Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - May 17, 2024
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”
We know, Karl Rahner wrote, that the Holy Spirit is effectively working in us “when one dares to pray in silent darkness and knows that one is heard.” The first part of that phrase must express the almost universal experience of believers: we pray, we turn to God without sensing God's touch or encouragement. How else do most of us pray?
Prayer is fundamentally an exercise of turning to God for help or in thanksgiving without having the usual human accompaniments of seeing anything or hearing any voice. What Rahner suggests that may be indicative of the Spirit's work in us is the assurance that we are heard. In other words, prayer presupposes at least a bit of faith. Prayer in pure desperation may be more heavy on hope than assurance.
The advance in Rahner's statement is that we pray and know that God hears us. That is what makes us continue to pray when nothing seems to change, when the cancer persists in our spouse, when unemployment continues, when the mental pain is still there. Those who have discontinued prayer or never seriously made it a part of their lives often seem dissuaded by just this essential aspect of prayer: we speak to and trust a being who seldom if ever speaks in return.
The Holy Spirit is working in us, we know we have some beginning of faith, when we keep on praying and know that we are heard. Only time and experience can bring us the Holy Spirit's assurance and the experience of a response of God’s making.
Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”
