The Best prayer in the world

It has been a long time since I posted anything in this blog. I want to blame this on laziness. Of course there have been demands from other angles that prevent the daily posting but I know you my readers have been patient with me. Thank you for being there.

I want to reflect briefly on the best prayer I have ever heard. This is at rem because the insert in the bulletin this week was titled ‘Prayer’. So here is the best prayer: when I was in the Gambia, there was a very special family that I loved dearly and I often spent some time with them. It reminds you of the family of Mary, Martha and Lazarus (Lk. 10:38-42); they had a three-year-old boy who was fond of me. It happened that one day during their night prayer, the boy offered to also say his own prayer after his mother had finished hers. This was the prayer of the three year old: “Oh God bless mommy, bless daddy, bless Fr. Augustine, and please God bless God.” Wonderful isn’t it? I think it was the best prayer ever offered. It was short, it was brief, it was to the point and it was complete, as far as the young man was concerned. This short prayer addressed all his concerns. With the blessing of God on his parents, he was covered. All his problems are taken care of. With this blessing he was sure of his livelihood, his shelter and his security. It was like saying “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” (Ps. 23) Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 5:6, “Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you.” That was exactly the boy’s prayer, leaving everything at the feet of his parents and asking for God’s special blessing on them. What a prayer!

What about the second part of his prayer; “Bless Fr. Augustine?” Fr. Augustine was his spiritual father. With God blessing the priest, his priest, he was sure of his spiritual nourishment. St. Paul, in his first letter to the Thessalonians 5:25 says, “Brothers, pray for us (too). The letter to the Hebrews 13:7 on the other hand says “Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the work of God to you, whose faith you follow, considering the outcome of their conduct.” So why should he pray for his spiritual father? Dr. Dale A Robbins in his 14 Ways to Encourage Your Pastor has this to say: “Serving as a pastor is a remarkable and awesome blessing and privilege, but sometimes pastors can be the most misunderstood people in the Church. Often their hours are long, the pay minimal, the criticism considerable and constant. Despite the joys of serving God, feelings of disappointment and discouragement can plague the best of them.” By invoking God’s blessing on his spiritual father, this young boy fulfilled the Words of Scripture more than many adult who never remembered to mention their pastor to God during their daily discourse with Him. Dr. Dale reminds us once again to do what this boy did. He said “Pray, pray, pray for your pastor – You know how much opposition that you receive yourself…from the world, the flesh, and the devil…and be assured, your pastor receives much more than you. Pray for him every day, and ask God to shower your pastor with an abundance of love, hope, joy, faith, peace, power, wisdom, and courage. Pray for your spiritual leader’s maturity and growth in the faith. While you pray be mindful of this wise advise from the German writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “If you treat a person as he is, he will stay as he is; but if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.” As Paul wrote, “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified, just as it is with you, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; for not all have faith.” (2 Thes. 3:1-2) You see why this is the best prayer in the world? But wait there is another component to this prayer.

The boy prayed finally that God should bless himself. Why not? The African proverb puts it in the mouth of a lizard that if no one praises him for falling from an elm tree and landed on the ground unhurt, he will praise himself. God is the creator of the universe and He sustains his creation in being. Many times we his creatures behave as if he does not exist and for sure many live as if there is no God. So if they forget to bless God, God should bless himself, for loving us and caring for us in spite of our sinfulness. Note that the boy is not calling on us to bless God. No, He is asking God to bless Himself. But I would also add that we should not leave the blessing God to God alone, we should be about the project of blessing and praising God for all that he has done for us. Psalm 103 reminds us to “Praise the Lord, my soul! All my being, praise his holy name! Praise the Lord, my soul, and do not forget how kind he is. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases; he saves me from the grave and blesses me with love and mercy; he fills my life with good things, so that I stay young and strong like an eagle…” Children are close to the heart of God and their prayers are efficacious. Please teach your children how to pray and they will never forget to pray for you. They may even remind you how you should pray and who you should pray for.

The old Rusty bent nail

The above title is inspired by a story told by Mark Link in his commentary on the readings for the 15^th Sunday of the year. Here is the story: “There was a man named Bill. He was a prominent contractor. In time the pressure of his business caused him to turn to alcohol. Before long he separated from his family, and his business went bankrupt. One day Bill was walking down the street. He happened to look down. There on the sidewalk was a bent, rusty nail. Bill thought to himself, “That nail is a perfect picture of me. I’m rusty and bent out of shape, too. I’m good for nothing but to be thrown away, just as that nail is.” Bill stooped down, picked up the nail, and put it in his pocket. When he got home, he took a hammer and began to pound it straight. Then he took some sandpaper and removed the rust from it. Next Bill placed the nail alongside a new one. He could hardly tell the difference between the two. A thought flashed through Bill’s mind. His life could be straightened out and sanded clean again, just as the nail was. But it wouldn’t be easy! Could he take the hard blows and sanding? He decided to try. Today Bill is reunited with his family, and he is back in the construction business. He owes everything to that old, rusty, bent nail that he found on the sidewalk at just the right time in his life. To this day he keeps the restored nail in his wallet.”

This indeed is a powerful life story that has a lesson for everyone. Those who work in recovery centers will tell you that persons who depend on substances often reach the end of their ropes – the rock bottom – before they ever think of turning their life around. If you have watched the film titled Ray, you would notice that the musician – Ray Charles had abused drugs for a long time and for him to have turned his life around, he had to make a conscious decision to get into recovery program, and this was by no means a child’s play. But you see; our God is a God of a second chance. He would always assist anyone who calls on him for help. But the conscious decision has to be made by the individual who needs help. The common saying is “God helps those who help themselves.” The Book of Revelation 3:20 puts it even better, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, (then) I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me.” Yes the Lord will knock at your door, but you have to open it for him before he will enter and be with you. Only then will good things begin to happen to you.

The problem at times is that we lack the courage to begin a new, to pick up the bits and pieces of our lives and do something about it. With courage comes the willpower and the belief in ourselves (what the psychologists call self efficacy) that no matter what was done in the past could be corrected today for a better tomorrow. Many times people are compartmentalized and stigmatized so much so that it makes it near to impossible to start afresh. Life has taught us that many of the rich people that we see and know in our society today were not all born with silver spoons in their mouths. Many of them made a lot of mistakes in the past but had the courage to rise above those mistakes in order to be the men and women they are today.  Today we know them as millionaires.

Is this not the story of the prodigal son found in Luke Gospel 15:11-32? The prodigal son had to swallow his pride and made a homeward journey to his father. Verses 17 to19 said it all; “Coming to his senses he thought, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger. I shall get up and go to my farther and I shall say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers. So he got up and went back to his Father.” No matter what we may have done in the past cannot be as bad as thinking that we have come to the end of the road. There is always a better tomorrow for those who have hope. And for those who have hope, their tomorrow will always be better than today.

Keep the story of the old rusty bent nail close to your heart. If the rusty bent nail was beaten back to shape and restored to a shinny new nail so can you. Recall Jeremiah and the potter’s vessel in chapter 18:1-12. We are like the clay in the hands of the potter. Sometimes we do not turn out to be what the potter intended, we must allow the potter to make another shape of his choice out of us. Be patient with yourself and make use of the chances you have, you have what it takes to make a better tomorrow for yourself. Do not give up and please do not quit. Keep faith alive and know that Emmanuel is with you always even till the end of your life.  

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah – was it real or imaginary?

The book of Genesis did not set out to report a scientific fact about the creation of the world. Hence, we are told that most of the stories found there in were written to teach us how God intervened in the life of a people and turned it round for the better. The authors were more concerned “with the origin of the world, of the human race, and, in particular, of the Hebrew people. Eleven structural units of unequal length and importance, present the unity and purpose of the book in terms of God’s universal sovereignty, his dealings with men, and his choice and formation of a special people to be the instrument of his plan of salvation.” The purpose of this post is not to give an exegetical expose on the book of Genesis. Oh no! I am only interested in the eighteenth and nineteenth chapters of the book. In fact, I am only interested in the discourse between Abraham and the Lord and the actual destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. So the question is, since most parts of the Book of Genesis are not historical fact, can we say that the destruction did not take place?

My answer, as you would expect, is in the negative. We know that there are many cities that have been wiped out from the face of the earth and many more are simply hanging on, waiting for their destruction time. What with wild fires that have engulfed many cities and driven the inhabitants to look for shelter elsewhere? Think of earth quark and tsunami that have devastated many countries and rendered them uninhabitable? What about tornadoes and hurricanes that have decimated many towns and villages? I bet you, it this was in the time of the bible, these events would have been seen as acts of God because He is displeased with the inhabitants of these cities and hence punished them due to their iniquities.

There is another big question that must be asked if this post is to be meaningful, and that is: Why was Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed? And how? The Book of Genesis has not told us exactly what the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was. According to Genesis 18:20-21 “Then the Lord said: “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so grave, that I must go down and see whether or not their actions fully correspond to the cry against them that comes to me. I mean to find out.”” The commentary on Gen. 18:20 as recorded in The New American Bible states thus, “Israelite tradition was unanimous in ascribing the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra to the wickedness of these cities, but tradition varied in regard to the nature of this wickedness. According to the present account of the Yahwist, the sin of Sodom was homosexuality (Gen 19:4f), which is therefore also known as sodomy; but according to Isaiah (1:9f; 3,9), it was a lack of social justice; Ezekiel (16:46-51) described it as a disregard for the poor, whereas Jeremiah (23:14) saw it as general immorality.” I want believe that all the reasons given above and more most have contributed to the destruction of these two cities. If we look at how these cities were destroyed, they could have been engulfed by wild fire, as many of our cities today have been. So what is the difference Sodom and Gomorrah and our present day cities destroyed by fire?

My contention: there are many cities today that have surpassed Sodom and Gomorrah in their sins of iniquity. Like Godons, the Nigerian comedian said, God will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah if He does not punish this generation. If the sin of these two cities was homosexuality, then what about the same sex union that has been legalized in many of the states of the nation? And yet many more are clamoring for marriage reform to include the union between man and man and woman and woman. In my March 18^th blog post I reflected on the same sex union controversy. There I made my point.

St Paul makes a very strong case against cities that have thrown God’s commandment overboard and decide to follow their own laws. In Philippians 3:18-19 he said, “For many, as I have often told you and now tell you even in tears, conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their God is their stomach; their glory is in their “shame.” Their minds are occupied with earthly things.” I know a lot of people live their lives without the thought of God, well that is their problem. But our life and the way we choose to live it has repercussion on the lives of others. Our life style may, consequently, bring punishment on others. In his letter to the Romans 1:18-32, Paul once again has a very strong and rather frightening opinion on this topic. “The wrath of God is indeed being revealed from heaven against every impiety and wickedness of those who suppress the truth by their wickedness.” He goes on to say, “…for although they knew God they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened. While claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of mortal man or of birds or four-legged animals or of snakes. Therefore, God handed them over to impurity through the lust of their hearts for the mutual degradation of their bodies. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshipped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Therefore, God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper. They are filled with every form of wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and spite. They are gossips and scandalmongers and they hate god. They are insolent, haughty, boastful, ingenious in their wickedness, and rebellious toward their parents. They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know the just decree of God that all who practice such things deserve death, they not only do them but given approval to those who practice them.” Does it, in any way, sound familiar? So the question again, “The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah – was it real or imaginary? Do we, in any way, experience the iniquities recounted by Paul prevalent in our Society? Do we think that these sins do not cry out to God? What if God should come down to see that we are, in fact, engaged in these practices, do you think he will spare us?   Just thinking aloud!

Could God be testing you? - 2

In the second chapter of the book of Job, we see Satan presenting himself again to the Lord, and the Lord is once again boasting of his servant Job. “Have you noticed my servant Job, and that there is no one on earth like him, faultless and upright, fearing God and avoiding evil? He still holds fast to his innocence although you incited me against him to ruin him without cause.” Satan response to the Lord is very interesting. He said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has will he give for his life. But now put forth your hand and touch his bone and his flesh and surely he will blaspheme you to your face.” Now Satan is given permission to attack Job’s health. There are two ways that we fall away from the way of the Lord. One is through poverty and the second is ill health. When we lose material things, if we have no faith, we often look for an easy way out. When our children, our parents or our loved ones get sick, we may easily fall away from the path of God without strong faith. Job was attacked through these means to see how strong his faith in God was. No wonder the writer of the book of Proverbs prays in chapter 30:8-9, “Two things I ask of you, deny them not to me before I die: Put falsehood and lying far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches: provide me only with the food I need; lest, being full, I deny you, saying, “Who is the Lord?” Or, being in want, I steal, and profane the name of my God”.  God boasts of his children to Satan to taunt him.

There was another man tested by God to prove his love for Him. The man’s name is Abraham. We call him our father in faith. Abraham was blessed with a son named Isaac. God knew how much Abraham loved Isaac and yet he wanted to know if Abraham loved Isaac more that he loved God. In this test God was more direct and less subtle. He called Abraham by name and made his request. “Abraham!” “Ready!” he replied. Then God said: “Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust on a height that I will point out to you.” Imagine how Abraham felt at the thought of having to kill his son. But Abraham’s faith was so strong that he would not deny God anything, not even his son, whom he loved.

The bible tells us that as Abraham was going with his son to the place he was to sacrifice him to God, the young boy questioned his father: “Father!” he said. “Yes son,” he replied. Isaac continued, “Here are the fire and wood, but where is the sheep for the holocaust?” “Son,” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the sheep for the holocaust.” I wonder how this holy man felt at that question. Did he really believe God would provide anything other than his son? The fact is God did provide the sheep for the sacrifice. God was only testing Abraham. But did Abraham know that he was being tested? I doubt it.

The lesson in all these is that sometimes God uses our suffering to test our faith. He boasts of our faithfulness to Satan and God is happy (anthropomorphically speaking) when his children are faithful to him. The tragedy is that, as human beings, we have no way of knowing what God’s plan is for us. We are less patient with ourselves and want everything good to happen to us yesterday. Paul our brother explains it better in 1 Cor. 10:13, “No trial has come to you but what is human. God is faithful and will not let you be tried beyond your strength; but with the trial he will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to bear it”

When we look back at these two men, Job and Abraham, we notice that they were rewarded for their faithfulness to God. The book of Job ended with these verses; “ Thus the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his earlier ones. For he had fourteen thousand yoke of sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. And he had seven sons and three daughters. After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years, and he saw his children, his grandchildren, and even his great-grandchildren. Then Job died, old and full of years. As for Abraham, apart from providing the sheep for the sacrifice, the Lord had this to say to him, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you acted as you did in not withholding from me your beloved son, I will bless you abundantly and make your descendants as countless as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore; your descendants shall take possession of the gates of their enemies. And in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing - all this because you obeyed my command.”

Fidelity is the key to success with God. The Book of Revelation 2:10 says it all: “Do not be afraid of anything that you are going to suffer. Indeed, the devil will throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will face an ordeal for ten days. Remain faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” If we are found worthy to participate in the suffering of Christ, then we should bear it with equanimity and patience; it could be that God is talking to Satan about us. His blessing is not too far way from us. May the Lord meet you at the hour of your needs, and may the Lord of mercies notice your sacrifices and good works.