JESUS AND PRAYER

 

 

(San Damiano crucifix in the chapel)

 

 

JESUS  and  PRAYER   -- "ABBA, FATHER"  (Mark 14:36)

 

You might think that, being God, Jesus would have been pretty self-sufficient.  There wasn't much he couldn't do, after all.  He walked on water,  cured lepers,  calmed storms,  and even raised the dead.  So why pray?  What need could Jesus possibly have had to talk to God?

 

Jesus revealed a God who was a trinity of persons, a community rather than an isolated individual.  As a man, Jesus lived this communion with his Father especially through prayer.  When he went off to the mountain or the desert, he wasn't "lost in his own thoughts" but immersed in conversation with his Father.  He loved his Father, and he loved to spend time with him.  For Jesus, prayer wasn't a chore he had to get out of the way but a delight, an activity he looked forward to.   He made time for prayer because for him it was a priority.

 

In short, Jesus didn't pray just because he "had" to.  He didn't turn to God just as a problem-solver or a bodyguard.  He turned to him as a Father.   It would be a shame if the only time we dealt with our father was when we needed to borrow the car keys or take out a short-term loan!  This wasn't Jesus' attitude.  He bounced ideas off God, shared his inner-most thoughts and aspirations with him, and sometimes just enjoyed his company without saying anything at all.  The heart of Jesus was indeed a prayerful heart.

 

 

(This reflection appears in the book,  THE SACRED HEART FOR LENT,  by Fr. Thomas D. Williams, published by Servant Books of St. Anthony Messenger Press,  copyright 2011.)