Ordinary Time 16 - How To Pray As We Ought

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 16

July 23, 2023

The Spirit of All Desire

 

            So St. Paul tells us that the Spirit helps us to pray in our weakness. But prayer is easy, right? I mean, little kids can do it, so how hard can it be?

            But what marks the proper way to pray? It’s not saying the right words or folding our hands a certain way. Yes, anyone can do those things. But prayer ought to be about one thing: desire. At its core, prayer is desiring God.

            St. Augustine once said, “The whole life of a good Christian is a holy longing. Now what you long for, you do not yet see: but by longing, you are made capable [of being filled].” He uses the analogy of a cloth or leather bag – if you want to fit something valuable into the bag, you first stretch out the bag so that it can fit the large object. So Our Lord wants us to stretch our desire so that our souls are prepared to receive Him.

            And for this we need the Holy Spirit. It is God Who puts the desire for Himself within our hearts. This is why the Spirit intercedes with prayers “too deep for words”, as St. Paul says. Because what we pray with words should correspond to the desire of our souls. I’m not talking about desiring material things, as if our prayer should be all about, “Oh Lord, I reeeeeeally want that new car!”, but rather desiring God.

            Have you ever felt a longing for something more than the passing trifles of this life? Have you ever seen beauty – such as a mountaintop or a piece of music – and been pierced with delight? In a quiet moment, have you ever wondered what life is all about? Have you ever wanted to grow closer to the Lord, to become a saint? If so, then you have tasted the Holy Spirit in your life, because you have had a desire for Him – and it is He Who puts that desire in your heart.

            The Holy Spirit stirs up the hunger in our hearts so that we want God. But maybe you’re sitting there thinking, “I have no idea how to desire God, or even if I want to. How can I desire Him?” There are two things we can do to grow in a desire for God.

            The first is to empty ourselves. To hunger for something means that we are empty of other things. These last couple weeks we have been talking about St. Paul’s discussion on the body and the world. While the body and the world are both good in themselves, if our life is filled with pleasure and distraction and riches, we will never feel the hunger for God. In fact, a person may feel a disgust for prayer and for God if they are too filled with the things of this world.

            When I was a young boy, my family moved to England for a few months for my dad’s job. The flight to England was delayed, so as compensation, the airline gave each of us a $75 credit for food in the airport – with the caveat that we had to eat it all that night. I remember my parents sitting us down at the restaurant and ordering a ton of food – and basically forcing us to eat it! We were stuffed beyond belief, to the point that food was repulsive to us. But when you’re hungry, food is an incredible delight, and there’s nothing more satisfying than a good meal on an empty stomach.

            Our Bishop once told me that the number-one way Satan draws people away from God in today’s modern world is distraction. So many people would become great saints if they allowed themselves the time and space to feel the desire for more than this life can offer! Instead, any time we feel any loneliness, emptiness, desire, longing, we immediately distract ourselves by scrolling Instagram or texting someone or watching a cat video on Youtube.

            But saints have been made through a holy longing – St. Patrick is one such example. Patrick was a wealthy, strong British teenager in the 400s when his village was attacked by Celtic barbarians from Ireland. They captured Patrick, took him back to Ireland, and enslaved him, forcing him to become a shepherd for six long years. He lost his family, his wealth, his comfort…and in that emptiness, in his constant hunger and cold and loneliness, he began to discover God. He later wrote that the only thing he could do on those long nights spent out in the fields was to pray – first with words only, but then without words, just with his soul longing for God! After six years, he managed to make a daring escape and return to England, but he had been so utterly transformed by the experience that he was now a faithful man of God. We know the rest of the story – he became a bishop and then returned to his former captors, becoming the great evangelist of the Emerald Isle. So, like him, we can stop distracting ourselves and filling our life with empty trinkets, and allow the longings, the loneliness, the desires, the restlessness to drive us to the Lord.

            But what if you still don’t have the desire? Listen to the words of St. Alphonsus Liguori:  “If you do not desire [God], then, certainly, you will never become a Saint. But if you have not this desire, ask Jesus Christ for it: ask Mary for it.” This is why Paul says that the Holy Spirit helps us pray as we ought. We can say to the Holy Spirit, “Give me a greater longing for God! Give me a hunger, a desire for Him!” Be honest and say, “I don’t yet feel any desire for You, Lord, but I want to. Put that desire in my heart.” He absolutely will!

            If we desire happiness, we desire God. If we desire beauty, we desire God. If we desire a virtuous life, we desire God. So when we pray, don’t just say words. Speak your desire for God – and we will be confident that, through the Holy Spirit stirring up the hunger within us, we will “pray as we ought”.