The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

July 29, A.D. 2007


Has A Technological World Forgotten How to Pray


Father John Eagan was a marvelous Dominican priest who, many years ago, whetted my spiritual curiosity by talking about “contemplative ease” – a time of simply hanging out with God. Father John got up very early each morning and would find places where he could very quietly spend time in prayer. One day he perched on top of a children’s slide in a school playground. A woman passed by, saw him sitting there and said: “What are you doing up there?” “I am praying,” he replied.” She responds: “Praying,” You fool, this isn’t the praying place, it is the playing place.” Prayer is at the very heart of our life in God. Our gospel lesson today puts prayer squarely on the line and challenges us to do something about it. Jesus makes it abundantly clear that our heavenly Father is ready to answer the prayers of our hearts: “If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” Please note – the Holy Spirit – not my new car, my new computer, or a positive answer to everything that I think I need and demand from my heavenly Father. So, what does all of this mean? In a grammatical quirk in the Greek New Testament Jesus tells us: “Ask, and keep on asking, and it will be given you; search and keep on searching, and you will find; knock and keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking will receive; everyone who keeps on searching will find, and for everyone who keeps on knocking, the door will be opened.” So, what does all of that mean, and how do we go about it? The Psalms give us some pretty strong advice: “Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.” (Psalm 37:7) “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46.10) “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.” (Psalm 62:1) Could it be that the key to our life of prayer would be stillness and silence? Could it be that God wants us to quit doing all of the talking, and to open the ears of our hearts to listen, for a change, to what He has to say? Benedictine writer Mary Forman writes: “Prayer is an invitation to ‘listen with the ear of your heart. Listening is both a grace given by God and an act of love, for listening requires setting aside one’s own preoccupations so as to give oneself time and space to the present to God. God longs to reveal to us how much we are beloved and to make possible in us our coming to know that we are made in the Divine image and likeness. As one is led more deeply into a relationship with the God whose love is beyond imagining, one is taught by the Spirit how to see every event and person, all creation and happenings for the divine perspective.”(Liturgical Press: The Benedictine Handbook, pg111.) Silence – stillness – time – space for God. I would suggest, my brothers and sisters in Christ, that our technological world has forgotten how to pray, for stillness and silence are the antithesis of the way we live in this noisy and frenetic world. In fact, I wonder if we haven’t forgotten how to truly communicate with one another – much less our heavenly Father. Today our communication is instant. We can zap an email message across the world in a matter of seconds, and, that is good. But, I remember the days when we wrote letters – well thought out letters – which we would read, often edit, sign our name, and then send. Perhaps we have forgotten how to pray since we want the same kind of instantaneous communication with God. We quickly pray, then go on about our business. As a rapid transit commuter, I am amazed at the incredibly high percentage of ears that are plugged by ipods (whatever they are), making it impossible to communicate. It as if plugging our ears places a wall around us that tells the rest of the world to keep out. Father Eagan was the first one to tell me about simply spending time with God – time that was dedicated to God and God alone. In this busy and frenetic world, have we forgotten that we need to find a praying place, and then to spend time listening to what God wants to tell us. Quite honestly, we have probably all had the experience of beginning to pray and then having our minds interrupt our prayer by something that needs to be done. Some years ago Pastor Brooks and I attended a retreat by the Shalem Institute, which was a silent retreat. There was very little said. There was very little done. We were simply given the time, the space, and the silence to hang out with God and to listen to what he had to say. Thomas Merton once wrote: “There should be at least a room, or some corner where no one will find you and disturb you or notice you. You should be able to untether yourself from the world and set yourself free, loosing all the find strings and stands of tension that bind you, by sight, by thought, to the presence of other people. You will never find interior solitude unless you make some conscious effort to deliver yourself from the desires and the cares and the interest of an existence in time and in the world.” (Merton, Thomas: Seeds of Contemplation, page 60) Christ challenges us to find a praying place, to find silence, to listen, and to experience his love and guidance at the very depths of our souls. The challenge is for us personally, and for us as a community of faith. Who knows what the Holy Spirit would have to say for us? I would bet that Christ has an incredible vision for us – so in the days ahead let’s be still, let’s be silent – let’s listen. Otherwise, we’ll never know.