GOD’S WORD FOR THE DAY (based on Catholic Liturgical Readings)
DATE: 7TH JUNE 2017
WEDNESDAY OF THE NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
FIRST READING: Tobit 3:1-11, 16-17
PSALM: Psalm 25:2-9
GOSPEL: Mark 12:18-27
THEME: THE PRAYER OF ANGUISH
God hears every prayer but there are certain prayers that carry a note of urgency. They pierce through the clouds and do not relent until they have been answered. Such prayers emanate from the deepest part of a person’s being and ‘move’ God into action. It is called the prayer of anguish.
In a prayer of anguish, a person travails to prevail. It often flows from a broken heart amidst tears and/or sweat. It was the prayer of Hannah in the House of the Lord at Shiloh and the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The First Reading offers us two examples of a prayer of anguish. Misfortune had hit the good man Tobit — he had gone blind. On one occasion, he had a misunderstanding with his wife on an issue and the wife made a statement that broke his heart: “Where are your charitable deeds now? Where are your righteous acts? Look! All that has happened to you is well known!” (Tob 2:14). Hearing this, he groaned, wept aloud and prayed – a prayer of anguish.
In another scene, we also have an account of a woman by name Sarah who had experienced successive failures in marriage. One of her father’s maids reproached her saying, “You are the one who kills your husbands! Look! You have already been given in marriage to seven husbands, but you do not bear the name of a single one of them…” (Tob 3: 8) That insult broke her heart and made her cry. In her anguish, she too stretched her hands toward Jerusalem and prayed.
We are told that “at that very time, the prayer of both of them was heard in the glorious presence of God”.
Like the cry of a baby that moves a mother into action, prayers of anguish cause God to arise. Perhaps what makes a prayer of anguish to ‘move mountains’ is not so much the tears or sweat that falls to the ground but the sincerity, trust and childlikeness that characterise it. In a prayer of anguish, a person places all his/her hope in the God who hears the cry of the poor.
Has your heart been broken? Have you been hurt badly? Have you lost taste for earthly existence? Do you feel as if you have come to the end of the road? Is hope for a brighter tomorrow fizzling away? Are you faced with a big problem? Cry out to God in your moment of anguish. He will hear you and readily answer.
PRAYER: Lord, “I lift up my eyes unto the mountains; from where will my help come from? My help comes from you who made heaven and earth.” Come to my aid Lord and rescue me from this dark and gloomy pit. For the sake of the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen
Andrews Obeng, svd
DIVINE WORD MISSIONARIES
BIBLICAL PASTORAL MINISTRY
(Ghana Province)
“May the darkness of sin and the night of unbelief vanish before the light of the Word and the Spirit of grace. And may the heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all people” (St. Arnold Janssen).