In Agonized Prayer for Ukraine and the World
We have commented here on many previous occasions of the need for us as disciples of Jesus to have clarity on our mission. Often, this is expressed in the following way: Jesus sends us out in order to…
In ACTS XXIX, we propose, somewhat provocatively and intentionally, that there are certain ways to finish that sentence, without attempting to be exhaustive. Agents of re-creation, agents of resistance, agents of transformation, agents of healing, agents of reconciliation are some of the expressions we use to help us understand our mission.
There are, though, two more that must be included if we are to understand what Jesus is sending us out to do. This week we’ll tackle one and next week the other.
Jesus sends us as His disciples in order to pray for the world. When a person is baptized a number of things actually happen. For example, sin is really forgiven and the person becomes inhabited by the Holy Spirit.
When I’m celebrating baptisms, just after I - or more correctly, Jesus - anoints the person with Sacred Chrism, I tend to look for a young woman in the crowd and ask her if she’s baptized. If she says, “Yes,” I ask her a follow up question: “Did you know that you are a priest?” Almost always, she’ll look as though I just asked her some sort of trick question. “Uh…no,” is usually what I hear in response. I do this to make the point that what just happened to the little infant, assuming it was an infant baptism, is that the child just became a priest. And, if the young woman is baptized, she is a priest too. We can often tend to forget that long before a man is ordained to the ministerial priesthood he was already made a priest by baptism (the Church teaches that the ministerial priesthood is different in degree and kind). The seer in Revelation cries out, “To Him who loves us and freed us from our sins by His blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever” (Rev 1:5-6).
What does this have to do with our mission as disciples? What do priests do? Priests have access to God.
I once heard the Benedictine Abbot, Jeremy Driscoll remind a parish that it is the priest’s work to bring another before God in prayer. He wasn’t speaking about the ordained; he was speaking about all of us.
What an incredible and genuinely awesome responsibility! You and I, as disciples of Jesus, can come before God - God! - the Creator of a universe that is 75 billion light years across…anytime we choose. And He welcomes us. This is amazing! We would have a hard time right now walking in to see our doctor without an appointment, or our pastor, and certainly leaders of government, whether here or elsewhere. And yet you and I can enter into God’s courts whenever we desire.
To stand in the gap. To plead as Abraham did over Sodom and Gomorrah. To lower those in need before the Divine Physician, like the friends of the paralytic who tore open the roof. To pound on the Sacred Heart of Jesus for those who are suffering, both those we know and those we only know of through stories in the news.
Given this incredible reality, this amazing privilege that God allows us, I am embarrassingly convicted that apart from a few quick prayers here and there, maybe as I begin a decade of the Rosary, perhaps as I prepare for Mass, I’m not doing this with any kind of intentionality for the people of Ukraine. You’re probably much better than I am in this regard. However, in case you’re where I am, let’s resolve to stand in the gap these days for our brothers and sisters who are in grave danger over there, as well as the people of Russia.
Let us not take for granted, or fail to take advantage of, the access we have to the Father.