By Fr. Roy Cimagala
THAT earnest request of Christ’s disciples, “Lord, teach us to pray,” (Lk 11,1) should also be always ours. We may have been praying for the longest time already, but knowing how we are, with our wounded humanity, we know that we can always go through the motions of praying without actually praying!
We have to be humble enough to acknowledge this fact of life that should lead us to importune our Lord to teach us how to pray. We know that without prayer, we would just be a hopeless case, regardless of certain signs that may tell us otherwise.
Prayer is the most basic way we have to be connected with God as we should. That’s where we maintain our existential sharing with God’s life and nature. Our union with God begins and ends with prayer.
The beatific vision that we are told about as our ultimate way of being with God in heaven can also be regarded as the ultimate form of prayer that we can have. But while here in our earthly sojourn, we need to learn how to pray, taking advantage of everything in our life as an occasion, means and reason for prayer.
Yes, prayer can lend itself to infinite ways and forms, although given our human condition whose development always involves some processes and stages, we need to learn first the most basic form which are the vocal prayers.
In this, the most helpful vocal prayer is the one Christ himself told his disciples about how to pray. We need to study and meditate on what we now call as the Lord’s Prayer, since it was what Christ told them about how his disciples should pray.
We can consider that prayer as the model prayer, showing us how to address God and what we should tell and ask from him. We should try to discern and catch the spirit behind that prayer.
In the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we are told that “the Lord’s Prayer reveals us to ourselves at the same time that it reveals the Father to us.” (2783)
In other words, we are told who we really are and who God is to us. Thus, no matter how our life here on earth goes, we should never forget that we are children of God who will do everything to bring us back to him. Psalm 129 reinforces this truth of our faith: “With the Lord, there is mercy and fullness of redemption.”
We just have to make sure also that, as expressed in this prayer, we also have to be merciful to everyone just as God is merciful to us. “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
We have to understand that forgiveness or mercy is the ultimate expression of love which is the very essence of God and which is also meant to be essence of our humanity since we are God’s image and likeness, children of his.
And as if to underscore the importance of this point, Christ reiterated: “For if you will forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences. But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences.” (Mt 6,14-15) It’s clear therefore that we can only be forgiven if we also forgive others.
We have to be clear that this injunction is meant for everyone, and not only for a few whom we may consider to be religiously inclined. That’s why when asked how many times we should forgive, he said not only seven times, but seventy times seven, meaning always.
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
