Emmaus
When Praying Seems to be the Only Recourse
Our Father who art in heaven
Confusion seems to be reigning freely the world over as the pandemic continues to wreak havoc, issues of racial discrimination are at the limelight, and as though governments are operating not on the premise of service, but on political mileage and grasp for power. The planet is taking a beating from climate change, a cultural clash that aims to uproot Christianity and all things pertaining to the faith is now prevalent in the West, and some nations in the East seem to be looking to them as models, that we can only ask, “What will happen to us?”
It all seems bleak, gloomy, and on a sure path towards doom. Personally, I cannot even fathom how much more we could endure.
“Eli, eli, lama sabachthani?” (My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?) — Psalm 22:1
If anything, that very verse from the Psalms which Christ himself uttered on the cross in Calvary might be the cry of our hearts at this very moment.
And that, my friends, is already prayer. We have arrived at our ultimate recourse. We can never do enough good when prayer is not included in our recourse. There is never enough good when God is not present in all our actions.
Consider this, in this constant struggle in life, what keeps us going? Is it our determination? Our grit? Our courage to forge on? Perhaps, but these can only manifest if not for the source, means, and end, the Summum Bonum, the greatest good, which is no less than God Himself.
In our moment of fear, of confusion, of distress, our very anchor, God, is never distant. We would probably feel that He is quiet, as if He is not listening, but He is ever-present. What we ought to have, therefore, is the faith, as Christ said, even the size of a mustard seed. It is this faith that will compel us to further prayer, to see God’s hand at work, and to move. God will operate in us and through us, for so long as we ourselves cooperate, to move as God moves us, to act as God acts in us, to pray as God speaks and listens to us.
Prayer is our recourse for all actions, our means of uniting with God, that we may move towards the same path that God lays for us, with the ultimate goal of reaching our true end and happiness, of being one with Him who made and loved us with no conditions.
We ought to pray. We ought to pray first. We ought to pray more.
Ave Maria!
