“Prayer is not magic and is not meant to interfere in the natural flow of things”

Bp Sebastian Adayanthrath

Bp Sebastian Adayanthrath
Mandya

There are different modes of prayers at the time of Covid-19 Pandemic? How prayer does help us at this difficult time? Is prayer imploring God to interfere and change the bad situation or is prayer paying attention to the call from within the Divine?

When one responds to a question, if one can present a real situation that would explain much more than what can be written. Let us look at Jesus at Gethsemane. He is praying. He sees what is coming. What is going to come is gruesome, humiliating, and above annihilating oneself. He is fervently praying that the cup be removed because he cannot take it. However, there was no answer from the Father. As he prayed he began to see the light and his prayer slowly changed. Let your will be done. Prayer is not magic and is not meant to interfere in the natural flow of things, rather it helps a human person to understand oneself, his inner understanding of God and that creation in which he lives, moves and fulfils the mission entrusted to him. During the pandemic time as a Christian rooted in the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, I continue to pray not that the pandemic be removed from our world, rather I ask God what he is telling us through this painful, gruesome situation. His salvation plan is being unfolded even amidst so much illness, death and unwanted situations. I need to believe in that otherwise I cannot say that I am a Christian. It might include personal loss, community loss and even my own life, but God is there to hold me in His hands.

Is prayer an escape from one’s own responsibility as if we are entrusting the problem with God to do the difficult job? Will God come to the streets to pick up the Covid-19 patients to the hospital?

Christian faith and prayer have two dimensions which are corroborative. I adore my Lord in the Holy Eucharist and then I try to see him in the sick, abandoned, forsaken, people who have no space and have nowhere to go. The gospel command tells me “you go and get the food for them”. God is asking me to have a responsible faith which means I should do what God would have done if He was present with us on the streets. So, the memory of the death and resurrection of Jesus is not a past event but a salvation moment which is to be lived out in and through me. I need to extend my hands, I need to stretch my heart, I need to dirty my clothes in helping someone, I need to come down from where I sit and should carry a person to the hospital when someone is sick. I am given responsibility. There is a famous story of a man who complained to God “look at the poverty, injustice, cruelty in the world and why are you sitting there idle? Can’t you do something God?”. God replied with a smile: “I have done a great thing”. Man was perplexed: “what have you done may I ask”? God replied, “I created you. Go and do something”. When we simply realize that the money we spend on new armaments, military planes, statues, etc. we could feed the entire population of our country and keep them healthy. God trusts in us to carry out His mission and take care of our brothers and sisters. What a mess humanity has created. There is no point in complaining to God. Let us clear up our mess first.

Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but the one who loses his life for my sake will save it (Mt: 16:25) is prayer a way of losing one’s life to save it? What is the meaning of losing one’s life, not body?

Let us look at a living example. It is so extremely painful to see an elderly sick person like Fr. Stan Swamy was not given bail after repeated requests. He spent all his life for people who are on the margins, gave voice for those who have no voice at all. He banged against mighty palaces of power. He has moral power. The other day he told the high court “I am almost dying…but I am willing to suffer”. He looked strong even though he is weak, he looked fresh even though he is terribly tired and fatigued, and he looked convinced even though he lives under this unbearable situation for an elderly person. This is a fine example of losing one’s life to save it. To make life meaningful in the right sense of the word, I need to find something in life to die for. It may be a group of people, it may be a structure which needs revisiting, it may be a situation which is not life-giving at all. When I prepare myself to die for that cause, it becomes most profound and beautiful. Prayer helps me to lose my soul for the sake of the other. Kindly look at St. Paul who on the way to Damascus realized what he was holding so tight was not the real reason he should live his life for. He got enlightened and through this he enlightened people of many generations. It is here where Jesus’ words beco-me profoundly beautiful: “I am being broken that you may have life and life in abundance”. Some of our best intentions and actions have no soul and because of the same it does not generate life. That is the sad part of reality.

“What a mess humanity has created. There is no point in complaining to God. Let us clear up our mess first.”

Derrida says secular is the other side of the sacred, what is the sacred side in the fight against the pandemic? Bonheoffer told of living, est Deus non daretur (as if God is not given) How important is such a stand? How does it bear in our difficult times?

The sacred side of the pandemic is the ultimate call to surrender. We thought that we are above everything and that the whole world revolves only because of me. When you surrender, you begin to realize the fleeting nature of all experiences and that the world cannot give you anything of lasting value. You can continue to meet people, to be involved in experiences and activities, but without the wants and fears of an egoistic self. That is to say, you no longer demand that a situation, person, place or event should satisfy you or make you happy. Its passing and imperfect nature is allowed to be. The most sacred part of this painful time is to believe that it too will pass. The wonderful miracle is that when you no longer are placing an impossible demand on it, every situation, person, place, or event becomes not only fulfilling but also more harmonious, more peaceful. The gruesome death of Jesus is the most primary lesson from which a Christian should learn how to stand in difficult times. That was the very significance of the temple veil rending when Jesus died (Mt: 27/51) We no longer have to leave the secular world to find sacred space because they have come together. The call of Christianity for that matter is for every religious to get rid of their egoistic self and look at the whole world as God’s garden, His sacred sanctuary, His ever feeding kitchen and above all His ever-loving companionship. Sacred opens for the secular.

How does prayer make a difference in our approach to the sick and suffering?

My prayer begins to teach me that if I had not suffered as I have, there would be no depth to me as a human being, no humility, no compassion. Suffering cracks the shell of our ego. As one begins to pray, one realizes how sick and suffering one is. You are broken and you need healing. So, in the first-place prayer helps me to look at myself. Then it will connect me with the world of the sick, suffering and injustices of the world. In prayer we increase our sensitivity to the stupidity of what we are doing to the people. I should say that without a prayer life we all will stay at our comfort zone and pull everything down to our own level. In short, prayer gives me spiritual strength and transformation. Once that happens, I look at the sick and suffering and realize that they are part of the mystical body and when they suffer it is me who suffers. My life will never be the same again.

How does prayer help us to embrace the disappearance of the self to embrace the other who cries to God?

There is a famous saying by Cherokee chiefs to their young braves, “why do you spend much of our time brooding? Don’t you know you are being driven by great wind across the sky?”. The prayer teaches me that I am part of a much bigger pattern. I am not in control. You and I are part of a much bigger mystery. To understand that mystery I need to become humble and honest. Prayer does that to me. I am not in control of anything in this universe, any more than that I would be of great winds. I am a tool in the hands of God. How does that lead me to those who suffer? To those who cry out to God, day and night you are able to embrace them as they are. In John’s Gospel there is a famous story of a woman who comes to Jesus with five husbands. Jesus challenges her but He makes her a true apostle. She goes and tells the story to the people in the town. As myself disappear I become capable of embracing people without prejudice, judgement and without a sense of superior feeling. I will work for their welfare for they are connected with a God who forgives me of my mistakes.

How can we become knights of infinite resignation of self with no hope of returning to oneself? Is prayer a method by which I withdraw from myself?

As I am purged by the reality of God’s love, I begin to have a strong feeling that I am deeply loved and I feel secure in His hands. I am able to plunge myself into the reality of life. There is a true reality and false reality. Many of us live in the false reality. To put it more bluntly there is a “fear worldview’’ and a “love worldview” The “fear world view” teaches us that everything out there is hostile. We have to compare, dominate, control, and insure. In other words, we need to be in charge. This state moves us deeper and deeper into a world of anxiety and fear. As with the attachment to the system of producing and consuming, this anxiety gets worse as we get older. On the other hand, the “love world view” tells me that the universe is friendly, people are good willed and there is lot of goodness out there and only I need to discover the same. I become less anxious since I share in the sinfulness of humanity one way or another. Real prayer helps me to embrace this “love world view” and I experience reality as it is.

The humanist must also take leave of himself that his self exaltation has to be self-immolation to commit his whole self to the responsibility of the other?

Humanists believe that people have one life to live and there is no afterlife. As a result, they focus on being happy and making the most of their life. The humanist recognizes that we human beings are the most curious and the most capable curators of knowledge in the known universe. To gain knowledge we must use our reason and experience to understand the world. Humanism is based on a philosophy that stresses the importance of human factors rather than looking at religious, divine, or spiritual matters. Humanism is rooted in the idea that people have an ethical responsibility to lead lives that are personally fulfilling while at the same time contributing to the greater good for all people. Humanism stresses the importance of human values and dignity. It proposes that people can resolve problems through the use of science and reason. Rather than looking to religious traditions, humanism instead focuses on helping people live well, achieve personal growth and make the world a better place. However even a humanist needs to come out of oneself or lead oneself to self-immolation to reach the core of the “other” .It is necessary that one needs to come out of his self-exaltation to commit his/her whole self to the responsibility of the other.

Where is God in the parable of the Good Samaritan when the Samaritan is caring for the wounded? Meister Eckhart prayed: I pray God to rid me of God” do we have to forget God to become responsible to the wounded and suffering?

The Samaritan saw beyond the barriers of “enmity”(all obstacles to right relationships) and saw his own humanity, vulnerability and brokenness in the beaten-up traveller. His heart, mind and spirit “descended”(the road from Jerusalem to Jericho is a steep, treacherous descent). All the opposites in our lives, our personalities, our experiences, meet in compassion. Our beaten-up part can do nothing but accept the healing offered. Richard Rohr, O.F.M. says: “In spiritual life, your enemies are your best friends”. We abhor our own faults that we see in the “enemy. “It’s hope-giving to realize that when we have gone as low as we can, we meet God. Only when we see divinity on the face of the whole of humanity can we ever become New Testament people. Mathew 25 is a primary example: “we never knew we were serving you?” It is one of the most revolutionary sentences in the Bible. You are caring for your brothers and sisters precisely because they are your brothers and sisters and they are created in the image of God. Only when our actions flow from there will we truly ever become a people after the model of the crucified one.