Never cease to pray.--St. Paul
Diadochus told the story of fisherman on a calm sea being able to look into the deep water and see the fish. The same fisherman on the stormy sea cannot see through the agitated waters and their skills are useless. What a beautiful picture of how we live! We are so confident when we feel God near and our prayers are being answered. We feel great purpose and know that with Christ we can do all things. But then, suddenly, the skies darken and the wind picks up. Plans go wrong, our hope and confidence are shaken, our talents become useless. St. Paul spoke of this to the parish at Thessolinica, his advice was to keep praying. We are not spiritual giants, we are going to find out over and over again that we are beggars. O happy fault!,,, for we will also find out again and again that we are loved madly by our mysterious Savior, and He has no intention of letting us go down with the ship. Even when the ship is taking on water and the mast is on its side. Augustine, referring to the story in the gospel of Jesus asleep in the boat in the midst of the storm says this, "Wake Him up!" There will be times when we must wake up the sleeping Jesus and plead for His help. This is what St. Paul meant when he said to never cease praying. When we react like this, we are very close to the stillness of mind needed to see clearly what it is we are after.
wkm
No comments:
Post a Comment