inside america

The ray of light
The centuries-long struggle to understand–indeed, to believe in–the value of prayer for the suffering of this world continues during these political times which ever more urgently bring us to our knees.

by lorenzo albacete

Robert Holt’s play A Man For All Seasons, the story of the martyrdom of Saint Thomas More, begins with his summoning by the Chancellor of England, Cardinal Wolsey, to acquaint him with the current political, religious, and social crises threatening the future of the Kingdom under King Henry VIII, to ask for Thomas’ advice, and to suggest the possibility of the King naming More to replace Wolsey as Chancellor of England. Recognizing the complexity and difficulties of the political and religious situation, More suggests to the Cardinal that he might try praying. Wolsey says contemptuously to More that the danger of giving him a high government position is precisely that he might indeed try to govern through prayer, to which More replies that indeed he would like to do this. We know that instead of publicly offending the King with whom he disagrees vehemently, More prays for him all the time until his execution.

Just what is the value of prayer in changing the course of history? How can we ask God to satisfy a particular need when that might entail denial of the petition of someone else? Scholars of spiritual theology have divided prayer into two types: one a petition and another of praise and glory, considered a love song toward God, without petitions for the resolution of earthly problems. In any case, we all end up in the same state: learning to accept God’s will and thanking Him for whatever is promised or given to us. Take, for example, the issue of peace in the Middle East. I have been following the tragedy of Syria, seeing those horrible videos about the use of poison gas against totally innocent people and hundreds of children. Our country prepares to perform a military strike in order to prevent such horror from happening again.But this entails the risk of becoming stuck in another war, and the American people have had enough of these military interventions that become wars without apparent ends.

Just what is the value of praying for peace, as called for by Pope Francis? We saw hundreds of thousands in St. Peter’s Square, gathered with the Pope to pray for peace in Syria. What does that mean? What chances are there that it will be heard and granted? For example, where was God during the Holocaust? And regarding the children, what was the first “political effect” on the people who might have heard the angels’ singing about the birth of Jesus? Was it not a promise and a gift of peace on earth? And instead, what happened? The massacre of the Innocents happened.
These examples can bring our faith in prayer into question–a question that has been around for ages.  But we  follow the teachings of the Church, we follow the Pope; we will keep praying for peace in Syria and all throughout the land of Jesus. In fact, in this case, there appeared a ray of light–possibility of a peaceful solution to the crisis–and all the powerful nations had to pause and re-examine their plans for war. Is this ray of light–the hope for non-violent peace–a kind of answer to Pope Francis’ prayers with the poor of the world?
Brought to light in Vatican II, the question that agitates the Church has been precisely this question of the relation between the eternal and the temporal–can we pray for our needs in this world? If there is no relation between this life and the other life, then Christianity is indeed the “opium” of the people, especially the poor. This was the main question stirred up by liberation theology: is it possible to advance our causes through prayer? I’ve been reading a book about it which was published this month in Italian (showing that the discussion is still very much alive in our Church): Dalla parte dei poveri  [On Behalf of the Poor], by Gustavo Gutiérrez and Gerhard Ludwig Müller. In it we can read about the feared dualistic dilemma concerning the spiritual and the material. Gaudium et Spes reminds us that the mystery of man can only be understood in the light of Christ–the two worlds therefore are interconnected, and that is why we pray and fast for the peace of this world, and for all the other needs of the human person.