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Jesus
said, "When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand
and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see
them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and
pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in
secret
will repay you. In praying, do not babble like the pagans."
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"We'll
do it all: everything on
our own. We don't need anything or
anyone. If I lay here, if I just lay here, would you lie with
me
and just forget the world? I don't quite know how to say how
I
feel. Those three words are said too much: they're not
enough.
Let's waste time chasing cars around our heads. I
need your
grace to remind me to find my own."
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The group
Snow Patrol's song,
"Chasing Cars" is a love song with the man in the relationship singing
to
someone who is important to him. It is also a song
about communication and his own struggle to truly communicate, given
his
lack of knowledge of how to do it well. He does not know how
to
say exactly how he feels, and he knows that saying "those three words,"
that is "I love you", are often said with little or no meaning.
But he knows one thing about communication that is important
for
every couple who desires romantic love in their lives: he knows that
they
have to spend time together, in fact, a lot of time, simply wasting
time with one another.
For the person interested in the Christian life, communication with God is essential. It is not unlike communication with a lover, communication with someone who knows how we feel and who wants to give us the grace that we need in order to live well in the complicated world in which we live. And how do we communicate with that God? Jesus tells us. He taught us the "Our Father," that is, formal prayer, but he told us that formal prayer only goes so far--in fact, in some instances it is only "babble" and "show" in order to be seen. He taught us especially to spend time with God that could only be called "wasting time." "Wasting time with God" can mean a number of things. It means simply being in God's presence in nature or in Church and recognizing what God has done for us. It means praying a formal prayer and not worrying about when it will be finished. Or it means meditating on a Scripture or Gospel passage, and determining how it applies to our lives at that moment of time. Most of all, it means giving God time, just as we would to a lover. Loving someone, whether God or a human being, implies that we are willing to give the most precious thing that we can give, namely, our time. |
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THOUGHT
How much time do you
give in prayer? Should you give a
little more?
PRAYER Good
and
gracious
God, you have
loved us; we see it in creation; we know that you have given us the
chance to have eternal life with you, and we know that you continue to
give us your grace. Help us understand how much you love
us,
and help us want to spend time with you in prayer. Be with
us, we
pray.
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©2007
Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America |