Through the Stretchers of Prayers, Bring them in!

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Monday, December 5, 2016

Every human person needs food, water and air. We need them for our survival. Without them, our life will come to a grinding halt. We need them to stay alive. And oftentimes we fulfill these primary needs without even thinking. But these are not the only things we need, especially if we are going to thrive. God wants us, not only to survive but to thrive as well. To be able to thrive, God and God’s matters must be central to the four dimensions of our lives—physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. When considerations are being made about these four aspects of our lives, God should be placed at the center, not on the sideline. When faith in God plays a key and crucial role in our physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual lives, we move from simply surviving to thriving; we begin to blossom and bloom like a tree planted close to a never-dry river.  Jesus attests of God’s desire for us in these words: “I have come that they may have life, life in its fullness” (John 10:10). So, for us to really thrive in life, we need to be lovers of God. We need to constantly stay in touch with him by way of prayer and reflection. We also need to care about others because God cares about them too. 

Caring for others is what some men did for a paralyzed man as recorded in the Gospel of Luke 5:17-26. As Jesus was teaching in an unnamed place, some caring and faith-filled men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed to the scene. But there was no passage to bring him in and set him in the presence of Jesus due to the crowded nature of the place. The men were not ready to give up yet. They were resilient and persistent. If there was no way to bring a needy man to the Lord, then something desperate has to be done, their action seemed to suggest. Instead of saying to themselves, “Let’s go home and try again another day,” they climbed to the roof of the house where Jesus was teaching, tore the tiles open, and then lowered the paralyzed man right in the middle in front of Jesus. It wasn’t their house, but the house is nothing compared to the life of a child of God. When the Lord saw what they did, he was impressed by their faith, resilience and effort. With that he said to the paralyzed man, “As for you, your sins are forgiven… I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.” With those words uttered, the paralyzed man was healed physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. Physically, he wasn't going to be trapped in a mat anymore and only rely on others to move him from place to place. With this healing, he can now move around— go to the temple, marketplace, work, visit friends and relatives etc. Emotionally, he was not going to be tormented again by his plight and the state of his life. Think for a second what could be the emotional state of a paralyzed man. Jesus has changed all that. Intellectually, he was also healed. There is no doubt that his paralysis most certainly prevented him from making progress in this aspect. His knowledge of God, the world, life etc will be impacted by his predicament. His overall and general worldview will be affected and limited by his condition. With this healing, he is going to breathe some fresh air. His intellectual knowledge of God, human life, and the world have a chance of being deepened by this healing. Spiritually, he was also healed. The words of Jesus, “Your sins are forgiven” directly made that possible. It’s not a surprise that he “went home, glorifying God.” 

Brothers and sisters, who are the paralyzed ones around us? Some of them are our brothers, sisters, neighbors, friends, colleagues, former church and ministry members who have given up and no longer come to church. I am not talking about those who left our parish church to another Catholic parish closer to where they live. I am talking about individuals who used to worship with us, who used to be passionate about God, Church and faith, who once received the sacraments but are now staying home on Sundays. From year to year, they do not come to church. When you talk about church matters, they walk away or hang the phone. But when you ask them, “Do you still believe in God?” they quickly say, “Yes, of course!” Some of them claim “They are spiritual, but not religious.” They use the expression to explain away why they are uninterested about coming to Church. Some of us who still come to Church regularly do not want to get involved personally in the life and ministry of the church. We are satisfied at coming to Mass and hurriedly heading home afterwards. If the Mass ever lasts more than one hour, we get upset and irritated. Some of us leave before the end of it. Some who stay till the very end do so in order to confront the priest and air our mind, “Father, you preach well, but it is too long. Next time, please make it short.” Some of us, especially those who have disconnected from the Church may be paralyzed spiritually, emotionally and intellectually. We cannot bring them in stretchers to God, but we can do so through the stretchers of prayer. We can do what the unnamed men in the Gospel did for a paralyzed man in a different fashion— lifting them up in prayer regularly. 

The greatest disease ravaging the 21st century is not cancer, or diabetes or heart disease etc. It is not one of those diseases that doctors can diagnose. It is ignorance of God, indifference to God, and the lack of the sense of God. Cancer or diabetes may kill the body but it can never kill the soul of a servant of God. The souls of the just, according to the book of Wisdom, are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them (Wis. 3:1). We need to constantly pray for all our brothers and sisters out there who are cold to faith and indifferent to God. We need to constantly bring them to the presence of Jesus through prayer. It’s not enough to grieve over their reluctance and indifference, we need to pray for them. We need to ask God to touch their hearts. We need to “Bring them in from the fields of sin,” ignorance and loss of faith. We need to bring “the wandering ones to Jesus” through the stretchers of prayer and supplication. Some parents have complained to me, “Father, I brought my children to church when they were living with me; they received the sacraments. They even attended Catholic schools, but now, they no longer come to church, and they are not raising their kids as Catholics. They have given up. This saddens me a lot!” If you are one of those parents, I urge you to emulate the example of the men who brought a paralyzed man to Jesus. You can do what they did in a different way: pray for them always. Present them at the feet of Jesus regularly. I have seen a lot of people who returned to the Church after staying away for 5, 10, 15, 20, and even 30 years. Someone was praying for them!

God bless you!