Prayer is the interpreter of our desires before God (cf. Summa Theologiæ. II-II, q.83, a.9). But is it right to yearn to be free from the sufferings of this life, which Providence has allowed for our good? Should not our prayers be raised to the throne of the Divine Majesty only to ask to be able to accept the cross with resignation? Or is it permissible to beseech consolation, healing and favours?
Devotion consists not only in offering God the reverence of our dedication or in thanking Him for the benefits we have received, but also in expressing our needs with filial trust: “Prayer is offered up to God, not that we may bend Him, but that we may excite in ourselves the confidence to ask: which confidence is excited in us chiefly by the consideration of His charity in our regard, whereby He wills our good – wherefore we say: ‘Our Father’” (ad 5).
We should not be afraid to present our desires and needs to God with confidence, because through the gift of sanctifying grace we share in the divine nature (2 Pt 1:4) and we are children! There is therefore nothing improper about asking for the alleviation, shortening or elimination of our sufferings, if we pray to Him conditionally and in submission to His holy will.
We find an absolute and perfect example of this principle in the Divine Master. Shortly before His Passion, Jesus raised a poignant prayer to Heaven: “Father, if Thou art willing, remove this cup from Me; nevertheless not my will, but Thine, be done” (Lk 22:42). This is the plea of the Only-begotten Son, who does not hide His pain, but above all wants to fulfil the Father’s plan.
As the Angelic Doctor explains, Christ prayed expressing His human sensibility in order to instruct us on three points: “First, to show that He had taken a true human nature, with all its natural affections: secondly, to show that a man may wish with his natural desire what God does not wish: thirdly, to show that man should subject his own will to the Divine will. Hence Augustine says: ‘Christ acting as a man, shows the proper will of a man when He says: Let this chalice pass from Me; for this was the human will desiring something proper to itself and, so to say, private. But because He wishes man to be righteous and to be directed to God, He adds: Nevertheless not as I will but as Thou wilt, as if to say: See thyself in Me, for Thou canst desire something proper to Thee, even though God wishes something else’” (III, q.21, a.2).
In the light of Christ’s example in the Garden of Olives, and in harmony with Thomistic doctrine, Msgr. João also teaches how legitimate it is to pray to God to deliver us from suffering, if the request is submitted to God’s will with love and abandonment: “It was fitting that Our Lord prayed to give me an example of perfect prayer, which must be humble, filial, full of trust and persevering. He had announced several times that He would be killed and would rise again, so He knew well that that conditional prayer would not be answered. However, He prayed it to show that He is truly Man and that it is permissible for human beings to express their pain. What a magnificent example Our Lord Jesus Christ gives me! This is how I should pray: ‘If it be possible…’”1 ◊
Notes
1 CLÁ DIAS, EP, João Scognamiglio. Meditation. São Paulo, 16/10/1992.
