Just as love is a relationship, an encounter, a
personal meeting with the other, so too prayer is a relationship, an encounter,
a meeting with the other, with God. As the quality of our relationship with God
improves, our prayer deepens and our life finds more meaningful. With what
sentiments do we meet him: fear, anxiety, shame, anger, boredom, obligation,
expectation, trust, love, joy?
The way we relate to God depends
upon the habitual way we think and feel about him, the images we have of him.
Many of these images are negative, picked up in childhood, and later from our
family, our education, culture, religion. Even our scripture and especially the
Old Testament, sometimes portray God as one who destroys, punishes, condemns,
or threatens human beings. But Jesus reveals the true face of God – the loving
father and mother who gives his sun and rain to good and bad people alike
(Mt5,45), the good shepherd who goes in search of straying sheep, and forgives
and welcomes the sinner back home (Lk15). God does not keep the account of our
failings; he puts our sins so to say, behind his back, for “love keeps no
record of wrongs” (1cor13, 5). God is not distant and unconcerned about us,
Emmanuel, God is with us. God does not love us only when we are good; he loves
us unconditionally and accepts us as we are even when we sin and go away from
him; “God has shown how much he loves us – it was while we were sinners that
Christ died for us” (Rm 5, 8).
We carry other distorted images of
God: as a merchant with whom we strike a bargain (I promise you this if you
give me that’) as a puppet master who manipulates us and our world. (Why do we
blame him for all calamities and mishaps?); as a pain reliever, whom we
approach only in our difficult moments. Often we are not aware of such images
in us. But even when they are unconscious, they not only influence our
relationship with God, but also give us negative attitudes and ways of behaving
towards others, towards ourselves and towards life. In prayer we become aware
of these distorted images – the first step to dropping them and replacing them
with truer images of the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.
An interpersonal relationship grows
when one gets to know the other better, shares and collaborates with the other
and discovers the beauty, uniqueness and mystery of the other - a process which
lasts life time. In the same way, there is much we can do to deepen our
relationship with God. We can become more familiar with the word of God and his
ways in the Bible and in the lives of his true followers. We can learn to read the “signs of our times”
– his messages to us through all that happens in our world. We can give
ourselves in service especially to those in need – they will teach us so much!
We can give importance and be faithful to our daily encounter with God in
prayer- he will speak to our heart. We will realise, above all, that God
desires, even more than we do, a deep relationship with us and is ever ready to
help us along the way.
Lets us ask ourselves who is God for
me? Is he a policeman who keeps records of my faults? Is he a gentleman who
always expects us not to do any wrong? Is he a loving father who accepts us as
we are? Is he a good friend in whose company I feel more comfortable with? Above
all we must have a deep realization that each one of us is a beloved child of
God. God accepts me as I am because he loves me. Throughout the day even when
we are occupied with lot of activities, let us continue to recite in our
hearts, that “ I am the Beloved of God”. Let this little phrase become part of
our life. Only then whatever happens in our life we will be able to withstand
and face life in spite of various difficulties. Our life will become
meaningful. We will be able to see God in all the activities we do in our life.
St. Benedict who died in 543 A.D.
composed this short and simple prayer:
O gracious father,
Give us wisdom to perceive you,
Intelligence to understand you,
Diligence to seek you,
Patience to wait for you,
Eyes to behold you,
A heart to meditate on you, and a
life to proclaim you
Through the power of the Holy
Spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Source: Prayer is... by Rex Pai SJ