulfilment to all those involved.

Then there is the unity of creation. One of the things we are becoming more aware of today is the way creation functions. The created world is interdependent. One part of it affects another. For example, the cutting down of the rain forests in South America has an impact on climate patterns in Europe and Africa. The laws of nature are finely balanced and when they are allowed to work together in unity and harmony they fulfil their purpose.

And finally, there is this attempt by a woman to describe what trinity means in her life:

“I am a daughter and a wife and mother – three things, yet I am one totality. To my parents, I would always be their child. To my husband, a companion and a mate. To my children, the one who gave them birth and nurtured them till they reached adulthood. I seem to each of them a different person. They each know a different kind of ‘me.’ But I am one, within myself a trinity and each of them finds unity in me.”

The Holy Spirit

Of the three Persons in the community life of God the one that tends to get least attention is the Holy Spirit. Perhaps this is because we find it easier to relate to Jesus who became human. We also have some experience of what it means to have a father. The idea of Spirit is more nebulous. And yet if it wasn’t for the Holy Spirit we would not be able to live the Christian life. In the Holy Spirit we have received a wonderful gift. The Holy Spirit does many necessary things for us. Here are four:

(1) The Holy Spirit is our helper. We cannot live the Christian life on our own power and strength. Jesus knew that what he was asking us to do was humanly impossible. He knew we would need divine help. This is why he and his Father gave us the gift of their Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our energiser, the tiger in our tanks! The Holy Spirit is the one who empowers us to live like Jesus in our daily lives. The Holy Spirit is also the one who helps us to pray.

(2) The Holy Spirit enlightens us. Many of the traditional prayers we say to the Holy Spirit focus on inspiration, understanding and enlightenment. This is because we associate the Holy Spirit with the gift of wisdom and discernment. The Holy Spirit is the one we naturally turn to when we need to be inspired and when we have important decisions to make. When it comes to guidance and to the ability to see the hand of God at work in our lives we are dependent on the Holy Spirit.

(3) The Holy Spirit transforms us. We are invited to become like Jesus. Our destiny is to share in the very life of God. The problem is that we all have hurts, bias and selfish tendencies within us that need to be healed and purified. This healing and purification is the work of the Holy Spirit. One of the symbols we use to describe the action of the Holy Spirit is fire. Fire refines and burns. The flame of the Holy Spirit within us is a refining fire. It burns away the evil in our hearts so that we can become like Jesus.

(4) The Holy Spirit unites us. The Holy Spirit is often referred to as the bond of love. This is a beautiful description of the Holy Spirit. In the same way that a child is the bond of love between a husband and wife so the Holy Spirit is the bond of love between the Father and the Son in the life of God. The Holy Spirit is also the bond of love between Jesus and us and indeed between the members of the Christian community. The Holy Spirit is the one who links us up, who makes us into a family. The Holy Spirit is the source of unity between us. This is why we say that the Church was born as a community on the first Pentecost. There is a divine energy flowing between us, holding us together, allowing us to affect one another, even when we are physically separated. This divine energy is the Holy Spirit.

To have a divine person in our lives to help us, to enlighten us, to transform us and to unite us is surely a gift to take hold of, depend on and cherish.

The Journey of Life

Nowadays it is not uncommon to hear life being described as a journey. A journey is a good image, a helpful image, to describe the pattern of our lives. Before we set out on a journey we need to do a number of things. Firstly, we need to choose our destination, our journey’s end. Secondly, we need to find the route that will take us to our destination, the best road to travel. Finally, we must decide what we need for our journey, what it is that will help us to get to where we want to go.

The journey of life is similar. It too needs a destination. It is important to name what it is we want out of life. If we do not know what we want from life we may end up drifting along aimlessly, without a focus. At the end of our lives we would surely like to be able to say that we achieved our goals and fulfilled our dreams.

Then we need to choose a good road to take us to our destination. Is the road we choose a sure road, a safe road? Is it well signposted? Does it provide opportunities for meeting people and experiencing companionship? Does it allow us to view the scenery on the way, to appreciate the good things we have and to notice the beauty around us? Or is it like a motorway, fast, efficient, competitive and monotonous?

Finally, we must decide what we need for our journey. Do we need other people? Do we need God? Do we need the love, support and strength of the three F’s – family, friends and faith? Or do we prefer to go it alone, to travel by ourselves, to depend on our own resources?

I have a small poster in my living room which says, “Happiness is not a destination; it is a way of life.” Those who walk the Camino across the north of Spain to San Tiago de Compostella say that what happens to them while they are walking the road is as important as what happens when they get to Compostella. The way we travel the road of life is just as significant as getting to the destination we have set for ourselves. So, let’s slow down, let’s enjoy the ride. Let’s savour the host of opportunities that come our way. God is present in the here and now waiting and wanting to be recognised and known. What we used to call ‘the sacrament of the present moment’ has indeed something to teach us about the journey of life.

Companions on the Journey

We all need companionship in our lives. Without some experience of companionship our lives can become lonely and sad. When John Donne said that no man is an island unto himself he was giving expression to the need human beings have to be in relationship. Of course companionship is much more than being social. It is the experience of mutual presence. It is a space where our capacity for life is nourished by others. It creates the possibility of becoming intimate with someone. This is why the type of relationship we call companionship is one of the most beautiful gifts we can give to each other.

There are different descriptions of what companionship actually is. One model is what two people experienced as they travelled from Jerusalem to Emmaus after the death of Jesus. On their journey they were joined by an apparent stranger who walked with them. Their relationship with the stranger began with the experience of mutual acceptance and ended with a shared meal. On the road there was attentive listening and soulful conversation.

This is a good example of what we might call Christian companionship. Christian companionship has four aspects. It begins with an attitude of acceptance that is inclusive and that transcends race, colour, religion, class and sexual orientation. It offers people a listening hear and an opportunity to tell their story. It allows soulful conversation to develop, the kind of conversation that gives expression to the things that truly matter. And it includes the experience of a shared meal, which is sometimes referred to as table fellowship. In fact the word companion comes from two Latin words ‘cum’ and ‘panis’ which literally mean ‘with bread.’

When we experience companionship in this way we find that the longing within us is satisfied. The experience of Christian companionship can be the key to unlock our hearts. It can also open up the teaching of Jesus allowing us to find meaning and life in the Gospel. It is no wonder that the two people who were accompanied by Jesus on their journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus found themselves saying, “did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us” (Luke 24:32).

Easter

As Christians, we believe that Jesus rose from the dead on that first Easter Sunday. He broke the chains of death and rose to a new way of living and loving beyond our wildest imagining. The resurrection was an earth shattering event, the most important event in human history and it has many implications for us and for the way we live our lives.

One implication of the resurrection is the fact that Jesus is still with us. The presence and power of the risen Jesus permeate our lives. As a consequence of the resurrection Jesus is no longer limited by time and space. He is present to us and with us at every moment of every day. He is the invisible companion of our life’s journey. We do not have to wait for heaven to experience the friendship, the healing, the peace and the joy of the risen Jesus. These things are already available to us. The risen Jesus is already working in our lives. He is involved with us here and now.

A second implication of the resurrection has to do with the mission of Jesus. The resurrection was a vindication of the way Jesus lived his life. It was a confirmation of the values Jesus practised, preached and died for. The way of Jesus works. When Jesus was nailed to the cross on Good Friday it seemed as if his mission was a failure, that he was a dreamer who offered the world an unrealistic vision of happiness. His resurrection changed this, it transformed it. Jesus was no dreamer. His values of justice and compassion and service and humility and forgiveness are in fact the only values that work. His values are the values that make the world a better place and that bring us personal fulfilment. The resurrection of Jesus was proof that love is stronger that hate, goodness is greater than evil and life is more powerful than death.

Of course another implication of the resurrection is that our death is not the end. What happened to Jesus on Easter Sunday will happen to us. We will share in the risen life of Jesus when we die. Because of the resurrection of Jesus we have a life to look forward to beyond the grave. Because of the resurrection of Jesus a new world will be opened up to us on the other side of death. Because Jesus rose from the dead the place we call heaven is our destiny, our destination, our future home. Indeed, in the words of St Paul, it is our true home. For those who believe in Jesus and in the power of his resurrection the future is bright because the best is yet to come.

Because of what happened on that first Easter Sunday we can say with confidence, ‘It belongs to the Christian to hope!’

Jerusalem

Following Jesus is a demanding business especially if we are to take it seriously. It involves taking the road to Jerusalem, along with Jesus himself. Jerusalem is the city where Jesus suffered, died and rose to new life. It is a place of sacrifice and reward, of pain and joy, of failure and triumph, of agony and ecstasy. It represents the Christian life. But what does taking the road to Jerusalem actually mean in practice?

It means that we refuse to build our lives around material possessions. Material possessions have their place but they must be kept in their place. It is our relationship with God that is the true source of our security not what we own. Our relationship with God cannot be destroyed. It is eternal.

It means that we stop living in the past. Dwelling on old memories and hurts keeps us tied to the past and trapped in a prison of regret and anger. It belongs to the Christian to hope. Jesus is leading us forward in hope to a better and brighter future. In Jerusalem the tomb is empty!

It means that we stop making excuses for ourselves and for our lack of ability and talent. Of course we are limited; yes we have weaknesses. The Christian community is full of misfits! The twelve people Jesus chose to bring his good news to the world were a pretty motley bunch! Jesus is not looking for perfection; neither does he expect us to be geniuses. All he seeks is our generosity and enthusiasm. What Jesus wants is what we call heart. Heart is the kind of thing that on the sports field often makes the difference between failure and success.

Finally, it means that when it comes to making choices we put the cause of Jesus, the mission of Jesus, the work of Jesus, first. In the way we choose to live our lives the values of Jesus, known as Kingdom values, must come before earthly values.