FATHER, are you serious when you say
we can talk to God?
Questions like that are often asked of me by people who
find it incredible that we can talk to God. They have come so often
that my answer has also become quite standard and routine.
Of course, we can talk to God! It’s no big deal to
converse with God. It should be the most normal thing to do, since in
the first place God is always with us. While we cannot always have
anybody to talk to, and sometimes we can even forget to talk with our
own selves, God on the other hand is always with us and is always
willing to listen and talk to us too.
That’s his nature. That’s his desire. God is the very
support of our own existence, and that of everybody and everything
else. And he, mind you, does not support our life only in a passive
way. He’s full of love, of solicitude, of attention and concern. He’s
actually hot with us.
St. Augustine said, “to know where God is may be
difficult, but to know where God is not, that is even more difficult!”
Christ himself reassured his apostles, “Behold, I am with you all
days, even to the consummation of the world.” (Mt 28,20)
We just have to learn how to acknowledge this reality. Our
problem is that we restrict our grasp of reality to what is observable
only by the senses, and captured by our feelings. Our thinking is
often so dominated by these human faculties alone that it fails to
enter into the spiritual and supernatural realities.
Worse, some people believe with the conviction of a
man-made faith that reality cannot be anything beyond the biological,
physical, or social at most. They laugh at any talk about anything
spiritual or supernatural. Faith and religion have no place in their
worldview.
In short, in the development of our humanity, many of us
get stuck—or prefer to get stuck and even to rationalize it—in the
anal stage. We hardly grow and approach the fullness of manhood. We
seem to prefer to remain puerile or juvenile.
Conversing with God is always possible if we exercise our
faith, and not just be influenced by the senses, emotions and an
intelligence detached from faith. While faith is a gift, something
given and received, it also corresponds to a need in our human nature.
We always need faith, if not the one given from above, supernatural,
then our own man-made faith.
Learning to talk to God, of course, goes through stages
and requires a kind of training program. That’s what we all go through
when we learn something—like to eat, walk, talk, study, etc. We need
to practice and practice, then doing it until it becomes second nature
to us.
In the beginning, just like anything else, learning to
pray and talk to God is quite awkward. We have to go through the baby
steps, the basic drills, etc. Of course, in learning to pray at the
start, the awkwardness is not only physical. It’s emotional, mental,
spiritual and moral.
Just the same, the obstacles can be hurdled one way or
another. We just have to help one another and endlessly find ways to
solve the problems that can come along the way.
For sure, the problems are myriad. In the first place, we
have to contend with the stiff requirements of faith. Then we have to
grapple with our laziness, not only the physical but also the mental.
We can also suffer a lot of distractions and a languishing spell of
spiritual dryness. But these are not insoluble. With God’s grace and
our effort, we can overcome them.
Obviously, a lot of catechesis and apologetics is needed.
We cannot deny the fact that there is an ocean of ignorance, error and
confusion in this regard. Then a program of learning has to be devised
and adapted to the personal conditions of each one of us. The
objective has to be made subjective.
Very important are the living witnesses of people who
truly pray and know how to relate everything to God. Their example can
speak volumes and can drastically shorten the learning process of
praying for all of us. Let’s hope that we can cultivate a culture of
prayer in our midst!
Let’s make our raw prejudice against prayer a thing of the
past. Let’s talk to God, bringing everything to him, including our
problems and failures. Let’s grow to the fullness of our human and
Christian maturity.
Questions like that are often asked of me by people who
find it incredible that we can talk to God. They have come so often
that my answer has also become quite standard and routine.
Of course, we can talk to God! It’s no big deal to
converse with God. It should be the most normal thing to do, since in
the first place God is always with us. While we cannot always have
anybody to talk to, and sometimes we can even forget to talk with our
own selves, God on the other hand is always with us and is always
willing to listen and talk to us too.
That’s his nature. That’s his desire. God is the very
support of our own existence, and that of everybody and everything
else. And he, mind you, does not support our life only in a passive
way. He’s full of love, of solicitude, of attention and concern. He’s
actually hot with us.
St. Augustine said, “to know where God is may be
difficult, but to know where God is not, that is even more difficult!”
Christ himself reassured his apostles, “Behold, I am with you all
days, even to the consummation of the world.” (Mt 28,20)
We just have to learn how to acknowledge this reality. Our
problem is that we restrict our grasp of reality to what is observable
only by the senses, and captured by our feelings. Our thinking is
often so dominated by these human faculties alone that it fails to
enter into the spiritual and supernatural realities.
Worse, some people believe with the conviction of a
man-made faith that reality cannot be anything beyond the biological,
physical, or social at most. They laugh at any talk about anything
spiritual or supernatural. Faith and religion have no place in their
worldview.
In short, in the development of our humanity, many of us
get stuck—or prefer to get stuck and even to rationalize it—in the
anal stage. We hardly grow and approach the fullness of manhood. We
seem to prefer to remain puerile or juvenile.
Conversing with God is always possible if we exercise our
faith, and not just be influenced by the senses, emotions and an
intelligence detached from faith. While faith is a gift, something
given and received, it also corresponds to a need in our human nature.
We always need faith, if not the one given from above, supernatural,
then our own man-made faith.
Learning to talk to God, of course, goes through stages
and requires a kind of training program. That’s what we all go through
when we learn something—like to eat, walk, talk, study, etc. We need
to practice and practice, then doing it until it becomes second nature
to us.
In the beginning, just like anything else, learning to
pray and talk to God is quite awkward. We have to go through the baby
steps, the basic drills, etc. Of course, in learning to pray at the
start, the awkwardness is not only physical. It’s emotional, mental,
spiritual and moral.
Just the same, the obstacles can be hurdled one way or
another. We just have to help one another and endlessly find ways to
solve the problems that can come along the way.
For sure, the problems are myriad. In the first place, we
have to contend with the stiff requirements of faith. Then we have to
grapple with our laziness, not only the physical but also the mental.
We can also suffer a lot of distractions and a languishing spell of
spiritual dryness. But these are not insoluble. With God’s grace and
our effort, we can overcome them.
Obviously, a lot of catechesis and apologetics is needed.
We cannot deny the fact that there is an ocean of ignorance, error and
confusion in this regard. Then a program of learning has to be devised
and adapted to the personal conditions of each one of us. The
objective has to be made subjective.
Very important are the living witnesses of people who
truly pray and know how to relate everything to God. Their example can
speak volumes and can drastically shorten the learning process of
praying for all of us. Let’s hope that we can cultivate a culture of
prayer in our midst!
Let’s make our raw prejudice against prayer a thing of the
past. Let’s talk to God, bringing everything to him, including our
problems and failures. Let’s grow to the fullness of our human and
Christian maturity.
