FROM THE SUPREME KNIGHT’S DESK – MARCH, 2014
TOPIC: PRAYER, FASTING AND ALMSGIVING
[A TALK TO KNIGHTS AND LADIES OF MARSHALL, ACCRA, ON 7TH MARCH, 2014]
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The Supreme Knight, the Grand Lady, other senior officers, brothers and sisters of the Marshallan fraternity, may the Lord’s special graces of renewal be with you all. The season of Lent is likened to the season of spring in which trees, grasses and flowers,literally dead in the winter season, are given a new lease of life. Lent is, therefore, a season in which the church reminds us of the need to constantly allow the grace of God to renew our relationship with Him.
There are several means or channels of God’s grace of renewal. Four of these means of grace will soon be mentioned, and then we shall focus on only three of them in view of today’s topic. The four are prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and confession (of sins).
2.0 IMAGERY
The use of a car may be a good imagery fororganizing our thoughts on these four channels of God’s grace of renewal. In the first place, prayer is like the fuel of the car. As without some fuel a car cannot be driven, so without prayer, our spiritual life (with the Lord) stagnates. In other words, as there should always be fuel in the tank of the car in order to drive it, so our prayer should not be occasional but constant. Thus, St. Paul says: “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17).
Secondly, fasting could be likened to the servicing/maintenance of the car. Imagine a car which has never been serviced/maintained. Soon it will develop some faults and cease to move even if its tank is full of fuel. Similarly, prayers alone are not sufficient for our spiritual life. We need to fast occasionally, and Lent is an ideal time to fast, so as to empty our spiritual fuel tank of the dirty oil and grease of sin; to tighten the lose spiritual bolts and nuts; and to fix our spiritual electrical and mechanical faults.
Thirdly, almsgiving is like the car insurance. As insurance is a kind of savings account against the eventuality of accidents, so almsgiving or charity to the poor is a kind of security against our spiritual accidents of sins. Thus, St. Peter says: “charity will cover a multitude of sins” (1 Pt. 4:8).
Fourthly, a car may be insured, well serviced and its fuel tank filled to capacity, but if we have no road-worthy certificate, we cannot legally drive it outside our compound. To be spiritually “road worthy” and move “freely” with the Lord, we need to confess our sins.
3.0 PRAYER
Let us now elaborate further on our spiritual fuel, prayer, by answering the following questions: What is prayer? How not to pray? How to pray?
3.1 WHAT IS PRAYER?“Prayer is a conversation with God” (Clement of Alexandria in A. P. Castle, Quotes and Anecdotes [Suffolk: Kevin Mayhew, 1994], p. 527). However, most often we make prayer a monologue: we speak to God, but we don’t allow time to listen to Him also. “How can you expect God to speak in that gentle and inward voice which melts the soul, when you are making so much noise with your rapid reflections [and talking]? Be silent, and God will speak again” (Francois Fenelon in Quotes and Anecdotes, p. 296).
Besides the period of silence that we observe during a prayer time, God speaks to us through the Scriptures. So let us make the reading of the Bible part of our prayer time.
3.2 HOW NOT TO PRAY? The fuel of a car has its specific tank. It will be of no use to fill the radiator tank with the fuel; in fact, it will be a disaster to do that. Similarly one can “waste” his/her prayers, if they are not properly channelled. Hence let us consider “how not to pray?” Jesus Christ gives us some points about “how not to pray”. He says: “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. … And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words” (Mt. 6:5, 7, NIV).
In this text, our Lord mentions two things we should not do when praying. In the first place, since prayer is not a conversation with bystanders but with God, our prayer should not aim at impressing the former. Is it not odd that in speaking to someone on phone one intentionally speaks aloud just to impress bystanders and in the process incurs the displeasure of the person at the other end of the line, because of his loudness and bragging on issues unrelated to their conversation. Secondly,no show of eloquence or multiplication of words impresses God. In fact, this displeases God, because it betrays trust in God; for He is not a God who has to be convinced by us in order to act in our favour. After all, as Jesus says, God is our Father who knows what we need before we ask Him (Mt. 6:8). So, we should rather approach Him with faith: only by faith can we please God (Heb. 11:1-2).
Let me add another point on “how not to pray”. It is a common practice among some Christians today to be shooting guns and arrows and throwing fires with all the passion that goes with these acts. I find nowhere in the gospels when Jesus prayed in this manner; nor do I find anywhere in the New Testament when the apostles and the other disciples prayed in this way. This is not a true Christian spirit of prayer. Unfortunately, some Ghanaian and other African movies do encourage this sort of prayer. Prayer, as we have said, is a conversation with God; and if there is any battle against a spiritual enemy it is God, who sees the enemy, who fights for us (cf. 2 Chron. 20:17), after all we cannot see the enemy. Let us stop pouring the fuel of prayer into the wrong tank.
3.3 HOW TO PRAY? How then we do pray? First let us consider the pre-conditions of prayer; and then look at the format of prayer. The first pre-condition is that we should pray with faith. Secondly, personal prayers should be done in private, with our attention on only God; for our conversation is with Him. For this reason, Jesus says that “when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Mt. 6:6). Thirdly, prior to prayer one should have forgiven whoever might have offended him/her. For this reason, after teaching the “Lord’s Prayer” (Mt. 6:9-13), Jesus stated: “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Mt. 6:14-15).
As to the format of prayer, we can derive it from the best prayer taught by Jesus Himself:
3.3.1 “Our Father who art in heaven”: We don’t see the God in heaven. It therefore takes faith to believe that God exists and that He is Father to us. Thus, the first principle of prayer is that it must begin with an expression of faith in God. In prayer we converse not with a remote superpower who is not concerned about us, but with our dearest Father who is closest to us and is concerned about us (more than we can imagine: He is even concerned about every single hair of ours).Being in heaven does not mean that God is far away from us; rather it means He is at the vantage position to see all our needs, cares, joys and sorrows.
3.3.2 “Hallowed be Thy name”: the second principle is that in every prayer we should acknowledge the supreme holiness or sublime majesty of God. This is done first by approaching God in prayer with due reverence. Secondly, we should praise Him.
3.3.3 “Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”: Assured of His fatherly love for us, His perfection (holiness) and His divine wisdom, we should approach God as the Father whose will is the best for us. This was the very prayer-attitude of Jesus in the ‘Agony in the Garden’, when He prayed: ‘Father if it is possible let this cup pass me by; nonetheless not my will, but let your will be done.’ Therefore, the third principle of prayer is that the first and best petition (request) is to ask for God’s will to be done in our lives.
3.3.4 “Give us this day our daily bread”: To ask God for our daily provisions is an acknowledgement that we depend on Him. So in prayer we may ask God to provide for us. We make our requests with the openness to accept what He gives us according to His will. He who freely gives us the breath of life (even when we have not asked for it) answers our prayers in view of what is best for us.
3.3.5 “Forgive us our trespasses”: Whether standing, kneeling or sitting in prayer, our awareness of the sublime holiness of God should prompt us to confess our sins to Him. Therefore, the fifth principle is that prayer should be done with humility – conscious of our unworthiness before the All-holy God. Indeed no prayer should be concluded without asking the Lord to forgive us; for we can’t ask Him to ‘give us our daily bread’, if we persist in tampering the (flour) dough with the dirt of our sins.
3.3.6 “As we forgive those who trespass against us”: No dear parent is happy when his/her children quarrel among themselves. Similarly God is not happy when we quarrel among ourselves. Whoever we quarrel with also has God as his/her“Father”. So, as mentioned already, God wants us to demonstrate a token of the forgiveness we wish to obtain from Him by forgiving others before we address Him in prayer.
3.3.7 “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”: St. Paul says: ‘our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places’ (Eph. 6:12-13). So in our prayers we should seek God’s protection against and His deliverance from the evils.
3.3.8 Conclusion on Prayer: God is not Father to only priests and pastors, so let us pray to Him ourselves using the prayer of Jesus and its principles. When we use these principles, and pray in the Holy Spirit and through our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father will surely answer us.
4.0 FASTING
Let us now consider fasting, our spiritual servicing/maintenance, by answering the following questions: What is fasting? How not to fast? How to fast?
4.1 WHAT IS FASTING? Fasting is a kind of abstinence. And abstinence is a voluntary self-denial of food, drinks, and other forms of legitimate pleasure (cf. 1 Cor. 7:5), with a spiritual purpose or aim in mind. Normally, then, fasting involves denying oneself of food and drinks either with the intention of expressing true contrition of sins committed, or expressing one’s total dependence on God or humility before Him. One could also fast to dispose him/herselfto a close encounter with the Lord.
The people of Nineveh, for instance, fasted to express contrition for their sins (Jon. 3:4-10). Jesus’ fast for 40 days and nights demonstrates that He was to fulfil His mission by reliance on God the Father and the Holy Spirit. This is quite evident in the fact that in the temptations that followed His fast, He kept referring to God. For instance, He said: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mt. 4:4). And as to fasting to dispose a person toa close encounter with the Lord, one could refer to Moses’ fasting for forty days and nights as he encountered God on Mount Sinai (Ex. 34:28). This same principle underlies the “Holy Communion fast”; unfortunately today fasting for only one hour before the reception of Holy Communion is overlooked by many of us.
4.2 HOW NOT TO FAST? Committing sins while fasting is like pouring back the dirty engine oil into the oil tank after the car has been serviced. In other words, fasting cannot go hand-in-hand with sins. Due to the sins which some Jews committed, their fasting displeased the Lord. And when they complained that the Lord took no notice of their fast, the prophet explained:
3. ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
4. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord? (Isa 58:3-5, NIV)
Jesus Christ also warns us against making our fast a mere external religious act performed to impress others: “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full” (Matt 6:16).
4.3 HOW TO FAST? How do we fast properly then? First, let us look at some pre-conditions to fasting: (a) we should avoid sins of anger, injustice, immorality, etc. Once again let us read from the Book of Isaiah:
6. “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7. Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter —
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8. Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousnesswill go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I (Isa 58:6-9).
(b) Our focus should be on God. For this reason, Jesus says that “when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Mt. 6:17-18).
(c) Fasting is not a mere famishing; it should therefore be accompanied by prayer, almsgiving and other good deeds.
Now as to the content or format of fasting, there are various kinds: a meal per day; an early light breakfast (6am) and supper (6pm) especially when one intends to fast for several days; taking only bread and water; etc.
5.0 ALMSGIVING
The link between fasting and almsgiving is evident in Isa. 58:6-9 cited above: the extra savings of food, etc. made from the self-denial of fasting should be used to help the needy. Let us now consider almsgiving, our spiritual insurance, by answering the following questions: What is almsgiving? How not to give alms? How to give alms?
5.1 WHAT IS ALMSGIVING? Almsgiving is simply giving in kind or cash to the poor or needy. This includes feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, aiding the sick and aged, etc. Such acts of charity constitute a spiritual insurance, because they are like “savings” unto our salvation. Here are the well-known words of Jesus:
The King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. … [For] I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me’ (Mt. 25:34-40).
5.2 HOW NOT TO GIVE ALMS? Giving alms with the intention or attitude of being superior to the poor, or to impress others or to “make name” for oneself is like infringing on the contract conditions of one’s car insurance and losing the insurance claims in the process. For this reason, Jesus cautions us: “when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. (Mt. 6:2).
5.3 HOW TO GIVE ALMS? How then should we give alms so that we enjoy the full benefits of our spiritual insurance? Jesus says that “when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Mt. 6:3-4). In other words, when we give to the poor or needy, we should do so, focusing not so much on the human recipient but on God whom they represent and who is the ultimate “Rewarder”.
Since you are knights and ladies, let me conclude this last section on almsgiving by narrating the story of the conversion of a fourth century knight, a cavalry officer of Hungary. He later became the Bishop of Tours, and canonized as St. Martin. He was leading his troops, when he came upon a poorly clad beggar suffering from the frigid temperatures. Moved by the man’s suffering Martin took off his own elegant cape and put it on the beggar and he was about to go on his way when he was stopped by an amazing sight: the beggar was Jesus Christ, searching among men for evidence of charity. Soon after that incident Martin resigned his position in the military and became a monk (Glenn D. Kittler in Quotes and Anecdotes, p. 144).
6.0 CONCLUSION
We started this talk by employing the imagery of the fuel, servicing, insurance and road-worthy certificates of a car to illustrate respectively the roles of prayer, fasting, almsgiving and confession in the life of a Christian. In view of the specification of our topic, the rest of the talk focused on only prayer, fasting and almsgiving. For each of these, we looked at what is it, how not to do it, and how to do it. It is my prayer that as we discuss and reflect further on these issues, especially in this season of Lent, the Holy Spirit who helps us when we do not know how to pray (Rom. 8:26-27) will supply us with the abundance of the spiritual fuel; that aided by the same Spirit of God our fasting this Lent and beyond will be truly the servicing (the removal of dirty oil and grease) of our souls; that the Spirit would renew in our hearts the image of Jesus anytime we meet the needy whom we can assist; and that when we do assist them, the same Spirit will insure us for eternal life. Amen.
Thank you.
(Fr. John Kobina Louis, Accra Archdiocese).