Prime Bishop Anthony Mikovsky
Prayer
On the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time this year, we read about an encounter between our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His disciples concerning prayer. Jesus had just been to the home of Martha and Mary, and there He contrasted the choices of the two sisters. Martha was going about the extending of hospitality not only to our Lord, but we can surmise to all who were there with Him. Mary, on the other hand, choose to sit at the feet of Jesus, taking the position of a follower or disciple, where she listened to and took in His teaching. When Martha questioned Jesus, and asked that He tell Mary to join her in extending that hospitality rather than only listening to Him, He proclaimed that being a disciple, placing yourself at the very feet of Jesus was a “better part” and that it would not be denied to Mary, or anyone else for that matter.
Of course, this does not mean that the listening to Jesus, is a more important activity, but rather it shows that a progression must take place. We must go from hearing the teaching of Jesus, to then putting that teaching into practice, extending loving kindness to others. The difficulty of Martha can be seen in the adjective that our Lord uses to describe Martha which was “distracted.” She did not have her mind focused on our Lord and the accomplishing of His will for our lives. In this we harken back to the parable of the sower which is given and explained a bit earlier in Luke 8. In describing the seed that fell among thorns, Jesus tells us that this seed is “the ones who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.” (Luke 8:14b) In this description we see that that these earthly cares cannot help but have us “divided” rather than “focused” on Jesus.
Following this visit, we next have an encounter between our Lord and His disciples after He was praying. It was certainly the custom of the Jews to spend time in daily prayer, as well as more structured prayer and worship in the synagogue and temple. But we also see our Lord spending time beyond these structured times in prayer in His daily life.
It was most probably at a time like this that the encounter took place: “[Jesus] was praying in a certain place, and after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.’”
Of course, we know this as the “Our Father” or “The Lord’s Prayer” but it is not quite the one we are used to. The one more familiar to us comes from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, but us taking a look at this version of the prayer may allow us to look beyond the words themselves which can sometimes become rote and rather see what is really going on in moments of prayer.
First and foremost, we begin with the fact that we address the Lord God Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth as “Father.” This should startle us a little bit, but again it often does not because we are so familiar with the words. Scripture scholars tell us that this sort of reference to God as “Father” was certainly unheard of in Jewish prayer. It was not that God was not seen as a loving Father, and that He provided for and sustained His people as a Father, but to address Him in that way was not common. Jesus is certainly giving His disciples a new way of thinking.
This shows us that the action of prayer concerns the sustaining of a relationship. We should be able to speak and listen to God as we would our earthly Father. We are also reminded here that sometimes families can have difficulties in family relationships, so it might be difficult to relate to this familial reality, but it is here that hopefully, with the help of good Christian examples and support from a strong Christian community, all of God’s children will be able to see what a healthy family relationship should be.
It is also important for all of us to realize that God, our Father, is beyond what any other human can be in a relationship. He is pure love, pure holiness, pure otherness and therefore He is in fact the perfect Father, the best of all Fathers that we could ever want or need. It is exactly because of this that we pray in the prayer, “Hallowed be Your name.” We recognize that God the Father is beyond all that we know, and so we bless His holy name as we acknowledge Him as being beyond any father we can know or imagine.
We next come to pray about our daily needs, “Give us each day our daily bread.” One could think that there are certainly much more pressing things that need to be prayed for. There are certainly bigger issues in our own lives and in the world. I have also encountered people who say things like, “I only pray for big things, God is too busy to deal with the small stuff.” But this is not the ways of a true relationship. Imagine two people who only spoke to one another when they had something “really important” to share. This is not what relationship is about. When two individuals are in a relationship, they share all that happens to them in life. How many parents greet their children with the question, “What did you learn in school today?” just so the child can share. How many spouses ask, “How was work today?” just so they can share their daily experiences. These small moments are how love deepens and grows.
This is exactly what we are striving for in our moments of daily prayer. We certainly know that God knows all of our needs and concerns of our daily life before we ask them, but we should articulate them anyway, so that we can share our whole lives with our Heavenly Father. Its just like the parent, who already knows what has been taught at school but still asks the question, “What did you learn today?” so that moments of connection and love can occur.
In the parable that follows this encounter when Jesus tells the disciples how to pray the Our Father, there is a description of perseverance in prayer. The parable contains the well-known words where Jesus says: “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks, receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Luke 11:9-10)
These words too show us something of our prayer life as well. Asking, or searching or knocking is not a one-time activity. We do not ask only one question, one time and expect that we will be satisfied forever. We do not search for only a minute or two and find everything that we need. We do not knock on only one door and know that we will find everyone that we need to see or encounter. We must ask many questions, we must spend serious time in searching, we must knock on many doors. This is to be our life of prayer. Continue to ask for your “daily bread” in prayer. Ask for the things that you need to live and thrive. As you receive some of these things and are denied others you will begin to bring your asking into line with the will of the Father. Continue to search for what you desire, and in your finding you will see where those things are in line with what is holy and what is not. Through this you will begin only searching for the things of God. Continue to knock and test many doors seeking to find the places in your life where God resides. And if you find places where He does not, then it may be up to you to bring God into that situation to find the ultimate way for your life.
This is the work of prayer. It’s not just a few moments of reciting memorized words, although it can begin there. It’s not just asking God for all the things that you want or desire, but that can be done as well. Prayer is the sustaining of a true relationship between God and you, His beloved creation. Certainly, pray the “Our Father” and the other prayers you know and have learned and cherish, but also in our life and time of prayer, sustain the relationship between you and God, creature and creator.