By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ
As long as Moses kept his hands raised up, Israel had
the better of the fight, but when he let his hands rest, Amalek had the better
of the fight. Moses’ hands, however,
grew tired; so they put a rock in place for him to sit on. Meanwhile Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one
on one side and one on the other, so that his hands remained steady till
sunset. Exodus 17:11-12
[P]roclaim the word; be persistent whether it is
convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience
and teaching. 2 Timothy 4:2
The Lord said, "Pay attention to what the
dishonest judge says. Will not God then
secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is
done for them speedily. But when the Son
of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" Luke 18:6-8
Piety
It might be hard for most
moderns to see the holding of the hands up in the air as prayer. Moses becomes the model of Charismatic prayer
in the way he had Aaron and Hur helping him to hold his hands up. Kissing the floor told my body I was in the
presence of God for my prayer. It is my
equivalent way of putting myself by a physical action in the presence of the
Lord. What others do for us by their
example give us the power to keep doing what might seem foolish in our world
today. The Application of the senses in
prayer is a lost art for many. Touch,
feel, listen, smell, and taste all bring out senses into our prayer. We are so much more than our minds that it is
truly a shame when we reduce our prayer to thinking at God. Mind will and memory are important parts of
prayer. But they are not everything. How we physically present ourselves to the
Lord is important. They bring more
reverence to our prayer.
Study
Paul teaches us to remain
faithful to what we have learned and believed from the Sacred Scripture. Our wisdom for salvation comes from Christ
Jesus. The Sacred Scripture is inspired.
They help us to belong to God. Our prayer brings what we are going to do for
the Lord before God. Prayer gives us the
courage to proclaim the word by being persistent whether it is convenient or
inconvenient. Jesus tells his disciples
to pray always without becoming weary. Luke
convinces us of the value of consistency in our prayer by the example of the
unjust Judge who does what is right to get the widow off his case. He did what was right because he was bothered
by the widow. God who loves us will
secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night all the
more.
Action
We are challenged by our
readings this week to be men and women of prayer. God will listen to us. Our vocation in life is to be
Contemplatives-in-Action. For St.
Ignatius, that meant that we worked like everything that we did depended on
God. We invite the Lord to begin our
work by his inspiration and to carry it out by his gracious assistance. Then, we can believe that it would be finished
as he would wish it. We work and see God
in what we are doing. Thus, our work is
prayer by our invitation to the Lord to be essential to our prayer. We pray as if our prayer depended completely
on ourselves alone. Thus, our work
becomes our prayer and our prayer becomes our work. Ignatius would allow his formed Religious fifteen
minutes for prayer. If they wanted more
time for prayer, he would give them another job to do because their work was
their prayer. However, Mass, Divine Office
and Rosary were taken for granted as an essential part of prayer life. Thus, we
work at making our lives into prayer.
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