[AI translation] The other day I came across a book, I was reading the life of Bodelschwing. He was the founder and for a long time the director of the famous large diaconal colony in Bethel. He cared for over two thousand horribly wretched freaks there. I myself have been there and seen what an extraordinary, tremendous work of love is being done. I would like to tell you just one small scene from Bodelschwing's life by way of introduction. Once it happened that he had to bury all four of his small children in the space of two short weeks. The happy family home, full of children's cries, was suddenly empty, and the two parents were left in a great, sad orphanhood. That in itself is a very touching thing to happen to a man, but what is most moving in this story is the way Bodelschwing himself tells how he placed the lives and souls of his precious little children, one by one, into the hands of God. How he entrusted these precious little lambs, one by one, to the care of the ultimate Shepherd, Jesus, how he gave them over to Him.The great thing about this is that even under the weight of the greatest adversity, He did not lose contact with God, His heavenly Father. Not for a single moment in the weight of the greatest adversity was the intimate filial conversation with the Father that Bodelschwing had been having with Him. Later, when he recounted this event in his life, he remembered. When he spoke of this incident, he never said: how could God do such a thing, why did God do this to me, who had dedicated my whole life to Him? How could God allow this? Because when someone talks like this: how can God allow this, or why is God doing this - then he is no longer talking to God, he is talking about God, he is talking about God, he is almost talking about God and everything he knows about God. And then, involuntarily, a person's thought comes to the point: see, this is God! Is such a God worth believing in, is such a God worth serving, is such a God worth sacrificing one's life for?
Bodelschwing was not then talking about God, he was talking to God. That was the secret of his not collapsing, of not losing his faith, of not losing his strength and his will to live, but of being able to serve, almost more blessedly, those extremely unfortunate wretches who were in such infinite need of his very paternal love. I have said this only to express by example the great truth, which I cannot stress enough, that God is first and foremost not a topic of conversation, but a conversation partner. God is not a topic of discussion. And if someone does have a debate, then let him not debate God - whether with someone else or with himself - but debate God, and then it will be good.
God is not a topic of conversation, but a conversation partner. What this means is that God and all His rich world and all His works can be known first and foremost not by talking about Him, but specifically by talking to Him. In personal contact with Him, in dialogue with Him, in relationship with Him - in prayer.
That is why I am glad that, just after last week's evangelization, we are now following this passage in the general order of our congregation. The part of the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus teaches his children to pray. Last week, we heard a great deal about the infinitely rich opportunities for the believer in Christ to receive all kinds of divine blessings, and how those who truly believe in Christ can be rich in joy, grace, good deeds, providence and comfort. It is an inexpressible privilege to believe in God at all. I cannot thank God enough that he has made himself known to me, that he has made himself known to me through Jesus Christ, that I can know God by knowing Jesus. The big question now is: how can all that we have heard about over the past week be ours in a very personal way, how can we share in the joy, the grace, the victory, the consolation of which we have heard such great preaching in recent days?
Something very simple: by having a personal conversation with God. All that we talked about last week will be as much yours, as much a reality in your life, as you talk about it yourself in personal communion with the living God. For it is not enough to listen to all this beautiful teaching and to hear the occasional beautiful sermon, but what you have heard there, you must now talk about with God yourself. For it is in this conversation with God that everything is realised in our lives, it is in this conversation with God that our hearts are opened to receive the rich life of which Jesus speaks: 'I came that they might have life and have it more abundantly'. (Jn 10,10b) Indeed, for our part, we can do nothing more for this rich life than simply open ourselves to it, open ourselves to God's blessings which radiate so abundantly to us through Christ. Remember, God becomes more and more mysterious, more and more obscure, more and more incomprehensible to man, and to you, when we argue about Him. When you consider His actions, His things, when God becomes a subject for you. And in a wonderful way you understand this mysterious God and all His ways, thoughts and will more and more when you talk to Him, when you pray.
Let's not go on for a moment, but stop right there. Is there a part of your life when you pray? Jesus says, "When you pray..." I'd like to put a question mark behind that sentence for a moment, so that it reads, "When do you pray? When do you really pray, when do you, living in the modern world of today, really pray? How do you talk to God? When have you finally finished all the chase of another long day, when you have read the newspaper, you are tired of everything, you have even turned out the light, but before your eyes are drooping with fatigue, you suddenly recite a prayer to yourself, the end of which you don't remember much because you have fallen asleep? Or in the morning, in the few seconds between brushing your teeth and hastily pulling on your clothes, or in the few nervous moments before eating breakfast standing up, when you quickly run through the daily prayer and rush to work? Or maybe you put your head down before you take the spoon to your mouth before a meal, so that you don't grab the food like a dog when it's thrown in front of you? Or during the one minute we usually have here in church after the sermon and before the Lord's Prayer? When you pray... When do you pray? It would be worthwhile to measure the time we spend in prayer. It would be worth taking a serious count of how many moments, how many seconds of the 24 hours of the day you spend in conversation with God? Can this even be called prayer? Is that enough for you, is that enough? I am very well aware of all the excuses that are made about this: I have no peace of mind! - But, my brothers and sisters, it is in prayer that we can obtain the peace of mind we so much desire; But I have no time for it! - It is in prayer that we can best regulate ourselves so that we have all that we really need; We are not always in the mood! - It is in prayer that we can obtain the mood that we so desperately need, both for ourselves and for the people around us.
Let me confess to you frankly that, when I was preparing this passage, I myself was struck by the fact that I, who talk so much about God, talk so immeasurably little about God. That is why I know that you also speak little of God. And Christians, who have this great privilege of being able to talk to God, do not make sufficient use of this opportunity, this privilege. Do you know why our Christian life is joyless? It is because we pray very little. And why do Christ's followers often suffer defeat in the struggles of life, in the face of their sins, why there are so few victories in our lives? Because we pray very little. Why are we unspeakably powerless to do good, which we should be doing more of, as we heard in the sermon? Because we pray very little for it. Why can we do so miserably little of the great life Christ would have us lead? Because we pray so little.
We have heard that Jesus came that we might have life and be filled. That we might have a life full of joy, love, goodness, victory, comfort. Jesus is as great today as he was great in the past, and as he will always be. Today too, he wants our lives to be fulfilled and to become truly happy, rich lives. But let us understand that Jesus cannot give us even more than we ask of him. If we ourselves do not always demand more from Him, if we do not always reach out to Him, for it is in the hands that God reaches out to Him in prayer that He can place His blessings. I am convinced that the reason for our stumbling, miserable, whining, not at all attractive Christian life is our hidden lack of contact with God. So Jesus begins, "When you pray..." But is there any part of our lives when we really pray? Because it's not enough to talk about how great God is, how rich God is, what God has done. It all remains outside of you as some very nice theory, until you yourself talk about it all with God Himself.
Then Jesus continues: "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who like to pray standing up in churches and on the street corners, so that people may see them" (Mt 6,5) Today, the believer is not in much danger of wanting to pray standing up on the street corners in front of people, because when one is carrying out his religious practice in whatever form, he tries as much as possible not to be seen. Many times, even going to church, you prefer not to be seen. Yet this warning of Jesus is timely for us, because the problem with these Pharisees was not just that they stood out on the corners when it was time to pray and did their devotions in front of everyone, but that prayer was a certain role in their lives. And the role means that it is not his real way of life, he just takes it on, but then that role is over, one day you leave it, and then you become something else. In the role, perhaps, he is a kind-hearted, rich king who squanders his wealth in charity and helps anyone who needs it. Outside of the role, the same person might be a troubled, hapless flunky who envies even a bite to eat from another man's mouth.
Get it? The world of the role and the world of real life are two different worlds. Have you not noticed that sometimes, or perhaps often, prayer is just such a role, and not an act that comes from the real us? That the world of our prayer and the world of our real life are two different worlds, quite far apart, so far apart that it is a very long and difficult journey to cross from one to the other. For example, in prayer he is humble, meek, quiet, all-promising, outside of prayer, when he steps out of his role, he is quite different, he is vain, conceited, quarrelsome, loud, rude - so he becomes a very different person. Completely different towards God and completely different towards the world. He lives in two different worlds, one is a very narrow world, the world of prayer, and the other is the world outside prayer. He lives in a holy world and a profane world, and these two worlds are sharply separated.
Our actual world - let us now really and honestly think of ourselves - is not the world of prayer, but the other world, the profane world. Our real world is a world of making money and bread and bickering with family and colleagues, a world of nervous chasing. Sometimes it's a world of a bit of fun, a movie, a concert. At night, perhaps, it's a world of sleepless toil. This is our real life. It's where we're really at home. And quite separate and alien from this is the world of prayer, a world into which, if we do enter, we have to make a special decision, we have to set aside time, we have to create a special mood, we have to take time to enter this other world. And when you finally succeed, the noise of this profane world continues to roar and vibrate like an engine in a stationary car, and disturbs you.
Notice that with Jesus it is exactly the other way round. Jesus had prayer as his home, and when he went among the people to heal and teach, he always came to the people out of prayer. What Jesus spoke to the people, he always discussed with the Father first, he always came into the world of everyday life, into the problems and troubles of everyday life, from prayerful communion with the Father. This is the great difference between Jesus' attitude and our attitude, that we force ourselves out of the busyness of everyday life when we pray, whereas Jesus is really at home there, and from there he enters into the world, into the problems of everyday life. We look at prayer from the perspective of the concerns of life, and that is why we have less and less time for it. Jesus, on the other hand, looked at the problems of everyday life from the perspective of prayer, and that is why he always found the time and the opportunity to do everything that was needed.
Couldn't we, shouldn't we reverse this order for once? So that the problems of life do not dictate our prayer, but our prayer dictates our life? Let us not look for some way to pray in the chase of everyday life, but let us try to look for ways in prayer in the chase of everyday life! Wouldn't our lives be very different then?
But who has such an inner room? It is precisely the greatest problem in the life of modern man that he has no corner to hide in, where he can really pray. That is why so many people are calling for not only Catholic churches to be open every day, but also Protestant churches, so that people can escape from the noise of life and enter a place where they can really be quiet. This inner room of which Jesus speaks is not at all a nice, cosy little prayer room with a kneeling stool, a domestic altar or a small chapel, but this inner room was the living chamber of the home, alongside the way of life of the time. It was the room that was really the least festive, the most professional and not a fancy room; where the smell of material life hits you, where you are surrounded by the things of everyday life, and Jesus is suggesting that you go into this inner room. It's as if he's saying, look, you don't need any special ceremony, or exalted atmosphere, or spiritual high ground to find your Father! Everybody can go to God as he is: blurred, crying, smiling, at any moment. And wherever he is, on a crowded tram, in the street, in a quiet wood, at a desk, or on a sickbed, he can come to the Father everywhere.
That is how God came to us in the Christmas child, not in fancy ceremonies and pompous exteriors, but in a stable smelling of dung and on a horrible, bloody cross. In the most realistic atmosphere of everyday life, go into your inner room - and that inner room, that pantry, was the only room in those Palestinian houses that could be locked up because it had to be protected from animals and possibly thieves. That's why Jesus says, "go into your inner room and with your door shut, pray to your Father," because the only thing that matters is to be alone with God. And that this aloneness with God may not be disturbed by anything in the world: not a thought, not your worries, not a single person! So it doesn't matter where or how, the important thing is to have quiet time spent alone with God, in private silence.
There is no greater moment in a person's life than to be truly quiet with someone you love and know loves you back. There is no more sublime moment in life than to be truly still with God. Closing all the doors and windows of the soul, having a conversation with God. To tell Him everything, even what you would never tell anyone, because that is what happens in everyone's life. To tell God everything, and to be filled again and again with the joy, the peace, the grace, the victory, all the gifts of God's providential love.
Is the Christian life really that simple? That is the secret of it all: "Go into your inner room and shut your door and pray to your Father" (Mt 6,6)
Do you know that all the atheistic propaganda in the world does not do as much harm to your faith and your Christian life as the absence, neglect or even nervous preoccupation with quiet communion with God! This inner, quiet room is the most important strategic point in the turmoil of our lives, because if one loses sight of God, one cannot see the world. And if one does not draw again and again from the source of blessings, it is natural that one cannot be a true blessing to others. Let us understand that one cannot live a godly life without God, and one cannot live a Christian life without Christ. This is not human advice, thought up by someone in his own time, but the word of God, through Jesus: 'go into your inner room and shut your door and pray to your Father' (Mt 6,6).
Finally, there is a very serious exhortation here when Jesus says: "And when you pray, do not be many-spoken, like the Gentiles, who think that they will be heard for their many words. (Mt 6,7-8) In short, this means that it is not necessary to know how to pray, but that it is permitted to pray. To believe is not to know but to believe. Now, with regard to prayer, I would like to emphasise that prayer is not some special art that one has to master, that one has to be born to, but that one is free to pray. I cannot stress enough that it is free for you and for those who have never prayed before, it is free for everyone to pray. For the effect and power of prayer does not depend on how beautifully one forms the words. God does not need to be moved, persuaded to do anything, convinced, won over by the great arguments that man puts forward, because He thought of us long before we were able to think at all.
"Your Father knows well what you need before you ask him" (Mt 6,8b) What this means is that He is always there before any of our troubles that threaten us. He is always there for you before the waves that threaten to engulf you. He is there before the temptations you have to fight. We really just need to claim something that is already ready for us. Blessing, help, joy, peace, it's all there, so it's useless to keep pushing open doors with unnecessary effort and prolonged pleading. Let us not be distrustful of the one who has already opened the door and is waiting, like the mother in the parable who waited for her returning son. There is no need to give long S.O.S. signals to the one whose gaze is always on us, waiting for us to turn our eyes and hearts to him.
No one should want to pray in a nice way, because God prefers stuttering and hears better, and understands the secret sighs and groans of souls who have sunk into the depths of unconsciousness. Simply because He loves us and knows us far better than we know ourselves.
It is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is a time of waiting for Christ, but the One we are waiting for has already come. And he has come so that we may have life and be enlarged: a life overflowing with grace, joy and consolation. Jesus has come, which means that the door to this rich life is open to you. It means that God is calling you, me too, through this open door. It means that you are not calling him, he is calling you. You only have to answer. You just have to cry out. You have to say: here I am, here I am, Lord! And with this "I am here" at His call, the real prayer begins.
Amen
Date: 29 November 1964.
Lesson
Jn 16,23-27