7th Sunday After Pentecost, July 27, 2014

The Epistle: Romans 8:26-39

 (Likewise) the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written,

For your sake we are being killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Reflections:  This passage is so packed with the mature thoughts and insights of St. Paul it deserves a book. That being the case, I’ll focus on one short passage. But before I turn to it, I must comment on the fact that in this majestic passage, St. Paul uses the words, “foreknew,” “predestined,” “sanctified,” and “glorified.” Over centuries, various Protestant groups have analyzed and attempted to codify these terms, some building elaborate theological systems with very concrete (and often rigid) teachings about salvation. This is often at the expense of the surrounding text, which perhaps deserves a great deal of attention.

            What I want to focus on here, however, is the first paragraph. I can’t help but think that, if we’re truly honest, it may strike us as a bit bizarre. Those of us who take our spiritual life seriously do know how to pray; we do it often; perhaps we say the Daily Office; keep a prayerlist; or are on a prayer chain. We may even have studied (and now practice) different types of prayer. Is Paul talking to people like us?

Indeed, I think he is. All those things may do no more than lay a foundation for the kind of prayer St. Paul is referring to. Strange as it may seem, perhaps knowing how to pray (and even going about it) may even present something of an obstacle to what he’s talking about.

It seems to me that St. Paul suggests that our deepest prayer comes out of a helplessness, when life has crushed us and we cannot pray; when no words are possible. It may be where our most profound prayer takes place precisely because we have come to that deep place in ourselves where there is no me left. But something happens anyway: God prays within us.

That would seem a logical contradiction. But the customs of logic apply to only a sliver of what is real. And sometimes when we can bear no more, something opens inside us. Maybe it even gives us a peek into the Mystery of the Holy Trinity.