Lent Week 1: Tuesday
POWER OF WORDS
Today’s first reading from Isaiah describes the potent force, the efficaciousness of the word of God that falls from the heavens like rain. It accomplishes its mission as it waters the earth and then returns to heaven in an invisible evaporated state. How aptly this refers to the true Word of God, his Son, who comes from heaven to renew the earth with love and then returns to the right hand of his Father. Jesus is the powerful Word of God who fulfills his assigned mission.
The human word does not have the same power, either on earth or in heaven. While through our words we accomplish good things, we can never reach perfection through them, as we will always fall short due to our limitations and faults.
That is why Jesus lends us his own voice, his own words, to use in our filial prayer to the Father. “Our Father who art in heaven…” Using the words of the original Word, our feeble words receive power to gain the attention of our Heavenly Father. From the time the Lord Jesus shared this prayer, it has been the central prayer of the church as it summarizes the praise, adoration and petition that should mark all prayer.
However, the right formula, even the Lord’s Prayer, can bear no fruit unless it is prayed from the heart. It will not yield power if it is used mechanically like the pagans did to their prayers, relying on volume rather than in childlike trust.
The Lord’s Prayer cannot move our hearts, if as we seek forgiveness, we harbor rancor and bitterness towards others. “Forgive us our trespasses” is followed by “as we forgive…”
Lent is an invitation to deep converse with God in prayer. Let us ask the Lord today to teach us how to pray as sons and daughters abandoning ourselves to his loving hands and as brothers and sisters who are willing to live in reconciliation and peace. Amen.
