In this section you can find a daily commentary on the Gospel of the Day.

Saturday 14 November 2020

Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time

Word for today
The Gospel of Luke 18:1-8

Enkakèo

Enkakèo is generally translated as “I am discouraged”, but this not a literal translation and does not shed any light on the wonderful procedure that Jesus gives us to help us to learn to pray and to pray successfully to realize our heart's desires.
When the present is not as we want it, when our prayer does not sem to make any connection with God and no one seems to be listening, what happens to us?  Do we become discouraged? Not generally.
When our heart's desires are not realized, when reality is what it is and not as we want it to be, when our prayer seems useless, what happens to us? Do we lose faith? Not generally.
What happens to us when things are not as we want them to be is that we become angry, that's what happens. We become angry with life, with ourselves, with God, with others. We become angry through a precise and methodical process that excludes no one. We can become angry slowly, immediately, openly, more or less secretly, consciously or subconsciously, but when we become angry, we always cut ties, we cut connections, unities, harmonies, we lose trust in ourselves, in God, in life. When we become angry we feel like victims, terribly alone, isolated. It is when we become angry that we lose our strength, we become tired, downhearted, discouraged.
The procedure which Jesus teaches is decisive in helping us to learn to pray successfuly as he showed them the necessity to pray always without becoming weary, or rather, without ever becoming angry, as the text says literally. When our prayer comes out of an angry heart, it is a polluted prayer, it does not have wings, it has no strength, it does not have a real and powerful desire. Becoming angry is always going against God, regardless if we know it or not. That is why if we turn against Him, we will be unable to connect with Him. When we become angry about something, we do not become evil, but we enter into a state of revolt, our heart and soul become polluted and we are headed towards a terrible sensation of isolation mostly from God and a terrible feeling of being isolated from ourselves. This is the reason why many people who believe in God and spend time praying meditatively affirm they do not feel Him; they say they do not feel His presence. This is not due to the fact that God is far away and invisible, but because these people do not perceive that they have become angry inside because of events in their lives, or because of accidents or adversities and that they have turned against the One they desire to hear and love. When we become angry, even just slightly, we lose connection with God, with the energy of life, with ourselves. Thankfulness is the antidote, and a smile the vaccine. If we become angry even for one second, we need to thank and smile for one second to be able to wash away the poison from our blood and from our prayer.
Becoming angry for good or bad reasons is the same thing, it has the same poisonous effect and it does not allow our prayer to be powerful and to connect with God.
Jesus gives us a gift, a beautiful and useful procedure which can change our way of praying and of praising forever, but also of loving and working, of thinking of ourselves and of life.