Reflections on Isaiah 55:10-11 / Matthew 6:7-15
by Frank Savadera, SJ
A clear message we get from the Gospel
today: DO NOT BE A BABBLER? Do not babble like the pagans who think that
they will be heard because of their many words.
Why do we sometimes BABBLE? The
Gospel seems to be making a connection between BABBLING and wishing to be HEARD
or maybe catching and seeking ATTENTION for oneself! What is then wrong with babbling? Isn’t it that each of us has a desire to be
heard? What is so wrong with seeking
ATTENTION for ourselves? We want to be
heard … we babble! Imagine making a
living by BABBLING! Some can actually be
good at it right? Some even had achieved
a lot for themselves by simply babbling HERE and babbling THERE! We even have a term for it … LAWAY LANG ANG
PUHUNAN (it’s gross to translate that in
English). So there is such a thing as PROFFESSIONAL BABBLERS! Or the ARMCHAIR BABBLERS! The Gospel says DO NOT be like the pagans who
BABBLE words to be heard and to seek attention for themselves. Why?
Because BABBLING to seek attention is the NOISE of SELF-CENTEREDNESS.
I wish to be HEARD! Give it
me! I am here! It is the kind of ATTENTION-SEEKING that stifles
ATTENTION-GIVING – which is generosity. We prevent ourselves from being generous –
GIVING OTHERS OUR ATTENTION by simply being too focused on catching attention
for ourselves.
A post I made on my FB page this morning
quotes the philosopher Simone Weil: “Giving attention is the rarest and purest
form of generosity.”
First
prayer: Lord, save us from our
BABBLINGS, our BLABBERINGS, from our desires to seek ATTENTION for ourselves so
that we may be more GENEROUS and may FREELY GIVE ATTENTION to others.
The second point has something to do
about Jesus prescribing the Lord’s Prayer – the most basic prayer that we have
all learned since childhood … isn’t it.
This prayer had even been translated and sung in different dialects and
languages. This is the only PENANCE I
usually give in confession: PRAY it
slowly and as meaningfully as you can … the Lord’s Prayer. My reflection here is that our PRAYER NEED
NOT BE COMPLICATED. We need not REINVENT
PRAYER. It need not be DRAMATIC and
REPLETE with EMOTIONAL FIREWORKS all the time.
Well … prayer need not be done SHABBILY as well … as we often would with
AUTOMATIC and LEARNED PRAYERS.
I think, a clue to a possible reflection
about the Gospel is HOW WE CALL Jesus’ prayer … we call it simply LORD’S
PRAYER. This is how Jesus prayed. He was teaching the disciples how he was praying
to His Father. It is a kind of prayer
that is INCLUSIVE (Our Father) … a prayer that WORSHIPS (hallowed be thy name)
… a prayer that BEGS (give us this day ) … a prayer that seeks forgiveness
(forgive us our sins) … a prayer that seeks GRACE of deliverance from
EVIL.
This is the Lord’s Prayer … Jesus’
prayer to the Father … and He wants us to pray it with Him. We are one with Jesus as we pray to the
Father. What can be more opportune and
auspicious than that: WE ARE ONE WITH JESUS in PRAYING to the
Father. Can we even feel that ONENESS with Jesus.
This Lenten Season is again calling us
to experience that ONENESS with Jesus.
In His Passion, his Crucifixion and Death … we pray his very words to
express our ONENESS with the Son who died to save us.
Thus … GOING BACK TO OUR BABBLINGS and
BLABBERINGS … there is apparently a WORD that is NOT OURS … that WE CAN
ACTUALLY PROCLAIM … the WORD that is JESUS HIMSELF who shall not … according to
our first reading … NOT RETURN TO THE FATHER VOID. The WORD that continues to do the Father’s
will til this day … the WORD that continues to ACHIEVE THE END OF SAVING US …
the very reason why it was sent to be flesh like us in the first place. NOT OUR WORD … BUT JESUS … WHO IS THE WORD … who returns to the Father
and achieves for the Father the purpose for which he was sent to us … TO SAVE
US.
