Were Jesus to need a business card, perhaps it might look like this:
Jesus Christ
I Have Risen
Jesus would be no different, some might say, than the two criminals who hung from a cross on Good Friday with Jesus were it not for the event of Easter Sunday morning. Certainly today's gospel reminds us that Jesus was a man of greatest simplicity. There were no significant people accompanying him. He had nothing. Others provided what he needed. Clearly what he had was sufficient: he had his relationship to the Father.
Surely we are different. We have needs, serious needs. Like Jesus, we need the time to build our relationship with the Father, as he did in those hidden away moments of prayer and reflection. Yes, we need prayer every day of our lives. In A Taste of Silence, p21, Fr. Carl Arico offers a description of prayer written by a Fr. Armand Nigro which might stir your heart a little this Friday morning.
Prayer is principally God's work, God's gift. He is present as our Father, loving life into us, sustaining and working in us. He is in every heartbeat, every breath, every expanse of physical, sexual and psychic energy, every thought, hope and desire, every decision. When we are conscious of God's presence, of God being and around us, we are in prayer. When we are aware that we move and love in God's loving gaze, we are in prayer. When God makes us conscious of God's nearness and touch, we are in prayer. In prayer, we are not called to support or enrich God but to be fed and strengthened by God.
This is the classroom of prayer.
