The Mystery of Talking with God - CONSIDERING OF THE TRINITY makes us reflect not only on the three divine Persons but also on the universality of the Church. Sometimes I ask people, "To whom do you pray?", and often enough the answer is, "To God." Behind that word "God" is, of course, the figure of the Father or Jesus himself. But there are also people who pray to God as if they were praying to the divine essence. This is not prayer. The prayer of Christians is unavoidably personal. It is person-to-person: we pray to the Father or to the Son or to the Holy Spirit. What is more, each one of the divine Person relates to us differently when we pray.

First of all, we do well to keep in mind that it is God himself who inspires our prayers; it is the Holy Spirit who suggests to us what the Father wants to hear. The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness, suggesting the things we should ask for according to the divine designs (cf. Romans 8:26-27). By making us aware that we are truly children of God, the Holy Spirit frees us from fear and anxiety: it endows us with the boldness (parrhesia) we need to call on God with the name of Father, as Jesus taught us to do and as he did himself (Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:15). Praying in the Spirit means becoming fully aware both of our neediness and of the power of this divine presence within us. The precarious nature of our Christian existence makes us realize that we need to ask help, and so we are given the Holy Spirit to guide us in our petition, adoration, thanksgiving, and contemplation.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27).

In the Gospels, Jesus says that the sin against the Holy Spirit is so serious as to be unforgiveable (Matthew 12:31). Why is this? It would seem to be the case that there is pardon for the sin against the Father (think of the parable of the Prodigal Son), and there is the forgiveness pronounced by Jesus on the cross (and the pardon of Peter's betrayal, etc.). Why, then, is the sin against the Holy Spirit unforgiveable?

In searching for an answer, we might be helped by a passage in Luke where Jesus speaks of the need to persevere in prayer: "So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are 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!" (Luke 11:9-13). The Holy Spirit is the gift of the Father and the Son, promised and sent to the community that constantly devotes itself to prayer (Acts 1:14). To sin against the Holy Spirit means to sin against the gift of the Father and the Son, against the gift par excellence. It means sinning against the infinite generosity of God's love, revealed as a Person. It means rejecting the need for the very love that enables us to exist; it means believing that we can obtain what we need by ourselves; it means daring to ask to be justified by God because "we are not sinners like those publicans." It means seeking to live without prayer or else to make prayer a form of commerce with God, just one more business transaction in our lives. What we are talking about is basically blasphemy, because what we are saying to the Father and the Son is this: "Thanks for creating me, and thanks for redeeming me, but now I'm on my own. With this stock of capital I've received, I now address you as equals - because I can do so." Herein lies the blasphemy because, as Paul tells us, "no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:3).

Praying in the Spirit, therefore, means being fully convinced that prayer is a great gift given by the Father. We are able to pray only by opening ourselves up to that gift, like children on Christmas morning: the children's hearts are open to receiving gifts because they know little they have and they know what they will be given much. Praying in the Spirit means believing that God will pour his Spirit out upon all flesh (cf. Acts 2:17).

                                    In the last days, God says,

                                    I will pour out my Spirit on all people,

                                   Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

                                   your young men will see visions,

                                   your old men will dream dreams. (Acts 2:17) 

That is why we pray to the Father, by the Son, in the Holy Spirit. In all his letters (except perhaps in 2 Cor. 3:7-8 and Eph. 5:18-20), Paul addresses his prayers ultimately to the Father, while giving Christ an essential place in the prayer as mediator. Praying "in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Col. 3:17; Eph. 5:20) is more than commending ourselves to Jesus or invoking his name. It means praying with Jesus, as sons and daughters in the Son, lovers of the one and only Beloved. This is what Jesus means when he tells us to pray in his name (cf. John 14:13-14; 15:16; 16:14-26). Such prayer assumes a real connection with Jesus, a connection that is not just notional or sentimental but life-giving, like the branch on the vine (cf. John 15:1-8). Praying in Jesus' name implies our participation in the life of Jesus, a participation that is realized concretely in mutual love (John 15:16). We are called to be united with Christ and to be like Christ, knowing that we are loved by the Father as the Son is loved (John 16:26-27). While the force and the potential of all prayer lies precisely in letting ourselves be assisted by the Spirit, the concrete setting of prayer is this identification with Christ Jesus. In him we have access to the Father, and we call to the Father as Jesus did: "Father, Abba" (Mark 14:33-36). Thus, Christian prayer can only be filial prayer, our flesh, now identified with the flesh of the Word and moved by the Spirit, experiences nostalgia for the Father, for he is the mystery that is revealed in prayer. Only in prayer is revealed the mystery that promises us unique communion with the Father in the Spirit and by the Son, the mystery that makes us share in that marvelous exchange by which the Son takes on our flesh and we receive his Spirit.

Through his communion in prayer, we are released from all servitude and liberated from all fear. We are free, and our liberty inspires us to return home from our exile. We return in freedom because we have understood the strength of God's word. We realize that even though we "have sinned against heaven and before you" (Luke 15:18, 21). God still organizes for us a putty. Beneath our wounded flesh, the Father beholds his Son, who was wounded for our sake. The reach of this freedom of ours extends even farther, for once we realize that we have been "accepted," we grant even more space to the Spirit. In turn, the Spirit inspires in us the intercessory prayer that shows that we are truly free children of God, rightful heirs of his kingdom. We cannot be fully aware of this intimate relation we have with the Father (being part of his family and his household) unless we pray frequently as intercessors.

All the great men and women of God have been intercessors. Intercession has the character of yeast, and that is why Jesus asks us to be like yeast in the midst of the world (Luke 13:20-21). Intercession is like yeast in the bosom of the Trinity. Abraham interceded for Sodom: dust and ashes coming face-to-face with the Rock - and they conversed (Gen. 18:23-32)! Only faith makes it possible for humans to converse with God with such insistence and familiarity. Moses prayed the same way. Recall the times when he prayed with his hands raised during the victory over the Amalekites (Exodus 17:8-13) and the times when he interceded for the sin of his people in the desert and begged for pardon (Exodus 32:11-14, 30-34; Num. 14:10-20; 16:22; 21:17). Moses' intercession in Exodus 32 was especially dramatic; it was almost a wrestling match between God and the prophet. Moses used classical arguments to "convince" God to be merciful; he appealed to God's love (this nation is your people), to God's fidelity (remember your promises), and to God's glory (what will other nations say if you abandon this people that belongs to you?). In the end, Moses' prayer won the day: "the Lord relented over the evil that he had said he would do to his people" (Exodus 32:14). Here I would like to repeat what I said before: it is not God who changes his mind, it is human beings who change their understanding. By prayer they come to realize that God is not a God of wrath but a God of forgiveness. Moses has discovered the true face of God, which is fidelity and forgiveness, and he has learned how to understand his people's sin in just measure. Intercession opens the way for the revelation of God's face, the true face he wants us to seek out.

By intercession, we gain access to the Father and discover new facets in concrete situations that allow us to change them. We can truly say in human terms that "God's heart is moved by intercession," but in reality he is always far ahead of us in movements of the heart, for "he has loved us first." What our intercession makes possible is greater clarity of revelation: God's power, love, loyalty and fidelity can never change, since he is always faithful - but they can become more creatively manifest to us in our world.

That is why intercession assumes familiarity with God and the ability to address God with that bold discourse (parrhesia) of which we spoke before. Moses spoke to God "as though he saw him who is invisible" (Hebrew 11:27). And in reality he did see him: God spoke to him face to face as a friend, as a confidant (Numbers 12:5-8; Exodus 33:11; Deuteronomy 34:10-11). Someone wrote that "prayer is being present to God so as to discover the profound sources of love, even in situations where the logic of his working." Jesus himself gives us many examples of intercession: he intercedes for Peter so that his faith will not fail (Luke 22:31-32); he intercedes so that the Father will send the Spirit (John 14:16); he intercedes for those who have crucified him (Luke 23:33-34). And he insists that it is only by intercessory prayer that we are able to free persons of evil spirits (Mark 9:25-29).

The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent. (Exod. 33:11)

In Russian icons, intercession is called "supplication" (Greek deesis), and it is represented in the figure of Mary (the Church) standing with her head slightly bent before the lordship of Christ Pantocrator, who holds a book open. She hold her hands out, open to God's gift, asking to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

The touchstone for proving the authenticity of intercession is praise, for intercession takes place through praise. When praise is lacking, we need to fear that our "requests" may not truly be intercession; behind our petitions may be lurking a type of hypocrisy that seeks to conceal insatiable greed with lengthy prayers (Mark 11:24-25). Praise is a way of guaranteeing the gratuitous nature of our intercession. It is the air that we must breathe so that with childlike confidence we can approach the Father in the Spirit and through the Son.

"So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."                             

"Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses." (Mark 11:24-25)

There are two canticles of Isaiah (42:10-17;45:20-25) that can help us enter into the spirit of praise. Since authentic praise is marked by an awareness of gift, it includes a contemplative dimension, as does all prayer. In the psalms of praise, nothing is requested; rather, the psalmist expresses joy, surrender to God, and thanksgiving for the mere fact of existing. God is the Creator who made human beings and all that exists (Psalms 8 and 114). God watches over his faithful ones (Psalms 33 and 92). God cares for his flock (psalms 23); he defends his people (Psalms 27); he does justice (psalms 77); he constantly reveals his love for human beings (Psalms 103). Praise inspires us to imitate the gratuitous generosity of God. That is why praise makes our flesh grow lighter and rise higher; it become more contemplative and less utilitarian - it simply sings. That it why Paul begins most of his letters with a profound hymn of praise, for praise is the basis of all that follows; it creates the atmosphere that Christians breathe.

The greater praise we can give the Father is the offering of the passion of his Son. Our sinful, exiled flesh offers God the wounded flesh of the Word so that our praise takes the form of blessing (in Greek, eulogia) and Eucharist (cf. Mark 6:41; 14:23). In blessing, we acknowledge the gift and give thanks for it. The blessing is born of the conviction that everything is a gift from God, and it leads us to affirm our solidarity as fellow believers. By pronouncing a blessing, we renounce propriety rights over the things that surround us. We relinquish exclusive possession of property because the true proprietor is God: "I thank you (exhomologoumai soi), Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants" (Luke 10:21; Matt 11:25-26). The Greek word exhomologein means acknowledgment, thanksgiving, amazement, joy, praise. Jesus is rejected by the wise and the prudent, but he is accepted by the simple folk. As he did when he raised Lazarus (John 11:41-42), Jesus praises rises only in those who know how to discern, in their very own history, the presence of God who works wonders. 

Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. (Mark 6:41)

Access to the Father is wide open. Our flesh, justified by the passion of Christ and buoyed by the Spirit, enters with great confidence (with parrhesia) into the sanctuary. Now the veil has been drawn back; everything is open to view. What happens with prayer is similar to what happens with conversion. I recall Paul Claudel's words: Je vois l'Eglise ouverte, il faut entrer - "I see the Church open: I must enter in." The letter to the Hebrews especially helps us to understand better the real meaning of this free access of all flesh to the Father.

                                                             For Prayer and Reflection

"Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth! Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants. Let the desert and its towns lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits; let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy, let them shout from the tops of the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord, and declare his praise in the coastlands. The Lord goes forth like a soldier, like a warrior he stirs up his fury; he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his foes... I will lead the blind by a road they do not know, by paths they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I will do, and I will not forsake them" (Isaiah 42:10-13,16)

- Prayer - Word of God, eternal light divine, eternal source of all pure truth, glory of God that illumines the cosmos, bright burning torch in darkest night. Word eternally pronounced in the Father's mind, what joy that in our history he was born a child from the bosom of the Virgin. Do not cease to shine, heavenly beacons, with the rays of light that God sends forth; faithfully guide our friends, our peoples; proclaim the truth on every path. Amen.

BY  HIS  HOLINESS  POPE  FRANCIS / JORGE MARIO BERGOGLIO

Open Mind,  Faithful Heart - Reflections on Following Jesus - Translated by Joseph V. Owens, 

- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY - 

Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!

Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 - 

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 - 

I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -