"To pray is not to escape the difficulties of life.""The world lives in war and there are many of us who pray for peace; in every Mass we pray for the rulers and there are too many who seek the personal good and not the common good; we pray for the unity of families and the ruptures increase; for health, and the diseases multiply". These were the words of the young people at a family reunion arguing why they have left the Church. They don't want to get married, they don't want to practice any religion, they don't believe in a better future...they have no faith.
There is discouragement in the hearts and at the base: pride. Today we speak of rights everywhere and we have lost sight of the fact that everything is given to us. We did not give life to ourselves but we live as if it were so. Without the notion of God, we materialize, we do not see beyond the visible, we lose the sense of transcendence. We stop praying. Everything is set so that pessimism and meaninglessness reign.
But when we consciously say yes to the existence of God, when we sincerely seek Him and establish a relationship with Him, we obtain all the existential answers: Who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going? Is there life after death? What is the purpose of my existence?
The principle is relationship. Without relationship, prayer is not real. Whoever prays to "demand" that his own will be done, has not established a true relationship with God. With the one God, the one who has revealed himself as a merciful Father.
The person, the soul that already has a relationship with Him, takes his prayer one level higher: "not my will but yours be done". The soul that has a relationship with God, trusts in Him. He knows that the ultimate meaning is eternal life and that human criteria are subjected to divine criteria.
So, since this is the way it is, does God want war, injustice, evil in the world?
Certainly not. God is love and wants love to prevail.
Learning to pray
In a beautiful dialogue presented to us by Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his novel "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", we can find the answer to this question.
Ivan and Alyoska talk in a concentration camp. The former in despair, the latter full of faith (he has a relationship with God):
Ivan: Do you want to know why I don't pray? Because, Aljoska, prayers either don't reach their destination or are rejected.
Alyoska: One must have unshakable confidence in one's own prayer! If he has such faith, you can tell that mountain to move and it will move.
Ivan: Stop talking rubbish, Alaska!... you have all prayed in chorus in the Caucasus, and have you even moved a single mountain? What harm could you do praying to God? Yet they had all got twenty-five years apiece. For it was such a period: twenty-five years fell on anyone.
Alioska: But we have not prayed for that. The Lord has taught us that, of all the earthly and perishable things, we only have to pray for our daily bread. We actually prayed like this: 'Give us this day our daily bread'.
Iván: The ration, you mean?
Alioska: Ivan, you don't need to pray for a parcel post or an extra bowl of food. The things that are dearest to men are vile in the eyes of God! We must pray for the spirit, so that the Lord may remove the foam of wickedness from our hearts.
Ivan: In short, pray all you want, but they won't reduce the penalty. You will have to live it from the beginning to the end.
Alaska: But you don't have to pray for that! What do you care about freedom? In freedom, the last remnants of your faith will be choked out by the weeds! You have to be happy to be in jail! Here you have all the time to think about your soul!
Ivan: Look, Alioska, your reasoning is fine. Christ has told you to go to jail and it is because of Christ that you are here. But why did they put me here?
The question remained unanswered, since it was prevented by the umpteenth night check-up. But the answer had already been given: "We must pray for the spirit, so that the Lord may remove the foam of wickedness from our hearts".
Evil is the true evil of man: to free oneself from it corresponds to human effort; but it is impossible without the help of God: this is the great reason for the necessity of prayer.
Wherever we are, may we make our own Alioska's prayer, "Lord, remove from our hearts the foam of wickedness!"
