In the gospel proclaimed for Ash Wednesday, Jesus rereads the three works of mercy outlined by the law of Moses. They are Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving. These next few weeks, I would like to reflect on Jesus’ interpretation of these three works.
Prayer. “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues so that others may see them. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father who sees in secret” (Mt. 6:5-6) It’s amazing, but I’ve heard some people comment on this passage and say, “You See! Jesus does not require us to go to church. We can simply stay at home in our rooms and pray. God knows, so no one else needs to know”. But like every passage of scripture, we need to ask, “What is the context?” What does God really mean here? What is the situation? There are so many other times in the gospels where Jesus emphasizes community, communal prayer, and fellowship. He commanded the apostles to celebrate the Eucharist together and to “Do this in memory of me”. “Where two or three or gathered in my name, there am I in there midst. In the New Testament letters, the apostles gather often in prayer, especially on the Lord’s day, to worship God as a family and receive the Eucharist.
In this passage, Jesus stresses the spirit of prayer. Prayers are not something we simply say aloud or repeat one after the other. Nor are we to “show-off” in prayer and appear to spiritual higher than others. But Jesus invites us to go to our “inner room” and “close the door”. The inner room represents our hearts and our souls. Prayer is our intimate time with God, to talk to him as one would talk to a friend. We ask God for the strength to do His will. We ask Him for the grace to avoid sin and temptations. As Jesus mentioned once, some people “honored me with their lips, but their hearts were far from me”. Prayer deals with our interior life. Likewise, in prayer we “close the door” to distractions and noises in the world. We make a sacrifice of time so that we can make an appointment with God in sacred silence. Many of us are so busy, but are we too busy for God? During this season of lent, may we grow closer to God by strengthening our prayer life.
