Last Sunday a mention was made about the vacuum created by the absence of God. This Sunday we begin to appreciate that preaching, healing and exorcism belong to the one mission of Christ to extend the Kingdom of God. In other words, Christ came to reclaim creation back for the Father. Interestingly, from the perspective of sacramental theology, the different healings and cures conducted by Jesus laid the foundation for the latter institution of the Sacrament of Anointing. Restoration, whether it be physiological, psychological or spiritual, is a sign of the Kingdom to come. Recovery from sickness and sin is the beginning of the Kingdom’s rule.
In establishing the Kingdom, we can already discern two Christian doctrines right at the start of Christ’s public ministry. The first is the central notion of the Resurrection. We see it in the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. He held her hand and the elderly woman was literally brought back to life and to service. Her post-recovery ministration of Jesus and His apostles is reflected in the 2nd Reading where St Paul wrote of the apostolic service of the Lord.
The second doctrine is a less heard concept of recapitulation (see CCC518). The furthering of the Kingdom is not merely an extension of geography, meaning that it is not just to enlarge Christ’s dominion territorially. Rather, recapitulation is the logical conclusion of our profession of faith where we confess that the Word was made flesh and that through Him all things were created. Recapitulation flows into the Great Commission to go and baptised all nations using the Trinitarian formula. Thus, Creation, the Fall, the Great Commission all come under the mission of Christ to lead us back to the Father as He restores us to our original vocation. In other words, creation, from its inception until the end of time, is always headed by none other than the Word through Whom all things were made.
Therefore, anyone who claims Christian heritage is enrolled in this endeavour of Christ to reclaim all creation for God the Father. In that case, evangelisation is not merely to preach the Gospel. It is not even to increase membership in the Church. Rather the Good News is proclaimed in view of the total ministry of Christ who leads us back.
Leading creation back to the Father is an enormous task. In today’s Gospel, an important facet of Christ’s life is inserted into the mission of recapitulation. Mark introduced the idea of Christ praying. He does not give many details but enough for us to know that recapitulation is not merely actions on our part. It is also a life of prayer. Despite the success of his work and the authority with which He had over the crowd, Christ still found time and space to retreat into the quiet and silence in order to pray.
Jesus prayed always in order to do the will of God. In Luke’s Gospel, He spent an entire night in prayer before choosing the 12 to be His Apostles. In raising Lazarus from the dead or in multiplying fish and loaves, Jesus prayed. All through His ministry He engaged in prayers, both formal and informal. His most famous prayer took place in the Garden of Gethsemane where He struggled to choose the path less travelled.
When we embrace the task of recapitulation, the fact that Jesus prayed is something for us to think about. Perhaps our idea of evangelisation is filled with boxes to tick especially of the things that need to be done in order to bring the Good News to those who are waiting for it. Our yardstick for evangelisation is largely action. Many cannot stomach the “NATO” rhetoric, the type who is “No Action, Talk Only”. Our measure of success is achievement-focused to the point that we become afraid of inactivity and prayer often feels like wasted indolence. But Jesus prayed because the idea of “recapitulation” was more than just a task to be accomplished. Yes, He was bringing creation to its proper fulfilment but it was always in light of reconciliation and restoration of creation’s filial relationship with God the Father?
As followers of His, we too need prayers in our lives. Jesus may come across as someone who prayed spontaneously. But in fact, He would have been a man of ritualistic prayers. The word “ritualistic” itself may sound pejorative in our casual free-spirited world but for Jesus ritual was important. Our notion of freedom is an ability to engage in prayers as and when we want but for those who care for relationship, ritual suggests of fixed time for and forms of prayers.
If we look at how life is organised, spontaneity is overrated because 99% of our lives revolves around formality rather than informality. People work and it is not exciting. Doctors schedule their operations. Pilots follow time-tables. In reality, formality signals relational obligations. If rituals denote importance in relationship perhaps we should also recognise why going for Mass on Sunday is so central in our Catholic ethos.
Most of all, we need to get away from a mentality which prizes or values prayers as “effective” to one which is more “affective”. What is the difference? Effective praying views prayers in terms of results, that is, getting what we want from God. In itself, the prayer of asking is not a bad thing. Jesus Himself taught us to ask from God in our prayers. But those who are in relationships know the degrading feeling of utilitarianism. When someone only looks for you when he or she needs something, that is not relationship. Even though we should always ask from God, He is not a sugar daddy type of a deity.
In terms of asking, Christ Himself modelled a relationship based on embracing God’s will rather than bending God to ours. The Gethsemane experience was definitely “affective”, filled as it was with anguished and yet it revealed the depth of the filial relationship between the Father and the Son. In terms of the mission of recapitulation, prayer is not an extra duty enjoined upon us. It highlights that the more important a relationship is, the less we would leave it to chance. Since the task of reconciling creation is a priority in Christian discipleship, Christ by praying led the way by showing that if we want to follow Him, we cannot NOT pray. To pray is actually to live in the presence of the Father to whom all glory and honour belongs.
