16th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
OLR, NOLA
In
prayer we are “beggars before God.” Having nothing, we ask for
everything, and receive what we need. If we cannot quite put words to
our needs, “the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible
groanings.” Like the rest of creation, we too long to be raised to
perfection, to be made complete again in the presence of God. But
until we are given the beatific vision, we live and move in this
world – needing, asking, receiving, giving; not knowing perfectly
what comes next. Not knowing what comes next can be a source of
anxiety or a source of freedom. If we trust in God, fully
surrendering ourselves to His providence, not knowing what comes next
is freeing. How we pray in this
freedom is simple:
“Lord, your will be
done. I receive all You have to give!”
Prayer becomes more complicated when we hold back, when we hide away
bits of control, little needs to direct and dominate: “Lord,
your will be done (if your will is to allow me to do my will), and I
receive all You have to give (if what You have to give is what I
want)!” This is
not the prayer of a beggar. It IS the prayer of a willful child who
falsely believes he/she knows perfectly what comes next. We don't
know and acting on that not- knowing can kill us. Both physically and
spiritually.
Jesus
proposes to the crowds a parable about the wisdom of not acting in
ignorance. He tells them (and us) to allow the weeds to grow among
the wheat. We can't always tell the difference btw the weeds and the
wheat. Pulling up the weeds might damage the wheat. Let them both
grow and the harvesters will separate them – wheat to the barn,
weeds to the fire. Full knowledge of which is which comes at the end
not the beginning. The same is true for the differences btw our wants
and our needs. If I pray in ignorance for what I need,
I may be praying for what I want
instead. And when I don't get what I think I need, I begin to doubt
God's providence. Maybe I stop praying. Maybe I stop believing. Maybe
– even – I turn against God b/c He has failed to meet my “needs.”
My ignorance – my “not-knowing” – can cause me to stumble
along the Way. . .unless. . .I know that I am ignorant and choose
instead to surrender myself to God's providence and receive whatever
He sends my way. “Lord,
your will be done. I receive all You have to give!” The
mature pray-er begins and ends in ignorance, allowing the Harvester
to separate his wants from his needs, the wheat from the weeds.
What
are the weeds in prayer? Jesus says, “While everyone was asleep
[the farmer's] enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat. . .”
Notice that everyone was asleep. They weren't keeping vigil. No one
was on watch. And b/c no one was watching, the farmer's enemy was
free to sow weeds. When we are not paying attention to our spiritual
lives, when we are living life as if God doesn't exist, the Enemy is
free to sow his weeds. His favorite weed to sow is the weed we'll
call “Self-Sufficiency,” also known as “I Don't Any Help.”
This weed tempts us to believe that we already know what the problem
is and how to solve it. It tempts us – in our pride – to turn
away from God's providence and rely on our own ingenuity. Or to tell
God what the problem is and how He ought to fix it. Given enough time
to grow this weed produces fruit called, “I Need a Hole Plugged.”
God and His providence become little more than an emergency yelp when
things go bad. There's a way to render these weeds powerless over
your prayer. Don't pull them! Let them grow. But render them
powerless by admitting upfront that you don't know what you need,
desire God above all else, and receive all the He sends you with
praise and thanksgiving.
Paul
lays all this bare for us in his letter to the Romans: “The
Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to
pray as we ought. . .” Paul is not suggesting here that we've
forgotten the words to our prayers, or that we're praying the wrong
prayers. He's telling us that our weakness – our ignorance (for we
do not know how to pray as we ought) – is aided by the Spirit. We
are strengthened in prayer by the Spirit, guided by the Spirit to
struggle with our ignorance and surrender to the providence of God.
Prayer is not a matter of overcoming not-knowing or learning all that
we ought to know. Prayer is about placing ourselves – freely and
generously – in the path of the Spirit so that He may take us up
and deliver us – needs and all – into the presence of the One Who
loves us. If we are tightly bound by sin, or diverted by disordered
passions, or driven away by an ugly pride, we cannot throw ourselves
in the path of the Spirit. Nor can we pray. Nor can we receive all
that God has to give us. This is why Christ – “the one who
searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit” – sits
at the right hand of the Father and “intercedes for the holy ones
according to God's will.” What we do not know and cannot know about
our own needs and about God's will, Christ knows. And he is there to
hear us even when all we can do is groan.
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