Spirituality: June 2005 Archives

Lord, heart full of mystery

Since your love surpasses all knowledge, lift up our too weak understanding to the sublime height of your heart!

Since we are tempted to not believe in your love, give us new eyes to see the incredible, to recognize the endless immensity of your goodness.

Since our gaze remains attached to material and visible realities, may your heart illumine our view of the world, make us understand the deep meaning of creation, open to us the secret of the destiny of all things, called to meet again in your love.

Since we acknowledge in humanity and its history so many faults and wrong turns, which could incline us to pessimism, lift up again our optimism by showing us how your love manages to use evil for the sake of good, to transform human dispositions, to supernaturally direct the march of events in the direction of your heart!

Since we ourselves experience the force of evil, make us know by experience the greater power of your love, and make us discern how your heart is at the center of our life and at the center of the world, where the triumph of charity is established more and more!
--by Jean Galot, SJ

(The second prayer in this series is already on the blog, in an entry from March 25.)

Lord, whose heart is open

Toward your heart make me walk
In an ardent pilgrimage.
To your heart make me cling
From all the thirst of my being.
Into your heart make me penetrate
Even to its infinite depth.
By your heart make me breathe
Sharing your sigh of love.
For your heart make me work
without ever sparing my effort.
On your heart make me rest
and taste your intimacy.
From your heart make me radiate
goodness and apostolic zeal.
In your heart make me dwell
transformed into your charity.

--by Jean Galot, SJ
(translation by RC)

My pal Mike Humphrey got a question at his web site CPATS:

In the "Our Father" it says: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."

When we sin against a perfect God it takes that perfection to forgive that sin; so why would I ask God to forgive as I forgive, when as an imperfect creature the best I could do is forgive imperfectly?

Sincerely yours,
--Someone who has way too much time on his hands

The questioner has a real point. This prayer has a hook to it, a condition that perhaps we can't fulfill.

I could quibble with the idea that as imperfect creatures, we could *only* forgive imperfectly. After all, we aren't operating on our own unaided strength, but do have divine assistance. Our Lord wouldn't give us an assignment that's beyond the strength He gives.

When we're friends of God, friends of Jesus Christ, we are redeemed, and this redemption is not just an external imputation of righteousness (as in Luther's somewhat exaggerated expression about snow on a dunghill), but also a change that sanctifies us interiorly. Our Lord lives in us: He makes us "sharers of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4) and strengthens our good acts with the supernatural virtues He places in us. He enables us to perform acts that are truly virtuous and whole. He empowers us to forgive fully with the help of His mercy.

We're called to do that, and occasionally we do; but alas, we often don't. We often don't cooperate fully with divine grace; we don't live up to the condition in that prayer, and yet we're stuck praying it, because that's what Jesus gave us to pray! He's revealing to us what the Father is like: he is holy, mighty, immortal, and merciful. We can live that mercy too toward others, precisely because He is holy, mighty, and immortal.