FROM THE BOUNDARY
If praying is talking to God, does God pray when he ‘talks’ to us? Or is the word ‘praying’ inappropriate when we speak of conversations with God if, at least, we can characterise these as speaking as if to a friend (cf Exodus 33). Now we’re not Moses, of course, but we say that God loves us, and how can love tell of its beauty except in the context of friendship? In other words, when we speak of prayer do we mis-characterise our relationship with God if we feel we must go down on our knees, or close our eyes head down, or otherwise bow and scrape? That speaks of subjection, not love and friendship. Respect is one thing, subjection another.
I’m sure all of us have experienced moments when somehow the love of God seems to engulf us, or when we see, say, an image of Jesus or Mary which causes tears to well up if not actually to fall, or when we feel profound sorrow at an event in the world, like the killing of the young people and sheriff’s sergeant at the California country music bar, and so send a silent blessing to all those affected. I know that when I see an unmarried mother in town with her baby, I can’t help thinking of Ferruzzi’s ‘Madonna of the Streets’ and wishing them very well in all the hardships they’re sure to face, as Mary herself must have done. I’m equally sure that God witnesses all these responses of ours, and there’s a sense in which they’re ‘posted’ through and to Him. They’re all witnesses of our caritas, our love, sorrow and gratitude for humankind and all that God has created, including that which lies at the very heart of things – which is love. In that way they function as prayers too, for behind the immediate appearance of what we’re about, ultimately we’re speaking to God, not least by affirming our faith.
Maybe this works both ways. If God is ever “at hand”, if we, as the branch, ever abide in the vine, which is Jesus, and He in us, then He must speak through us if not also to us. We say ‘speak’. Though many, like Joan of Arc, have heard ‘voices’, it may be that that idea, God ‘speaking’, is all WE have – mere words themselves – to convey the promptings of the Ultimate Reality we experience. How can you capture God in an alphabet, He who is realised in the consciousness of the heart?
Those promptings take a variety of forms, and they may become incessant. We can say that God nags us too. Those “whispers from eternity”, as I’ve previously called them, may just become claxon horns. When we’re fighting with ourselves about doing ‘right’, He might just manifest in conscience as the ‘one who knows’ and confront us like a gladiator. But then again, after the fire He may just manifest in that “still small voice”, coaxing, insinuating, exhorting, nudging.
Something like this happened to me last week. Over two days, an ‘inner voice’ enjoined me again and again to open my copy of Kabir’s ‘Songs’. I’ve quoted from them often enough. I must write about Kabir sometime. Suffice it to say now that he was born c1440 in or near Benares in India. His adopting parents were Muslims but early in life he became a disciple of the Hindu guru, Ramananda. At the heart of Kabir’s religiousness was love, which all formal religion, including creeds and so-called sacred texts, is powerless to kill. Well, after two days of this – let’s call it ‘holy nudging’ or ‘prayers to action’ – I opened my beautiful Rabindranath Tagor’s translations randomly.
I’m sure you’ve done this kind of thing with the Bible when you’ve had a problem – open it randomly and find the place your eyes rest. Typically, I do it three times, with a prayer for guidance, so that the ‘answer’ is nuanced.
Very well, I did as I was told. This is what I read. “Kabir says: ‘Behold! How great is my good fortune! I have received the unending caress of my Beloved!’” I kissed the book and said ‘Thank you’. Make of it as you will. I shan’t be offended. But in personal terms, it was worth the effort I think.
Now you might object that as a Christian priest it seems odd that I should pay so much attention to words from another religious tradition. I’ll address that next week. Suffice it to say now that this Sunday there’s to be a National Thanksgiving Service at the Gymnasium at 3 p.m. The theme of the Service is ‘Building together: One Barbados’. The preacher is Major Darrell Wilkinson of the Salvation Army. The Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Baha’i faiths will be represented, and the Girl Guides will be presenting the Barbados Flag. Ever faithful, the band of the Royal Barbados Police Force will provide the music. What a wonderful idea: one world, one humanity, one breath, one Barbados!
Go safely, then – until the next time.
Marker from the boundary: “Prayer, for me, isn’t kneeling down or reciting familiar words, even less presenting God with requests. It’s the engagement between my life and the culture of God in every single little detail of my everyday life” (Fr Nadim Nassar).