It has been especially fixed in the prayer of Jesus on the day of his baptism in the river Jordan. There he would go, he who had no sin to wash himself from, in obedience to the will of the Father. And he did not remain on the other side of the river on the bank, as if to say: I am the saint, and you are the sinners. He placed himself at the head of the penitents, "in an act of solidarity with our human condition".
This is always the case, the Pope notes: "We never pray alone, we always pray with Jesus.". A theme developed and deepened before by Pope Emeritus Benedict. Also for understand Christ.
This is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says and what Francis says: "The prayer The filial love that the Father expected of his children will finally be lived by the only Son himself in his humanity, with men and on their behalf" (n. 2599).
The Gospel of St. Luke relates that when Jesus was being baptized, as he was praying, a hole was opened as it were in heaven, and the voice of the Father was heard, "...".You are my Son; today I have begotten you."(Lk 3:22). The Pope observes that this simple phrase contains an immense treasure, because it gives us a glimpse of the mystery of Jesus and of his heart always turned to the Father:
"In the whirlwind of life and the world that will come to condemn him, even in the hardest experiences and sadness that he will have to endure, even when he experiences that he has nowhere to lay his head (cf. Mt 8:20), even when hatred and persecution are unleashed around him, Jesus is never left without the shelter of a home: he dwells eternally in the Father."
Francis adds that the personal prayer of Jesus "at Pentecost will become by grace the prayer of all those baptized in Christ. And so he advises us that if we ever feel incapable of praying, unworthy that God should listen to us, we should to ask Jesus to pray for us, to show his wounds again to God the Father, on our behalf..
If we have that confidence, the Pope assures us, we will somehow hear those words addressed to us: "...".You are the beloved of God, you are a son, you are the joy of the Father of heaven.".
In short, "Jesus has given us his own prayerwhich is its dialogue of love with the Father. He gave it to us as a seed of the Trinity, which wants to take root in our hearts. Let us accept it! Let us accept this gift, the gift of prayer.. Always with Him. And we will not be mistaken."
So much for the words of Francis in his catechesis on Wednesday. From here we can go deeper into how our prayer relates to the Lord's prayer, and how that relates to the Mass, which always has something of a "feast" about it. And how, finally, this leads us to participate in the mission of the Church. Let us take a step-by-step approach, guided by the theologian Joseph Ratzinger.
"Let us direct our thanks above all to God in whom we live, move and exist" Benedict XVI.
The content of Jesus' prayer -prayer of praise and thanksgiving, of petition and reparation- unfolds from the intimate awareness of his divine filiation and his redemptive mission.
This is why Ratzinger observed - in the perspective of the point of the Catechism quoted by Francis - that the content of Jesus' prayer is concentrated in the word AbbaThe word by which the Hebrew children called their fathers (equivalent to our "daddy"). It is the clearest sign of Jesus' identity in the New Testament, as well as the clearest synthetic expression of his whole essence. Basically, this word expresses the essential assent to his being the Son. That is why the Our Father is an extension of Abba transferred to the us of his faithful (cf. The Feast of Faith, Bilbao 1999, pp. 34-35).
So it is. Christian prayer, our prayer, has as its living foundation and center the prayer of Jesus. It is rooted in it, it lives from it and it prolongs it without surpassing it, since it Jesus' prayer, who is our "head", precedes ours, sustains it and gives it the efficacy of His own prayer. Ours is a prayer of sons "in the Son. Our prayer, like that of Jesus and in union with his, is always a prayer that is both personal and in solidarity.
This is made possible by the action of the Holy SpiritThe Holy Spirit unites us all in the Lord, in his (mystical) body which is the Church: "In communion in the Holy Spirit, Christian prayer is prayer in the Church". "In prayer, the Holy Spirit unites us to the Person of the Only Son, in his glorified humanity. By means of it and in it, our filial prayer commune in the Church with the Mother of Jesus (cf. Acts 1:14)" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, nn. 2672 and 2673).
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Well then, Ratzinger continues, from union with the prayer of Jesus, -that is, from the awareness of our participation in the divine filiation in community with Christ-,the mass prolongs the prayer of Jesus in daily life. And then, he says, the world can become a party.
A feast, Benedict XVI would say years later, is "an event in which everyone is, so to speak, outside themselves, beyond themselves, and thus with themselves and with others" (Address to the Roman Curia, December 22, 2008).
But -we might now ask ourselves- what sense would it make to turn the world into a "party" in circumstances such as the present, in in the midst of a pandemicof a complicated economic crisis, of injustices and violence, even in the name of God, that leave traces of pain and death everywhere?
More questions: What do we as Christians mean when we say that we "celebrate" the MassAnd why does the Mass have to do with a feast? And we find this answer: not, certainly, in a superficial sense of the word feast, which is usually associated with the somewhat unconscious bustle and fun of those who distance themselves from problems; but for a quite different reason: because in the Mass, writes Ratzinger, we place ourselves around God, who makes himself present in our midst.
This gives us a serene joycompatible with the chiaroscuro of faith, with pain and even with the deathbecause we know that even death does not have the last word. That last word is only love, which never dies.
This is how Pope Benedict explained, in this long paragraph that deserves to be transcribed, what happens in the Christian liturgy:
"He [God] is present. He enters into our midst. The sky has been torn open and this makes the earth luminous. This is what makes life joyful and open, and unites one and the other in a joy that cannot be compared to the ecstasy of a rock festival. Friedrich Nietzsche once said: 'The art does not consist in organizing a party, but in finding people capable of rejoicing in it.'. According to Scripture, joy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit (cf. Gal 5:22) (...) Joy is an integral part of the feast. The party can be organized; the joy cannot. It can only be offered as a gift; (...) The Holy Spirit gives us joy. And he is joy. Joy is the gift in which all the other gifts are summed up. It is the manifestation of happiness, of being in harmony with oneself, which can only derive from being in harmony with God and with his creation. Joy, by its very nature, must radiate, must be communicated.
The missionary spirit of the Church is nothing more than the impulse to communicate the joy that has been given to us." (Address to the Roman Curia, December 22, 2008)
With respect to the EucharistIt should be remembered that the Jewish Passover meal already had a strong family, sacred and festive character. It combined two important aspects. An aspect of sacrifice, since the lamb offered to God and sacrificed on the altar was eaten. And an aspect of communion, communion with God and with others, manifested in the sharing and drinking of the bread and wine, after they were blessed, as a sign of joy and peace, of thanksgiving and renewal of the Covenant (cf. The Feast of Faith, pp. 72-74).
The Mass assumes the essence of all of this and overcomes it as "sacramental "updating (i.e., by means of signs that manifest a real divine action, in which we collaborate). of the death and resurrection of the Lord for our salvation.
In it we pray for all, the living and the healthy and the sick, and also for the deceased. And we offer our labors, sorrows and joys for the good of all.
Our faith assures us that God governs history and we are in his hands, without sparing us the effort to improve it, to find the solution to problems and illnesses, to make the world a better place. And so the Mass is the central expression of the Christian meaning of life.
Our faith also gives us a sense of death as a definitive step to eternal life with God and the saints. We mourn, as is natural, those we lose sight of on earth. But we do not mourn them in despair, as if that loss were irreparable or definitive, because we know it is not. We have faith that, if they have been faithful, they are better off than we are. And we hope one day to be reunited with them to celebrate, now without limits, our reunion.
Let us return to Ratzinger's line. Prayer is an act of affirmation of being, in union with Christ's "Yes" to one's own existence, to that of the world, to our own. It is an act that enables and purifies us to participate in Christ's mission.
In this identification with the Lord - with his being and his mission - which is prayer, the Christian finds his identity, inserted in his being. Churchfamily of God. And, to illustrate this profound reality of prayer, Ratzinger points out:
"Starting from this idea, the theology of the Middle Ages established as the objective of prayer, and of the commotion of being that occurs in it, that man should be transformed into 'anima ecclesiastica', into. personal incarnation of the Church. It is identity and purification at the same time, giving and receiving in the depths of the Church. In this movement, the mother's language becomes ours, we learn to speak in it and through it, so that her words become our words: the gift of the word of that millenary dialogue of love with the one who wanted to become one flesh with her, becomes the gift of speech, through which I truly give myself and in this very way I am given back by God to all others, given and free" (Ibid., 38-39).
Therefore, Ratzinger concludes, if we ask ourselves how we learn to pray, we should answer: we learn to pray by praying "with" others and with our mother.
It is always so, in fact, and we can conclude for our part. The Christian's prayer, a prayer always united to Christ (even if we are not aware of it) is a prayer in the "body" of the Churcheven if one is physically alone and prays individually. Their prayer is always ecclesial, although sometimes this is manifested and carried out in a public, official and even solemn way.
Christian prayer, which is always personal, has various forms: from the external participation in the prayer of the Church during the celebration of the sacraments (especially the Mass)to the liturgical prayer of the hours. And, in a more basic way and accessible to all, the "private" prayer of the Christian -mental or vocal-, before a tabernacle, before a crucifix or simply shelled out in the midst of ordinary activities, in the street or on the bus, at work or in family, social and cultural life.
Also popular piety of processions and pilgrimages can and should be a way and expression of prayer.
Through prayer we come to the contemplation and praise of God and his work, which we desire to remain with us, so that ours may be fruitful.
Prayer is necessary for the Eucharist to become part of our life.
Prayer, which always has a component of adoration, precedes, accompanies and follows Mass. Christian prayer is a sign and instrument of how the Mass "enters" into life and turns life into a celebration, a feast.
From there we can finally understand how our prayer, always united to Christ's prayer, is not only a prayer "in" the Church, but also prepares and strengthens us for the Church's mission. participate in the mission of the Church.
The Christian life, converted into a "life of prayer" and transformed by the Mass, translates into service to the material and spiritual needs of others. And as we live and grow as children of God in the Church, we participate in her edification and mission, thanks to prayer and the Eucharist. None of these are mere theories or imaginations as some might think, but realities made possible by the action of the Holy Spirit.
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: the Holy Spirit "prepares the Church for the encounter with her Lord; he recalls and manifests Christ to the faith of the assembly; he makes present and actualizes the mystery of Christ by his transforming power; finally, the Spirit of communion unites the Church to the life and mission of Christ".
Mr. Ramiro Pellitero Iglesias
Professor of Pastoral Theology
Faculty of Theology
University of Navarra
Published in "Church and new evangelization".
