SPIRITUAL DIRECTION: Pray for rain

A community was experiencing a period of drought. At mass, they prayed for rain. The following Sunday, the parishioners returned to mass. The Pastor asked, “Where are your umbrellas?”

No explanation is needed. The challenge from that Pastor, and for each of us, is: do we believe our prayer? Do we expect results? Are we prepared for them? 

Our recent mass readings including the story of the Greek Syrophoenician woman whose 12-year-old daughter was afflicted by a demon. Although this cycle the reading is from Mark 7, the fuller details are presented in Matthew 15.  This passage is typically preached as encouraging us to be persistent in praying, in asking Jesus for that which we want. Yet there is much more that awaits us in His Word. 

We are told Jesus went away from the Jews, possibly to escape their ire after His exposing their hypocrisy. Why that location, that house? Nothing is arbitrary in God. Had He been aligned with the Pharisees needing escape from the people, the Jews would have whisked Him away to a Jewish household in a Jewish village. Jesus chose a heathen area somewhere between two Phoenician seaports. St. John Chrysostom taught He went to be hid, but this does not mean He didn’t go to preach. 

It is God’s desire that all the world be saved, Jew and Gentile alike, and we see examples of this throughout the Gospels. Jesus is the new covenant and we the new Israel. Yet He was to manifest Himself first to the Jews (Mt 15:24). St. Augustine further explains that He must first bring His Presence to the Jews; the return of the Shekinah to Israel. It isn’t that He would have nothing to do with the Gentiles; rather, it is the order in which He was to manifest Himself to the nations. But they too must show their fidelity to Him, they who sacrifice to idols. So, speaking metaphorically, when He refers to giving food first to the children, this represents the children of God, the Israelites. The scraps go to the Gentiles. In other words, does she believe she is saved too?

 Yes, she is persistent in prayer, but it is prayer of belief. He wants her to show her belief in Him. And to do so, she must first admit she needs conversion; that she is a ‘dog’. Confession, absolution, then receipt of His Spirit and healing of her daughter. He is not denigrating her. Rather, He has acknowledged her unholy existence inviting her to holiness. She had to first be honest with herself and humble in order to accept that invitation. So must we. 

“With this intent did Christ put her off, for He knew she would say this; for this did He deny the grant, that He might exhibit her high self-command. For if He had not meant to give, neither would He have given afterwards, nor would He have stopped her mouth again. […] He would not that so great virtue in the woman should be hid. Not in insult then were His words spoken, but calling her forth, and revealing the treasure laid up in her. […] What then says Christ? O woman, great is your faith (Mt 15:28). Yea, therefore did He put her off, that He might proclaim aloud this saying, that He might crown the woman. […] He defers and delays, to manifest her constancy“ (St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew, homily 52)

Too often a spiritual drought threatens to weaken our belief. Does God hear me? Does He care? Am I unworthy of help? Why does He permit this struggle to continue? Well-intended people, not knowing what to say, attempt to placate us with “you’ll have the answers in Heaven”. It can be helpful to return our focus to that end-goal, Heaven, rather than the need for answers. Recall eternity with God and all your loved ones in paradise, then pray for God to bring you a taste of that eternity now. Don’t hesitate to cry out, “I do believe, help my unbelief!” (Mk 9:24). 

Pray for rain, and don’t forget your umbrella ?? 

“We should recall that no man is an island, entire of itself. Our lives are involved with one another, through innumerable interactions  they are linked together. No one lives alone. No one is saved alone.  … So my prayer for another is not something extraneous to that person, something external, not even after [their] death. In the interconnectedness of being, my gratitude toward the other – my prayer for him – can play a small part in his purification. And for that there is no need  to convert earthly time into God’s time; in the communion of souls simple terrestrial time is suspended. It is never too late to touch the heart of another, nor is it ever in vain.  In this way, we further clarify an important element of the Christian concept of Hope. Our Hope is always essentially Hope for others.”

(Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi, 48)

Ad Majorem De Gloriam ??