Prayer with Yahweh

In today’s first reading from Exodus God declares that He always desires to be remembered as Yahweh (“I Am who Am” or simply “I Am”).  God is existence itself, He is, “Is.”  We can go into endless theological conversation about God’s nature, eternity, His attributes, etc., but we will leave that for another day.  I think a simple reflection on this great reading is that God is willing to know us on a first name basis and to also be in face to face conversation with us.

Moses went towards God’s voice and the burning bush.  It was not Moses who sought God, but it was God who sought Moses, interesting indeed, that it is not we who call on God, but rather God who calls us.  In our sinful selves we do not have the ability to start the conversation, any and all movement towards God is always a free gift and always initiated by God, “for it is by grace that you have been saved, this is not of yourselves, but from God, so that no one may boast.” (See Eph. 2:8)  Simply put, God makes the first move.

The beauty of all the bible stories in which someone speaks with God is that God knows them by name, they speak face-to-face (meaning: in His presence, not the literal beatific vision), and conversation takes place.  You and I have this same conversation with God, we have it all the time.

Every single time we listen to the Scriptures read at mass or in our own personal reading of Scripture God speaks to us in His Word.  I cannot stress enough how important it is to listen to God from His holy Word.  It is the story of us, but also a story in which God reveals Himself to us, through signs and wonders, through song, through poetry, through prophecy and his prophets, through the saints, and most especially through His Son, Jesus.

We also enter into conversation with God in our prayer.  One of the three virtues of Lent is prayer, the other two being almsgiving and fasting.  Much of what I have reflected on here has been theological, but there is “the stuff” that makes prayer and that is what pours out of our hearts to God.

We pray when we are worried, scared, hurt, lost, struggling, guilty, but also when happy, joyful, and content.  Often time’s people will wonder, “Is it ok to ask God for healing or to take something away or to even be mad at God?”  Well, if you are at mad at God that means that there is relationship; if we were indifferent then we would not be in relationship with Him.  Sometimes life can be dark and the moments of darkness can be overwhelming, someone we love may be very ill, dying in fact, or we can be on the verge of despair and there is God, always there, listening and giving comfort.  The problem is that we sometimes think that our difficulties are too big or that God has abandoned us.  But He has not.  No matter what we are going through, if we respond to God’s grace in His call, then we can be assured of at least this, though it may not work out as I wished, but that my friend, in this case God Himself was always there, face to face, step by step, tear by tear, with me all the way.

FJ