16th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A July 23, 2023
Fr. Alexander Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
“The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought.” That’s comforting, but it does raise an important question: How “ought” we to pray?
Last week we heard about the groaning of all creation and how we are awaiting “adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” We used this to reflect on how that groaning and hope allow us to “consider the sufferings of this present time as nothing.” Today’s section from Romans 8 picks up two verses later. The verses between read, “for in hope we were saved. Now hope that sees for itself is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.” Basically, this makes the point that hope, by definition, means we can’t fully see what comes next but that we trust it is good.
Yet, if we don’t see, don’t know what it is we’re hoping for, how do we find it? How to we look for it? Pray for it? The Holy Spirit. He prays in us and for us because we don’t know what to pray for. We’re not totally in the dark, however. We do know that what we hope for redeems our bodies. We know it involves adoption by God. We know it is glorious. These three things point us to how we ought to pray.
The redemption of our bodies: On one level, this should come naturally. We don’t even know what it means to exist without a body and we naturally want to take care of it. Food, sleep, comfort, pleasure, health, affection… these and more are things we desire simply because we have bodies. So, when we think about asking an all-powerful, all-loving God for something, we’re naturally going to ask him for these bodily things. The Our Father confirms that it isn’t wrong to do so: “give us this day our daily bread.”
Yet, context matters. This chapter of Romans – chapter 8 – begins with Paul talking about the futility of our flesh, saying we should “put to death the deeds of the body.” Yes, we need food, shelter, and the rest, but they cannot be the primary focus of our prayer. These desires are affected by sin, so our prayer for them should be influenced by redemption of our bodies. Notice how often Jesus uses analogies of plants, farming, and soil. Remember that our bodies were made from the clay, the soil of the earth. Jesus never describes dirt or plants as bad, but he usually focuses on their transformation and bearing fruit, not on keeping them how they are. Today’s parable involves an enemy planting bad seed in the dirt, in our bodies. While the weeds of our faults are left for a time, a final purification will come and we will eventually need to go through the painful purification of burning away such failings.
Until then, what do we do when prayers for food, healing, and comfort are met with still more hunger and pain? Led by the Spirit, we ought to learn to pray with that pain, offering the imperfections of our bodily life as a prayer for future glory rather than being stuck on the false idea of perfect comfort here and now. In this, we have the special example of Jesus, God made flesh. He used his body to heal and to multiply food, yes, but the greater purpose of that body was to offer it in love on the cross for the sake of future glory. We ought to learn to do likewise, learn to stop seeing bodily troubles as God rejecting our prayers and instead see those troubles and pains as the materials and methods of praying more effectively.
Secondly, our hope involves adoption by God, to be made like Jesus. We probably take this for granted, but it is in fact a profoundly radical idea that we should expect to be God’s adopted children. We tend to focus on the perks and forget the demands. If we are children of God like Jesus is the Son of God, then we should show that sonship in the same way. What way is that? Obedience. “Not my will, but yours be done.” We instinctively pray for what we want: that job, this girlfriend, that house, this vacation, that success. Is this what Jesus prays for? What the Holy Spirit prays for in us?
It is good to be honest in our prayers, to persevere in seeking out what we think is good for us. Any parent can tell you that if their child never asked for anything, they’d be worried. A good parent will also tell that you need to tell a child “no” quite a bit. We also know that to parent well is to lead children through things that are good for them, things that they would never choose if it was left up to them. The same is true for us. We should pray freely, but maturity comes as we learn more and more to not just say “your will be done,” but to actually mean it, to have the experience and sense that His will really is better than our own.
Finally, we know our hidden hopes are glorious. We often confuse that glory with its earthly counterpart. Beauty, popularity, success, power… all of these things are glorious in a sense. It takes time, conversion, and grace to show us that they are mere reflections… even distortions of real glory. The only real glory is God’s. The Spirit in us prays for God’s glory to be better known in and through us even while we mistakenly pray for the passing glory of gold and glamor. So our prayer ought to move ever closer to sheer adoration, to rejoicing in God’s glory and seeking grace to proclaim it to others.
But do not mistake the goal for the process. To pray badly is better than to pray falsely or not at all. Paul describing the Spirit interceding in the midst of our faulty and inconsistent prayer assumes that we are praying in the first place. Pray badly so that the Spirit can pray well. Keep praying. Just make sure that you’re paying attention, that you’re gradually trying to hear the quiet voice beneath your own incoherent groanings. Keep groaning and praying. Only make sure that, as you do, you little by little learn to imitate, to make your own the prayer of God praying in you. Praying not just for bodily health, but the redemption that comes through bodily suffering. Praying not just for intimacy with God, but for the joyful obedience that such intimacy requires. Praying not just for worldly glory, but for the Divine glory which is the only satisfaction that truly lasts. Pray badly so that God can pray well and eventually, you will pray as you ought… according to God’s will. Why go through all that trouble if it just ends with his will anyway? Because it’s the only way to get us from wanting our will to wanting His and learning to want His will is the only real hope we have.