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| If we do not pray, we will become prey. |
Reflection on Today’s Readings, Friday of 22nd Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, September 2nd, 2022
Texts: 1 Corinthians 4:1 -5; Psalm 37:3-6.27-26.39-40; Luke 5 :33-39
The message today is about the need of Holy Spirit in prayer and fasting. The words of Jesus Christ, in today’s gospel reading, remind us of Isaiah's prophetic words: “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?” (43:19). Jesus Christ was bringing a new meaning to fasting and prayer but the Pharisees and scribes could not see it. The Pharisees and scribes asked Jesus Christ while His disciples did not fast. The answer Jesus Christ gave them shows that His disciples not fast because He was still with them. He said they would fast when the time came.
Jesus Christ said, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” He is the bridegroom, His disciples are the wedding guests. What happened after Jesus Christ was taken away was the descent of the Holy Spirit. Hence, Jesus Christ simply reminds us the importance of the Holy Spirit in fasting and prayer. The disciples were yet to receive the Spirit.
Holy is also the Spirit of prayer and compassion
We can also recall the words of prophet Zechariah: “And I will pour out a spirit of compassion and supplication on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that, when they look on the one whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn” (12:10).
Holy Spirit is not only the Spirit of truth but also the Spirit of prayer and compassion. Fasting is an expression of mourning and weeping for sins; it is a kind of reparation for sins. Holy Spirit will make us understand the gravity of sin and depth of God’s love in Christ’s passion and death.
St. Paul also affirms the need of Holy Spirit for prayer and fasting. In his words: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirits intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Rom. 8:26-27).
We are to pray in the name of Jesus
The disciples of Jesus Christ are to pray in His name and the time has not come for that. They are to pray in His name after He might have ascended into heaven. He says, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it” (John 14:12-14). He will answer their prayers because He is going to the Father.
Jesus Christ did not introduce them to the way of prayer and fasting so as not to get stuck in it. The time with Jesus Christ could be seen as time of disengagement from the age long ways of prayer and fasting. Jesus Christ puts it thus: “...And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new; for he says, ‘The old is good.”
We are now in the age that we need to pray and fast, for we live in the age of the Holy Spirit. If we do not pray we will become prey.
God our Father, we thank You for the gift of Your Holy Spirit, grant that we may be open to His influence. Amen
Fr. Andrew Olowomuke
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