“WARM WITH GOD’S LOVE”
Lenten Reflections
20th February 2018.
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TUESDAY, FIRST WEEK OF LENT
Reading 1: Is 55:10-11 God, through Isaiah, compares his word to the rain and snow that water the earth and make it fertile. Human hearts rise up to God when fertilized by God’s word.
Res. Psalm: Ps 34: 4-7, 16-19 I sought the Lord and he answered me.
Gospel: Mt 6:7-15 Jesus gives us a lesson in prayer by sharing with us his own prayer.
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THE POWER OF PRAYER!
Prayer is supposed to consume us, hand us over in sacrifice, and transform us from mere recitation of words and formulas into the reality of the words. Prayers are not mere words. When we speak words, especially words of God, we set something awesome in motion. In the first reading, we see the power of words, in the person of Isaiah the prophet. He for certain knew the power of the word of God in his own mouth and the massive consequences that issued forth in politics, economics, and society as he uttered them. He spoke in the first person, but they were not his words. They were God’s words, and he only handed over his voice and lungs and body to express them to others. God’s word that left his mouth likened to rain and snow that fall from the skies. Once they fall they do not return until they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful. It does only God’s will, achieving the end for which it was sent.
In the gospel today, this Word Jesus exhorts his disciples not to rattle on like unbelievers who think that by the numbers of their words they’ll get a hearing. Prayer to Jesus’ Father is a different experience altogether, for God knows what we need before we ask. So, we don’t have to ask. We start in another place, in God’s place, and ask for what God wants for each of us and all of us. The Our Father, when prayed makes God’s name is hallowed; God’s kingdom comes; God’s will is done, on earth, in us, right now. As we ask God to forgive us the wrongs we have done as we forgive those who wrong us, we begin to live freely in relation to one another with open hands and hearts, sharing bread as sustenance and forgiveness as freedom. Thus if we were to pray this prayer well, we would need no other words, no other prayer. The power and the word would be set in motion and carry us along.
Prayer: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one. Amen.
Lenten Act: Soren Kierkegaard says, “The prayer does not change God, but it changes the one who offers it.” Let us take time to PRAY this lent. May God’s Word bring in us a transformation.