12 May 2024 – Novena Day 3, 7th Sunday of Easter (Year B) (Mother’s Day)

by Fr Stephen Lim

It is very obvious in the Gospel of John this morning. Chapter 17. We are given a microscopic view of the heartbeat of Jesus at His most crucial moment. He knows He is going home to the Father, leaving behind His distraught Disciples in a world where they do not belong. And this is what Jesus ask of the Father:
Father, I do not ask you to take them out of this world. I am asking You to be with them, protect them from the evil one. 

I am not asking You to take them out of this world. This is the prayer of Jesus for His Disciples. That includes you and me. And this is what He asked of the Father, to protect them from the evil one. What Jesus is telling the Father is this:
Since you are not taking them back now, and I can’t bring them back home, Father, can You come down to be with them, so to give them hands-on protection from the evil one?

This is the prayer of Jesus for us. Should we find ourselves in difficulties or in anxiety, can we remember that our Lord prayed for us? And not only that. He asked the Father to sanctify us.

Encountering Jesus praying at the most crucial moment of His life, we realise what prayer is. It puts our personal prayer life under the microscope. And under this microscope, what appears is this.

We, human, pray because we are praying beings. As human, we pray. So praying is never a difficulty because every human being, human person, prays. But then, as Christians, we find ourselves disappointed with our prayer.

In spite of good intention, noble intention and great effort, we come and do Novena, and even fasting and praying on our own, yet there is just silence. And because of this silence, we take it that God is rejecting my prayer. Or He is not answering my prayer.

Now let us go back to this prayer of Jesus. When He said: Father, I am asking you not to remove them from the world but to protect them from the evil one, would you consider that a great prayer? For me, that is the best prayer. And yet, being the best prayer, how can the Father reject or ignore?

We go back to the Gospel of John. After this priestly prayer, did Jesus feel good? Did the Apostles felt ‘Yeah, God has sanctified me. Let’s face the world.‘? It looks like nothing changed, isn’t it? And that is why the Evangelist was dead silent. And that is our problem.

Because whenever we see silence or hear silence, we think God does not care. Or my prayer is not good enough. Or my prayer do not meet the requirement or the standards. Drop it all!

Because the essence of prayer is not to show up with urgent request list for God to do. And do it right now. That’s our difficulty. Because everytime we show up, God must do something. Jesus show up, did God do anything? Just because John was silent, it doesn’t mean God do nothing.

I am very sure the moment Jesus uttered these words: Father, I am not asking You to remove them from the world but to protect them from the evil one, everything changes the very moment Jesus asked this of the Father. But what appears? Nothing changed. There is no change. Jesus have to be in the garden, to be arrested and then put on trial, condemned to die, carry His cross, crucified, died and was buried. Did God change anything? 

Let’s be sure. For Jesus, prayer is not God doing what we want or what we need. That is the consequence. Prayer in essence is just being with God.

You know, being in philosophy, I always thought that it is difficult to speak to our younger generation on the Spirit of God or infinity. But I am surprised because one of these university students who were into computer science was telling me that we have connectivity with God. Can you imagine? A physics student, doing computer science, could say that. And I am surprised he said: Don’t you know? It is in quantum physics and quantum mathematics.

You know what does quantum physics deal with, handle with, work with? Pure life without form. Pure energy without form. Doesn’t that sound like God?

Prayer is just getting online with God. You and I can get online with God. I use the terms of computer science is that we have this inborn, this built-in connectivity. And prayer is just getting online with God. Full stop. What it means is this:

When something stirs in your heart, you need Him, you pray. Your prayer is sacred, your prayer is divine because that prayer immediately put you online with God.

Our problem is never with prayer. It is never with prayer. It is my own obsession that everytime I pray, God must do something. Isn’t it true?

I am struggling with health condition. And I want God to heal me. And I know how long I pray. I will be having what I am suffering until miracles happen. But you see, we must not use the effect or consequence of prayer as the essence of prayer.

We all have problem with prayer because we identify prayer as getting God to do what I want. You know in computer language, what we do is we have shrunk prayer into a bargaining chip to get what I want from God.

But you know, there is no formula in prayer that is fit for all circumstance. There is no bargaining chip in prayer because prayer gets us online with God.

Being with God itself is a miracle. That we forget. We are disappointed that He didn’t do what I want.

Can we see the difficulty we have with prayer? It is never with God. It is my expectation that every urgent request list for God must have immediate answer, here and now. And when I don’t get God running around for me, then I say: Prayer is not good. It is boring. It is empty.

Let the word of the Gospel this morning affirm and sanctify your prayer. Your heart’s desire to be with Him. Just online with God. That is a miracle because amazing thing happen when we are online with God.

You know I am so happy to come to Holy Spirit Cathedral. You know when I arrive here, I have difficulty in looking for a parking lot. You know even if I have a drone circling around the vicinity of this Cathedral, there is not even a breathing space anywhere.

And last Sunday, there is this uncle from the Charismatic Group. He saw me and said: Fr, you look very anxious.

I am. I can’t find a parking lot. You know he said to me: I have that problem, too. But he said: When I come to the carpark of Cathedral, I just close my eyes and tell my God I need a parking lot.

Not parking space, yeah. Parking Lot. And sure enough, a car will reverse and he can park. And it is true. Now I have a parking lot.

What I want to learn from you all is this: What did you do to this Creator, Yahweh, Almighty God, that in Cathedral carpark, He becomes the most blessed and pleasant parking attendant? How do you do that?

But we see the difference. With me coming before God with my list of urgent matter, life and death, and God must act now. With this charismatic uncle: Lord, I need a carpark. And he got his carpark.

What is the difference? It is the matter of the heart, isn’t it?

When I am in trouble, I look for God. I insist on God doing what I want. And this uncle, charismatic uncle, is doing what Jesus is doing. Jesus was heartbroken that He will endure what had been prophesied 3000 years ago. And He is worried about His Disciples. And He speaks heart-to-heart with God.

But we know. Though He was crucified and buried, He rose again. We know God answered His prayer though the Evangelist was silent and we see nothing that God is doing for Him.

Brothers and sisters, I want to exalt you, to affirm you. That everytime you pray, you are doing something very sacred. Sure, you may feel empty and angry but being online with God itself is sacred. It is life-enhancing.

And we must celebrate that, be happy with that. Be happy with our prayer. Whether He answer or not, that is another thing. But the point is that there is always blessing, there is always sanctification and affirmation in just being online with God.

To this loving God, we praise and thank Him.

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