Stay in love.
So, I can’t help to think when I hear Jesus speaking of the persistent friend who is knocking at the door, I think of a lot of the ACTS women who invited others to attend this retreat. I mean, if they will not listen to you and say, “Yes” to your invitation to go on an ACTS retreat because you are their friend, they will say, “Yes” because of your persistence... Many of you finally said “Yes”, because someone kept asking, kept insisting that you needed a retreat, and this was it...
There’s this popular song that came out five or six years ago and I heard it few days ago and I think the words to the song are beautiful…
'Cause all of me
Loves all of you
Love your curves and all your edges
All your perfect imperfections
Give your all to me
I'll give my all to you
You’re my end and my beginning
even when I lose I’m winning...
cause I give you all of me...
And you give me all of you.
But the song (“All of Me” by John Legend) is about a love of a man who sees the imperfections, the quirks of this woman, as well as the mystery of a woman and He still desires to give all of himself for her as she gives all of herself for him.
You know, when we hear a song like this or some other love song, I think it touches something deep inside of us. It touches a desire within us. In some sense, there great longing and searching for a kind of love that is complete. A love that will be a complete gift. We desire the other person to perfectly give themselves to us and we desire to perfectly give ourselves to them. We want someone to give all of themselves for us and we want to find someone we can give all of ourselves for in return.
Brothers and sisters, this is how we were created. And what I want to argue today is that this is the foundation of prayer. This ache, this longing, this thirst for someone who will give all of themselves for us. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (#2560) says this about prayer:
“Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God's thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him.”
We were created, we were made to pray. The early Christians have a saying, “Birds fly, fish swim, men pray.” Prayer is the natural to who we are, it comes from the depths of our being... it’s a response to our thirst, to the ache in our hearts.
So why? Why, O God, do I so often find it difficult to pray? Why is it so hard?
We can fall into the temptation to think that God is hiding, that God is avoiding us, but that’s a lie. Because God’s desire for us is complete and perfect. So much so that he literally came down to us in order to show that love. And he literally gives all of himself for you. He gives himself to you on a platter. Literally. Body and Blood, here today. God wants to be found. He wants to touch you, he wants to be one with you. That’s how much God the Father loves his children.
“If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"
So why do we find prayer and Mass so hard? Why does Mass sometimes feel so boring? Simply put, it is sin. Sin makes God appear boring, sin makes prayer feel dull. Our selfishness, our anger, our unforgiveness, keeps us distant from God.
And our battle with sin, is also our battle with prayer. The more I choose to stop and surrender to God love and mercy in communication with Him, the more I will find I love Him. The more I spend time with Him, the more I will fall in love with Him.
The reason why we find prayer so hard, is often because we don’t love Him enough. And the reason why we don’t love him enough, is because our sin keeps us from spending time with Him properly.
Brothers and sisters, that’s why retreats are so powerful, that’s why taking a weekend with God is so life changing. We finally are able to spend time with God and fall in love with Him more.
The disciples in today’s Gospel, sees Jesus praying often. In fact, all throughout the Gospel of Luke, we find Jesus praying. When Jesus was baptized, he was praying and then heavens opened up, and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Luke 5 says that, even when large crowds would come to him, Jesus would “often withdraw to deserted places to pray.” Not only that, he would often “depart to the mountain to pray, and spent the [entire] night in prayer to God” (Lk. 6). He was praying, before he asked the disciples, “who do you say that I am” to which Peter responded, “The Messiah of God.” He was praying on the mountain when the transfiguration took place and Jesus’ face became dazzling white.
And so when they are asking Jesus to teach them to pray, they are not just asking for a lecture or lesson on prayer. They saw something different in His prayer. They wanted Jesus to teach them the way to pray like He does. They saw the intensity of His love for the Father, His desire, His communion with God and they wanted that too!
And so Jesus teaches that we begin prayer by addressing God as “Father”, Our Father, a Good Father. A Good Father who won’t give us “a snake when we ask for fish”. He wants our good. You have to realize that God is a good Father, and not a tyrant or a selfish God out to mess with us. God is a loving Father. If you can’t see God as a loving Father, then you need to also address sin. Sin keeps you from seeing God as a loving Father. “Forgive us our sins... for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us...” We need to go to Confession, to receive God’s forgiveness, to let go of any unforgiveness. Then having received forgiveness, spend time with Him in adoration and fall in love with Jesus all over again.
The love you feel on retreat doesn’t have to be the end, it doesn’t have to be a mountain top experience and then the dry desert. It can be daily! Your daily prayer, your daily time in adoration in the church or chapel is a kind of mini retreat. You can spend time every day in prayer in a closed room, or stop by the church on the way home from work, or sign up for an hour of adoration with the Lord and have a mini retreat daily! You don’t have to wait till next year to experience God’s love!
I like to leave you with one of my favorite quotes by Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J.:
Nothing is more practical than finding God,
that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination will affect everything.
It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings,
what you will do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends,
what you read, who you know,
what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.