(St Mary's Church, Annapolis)
St. Augustine wrote: "Prayer offered in holiness from a faithful heart rises like incense from a holy altar." We need recall the passion that the physical body of Jesus endured for not only for one individual but for the Body of Christ, all of Christianity. all of God sons and daughters. How many times have we, as a community of believers or individually prayed "Lord, I have prayed to you, hear me now."
Jesus was a human being and so his prayer was that of a human being. Most of his prayer was like your prayer, my prayer: human petitions to the Father. We know from the gospels that on the night before he died, his prayer was so intense that he sweated blood. Augustine again: the blood came from his whole body and it not just his blood but the martyrdom of the whole Church.
There are times when we feel our prayer(s) have not been answered, that God has not heard or has ignored our petitions. This is an anguish of the Body of Christ that continues since the evening of his humanly physical suffering. When we feel abandoned or unheard, this is the moment when we must repeat our prayer to God: "I have prayed to you, Father, and continue my prayer, my petition. Listen to the sound of my prayer when I call upon you. Accept my prayer as incense rising in your sight."
Paul reminds us "Our old nature was nailed to the cross" with Jesus. In his suffering Jesus called out from the cross the words that well may be a sentiment in our praying, our suffering: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The prayer of the faithful follower who continues in prayer despite no seeming answer for God rises like incense from HIS/HER holy altar. Jesus is with you in your moments of need. Your prayer is your incense rising to the Father.
Recall others words of St. Paul: "Our old nature was nailed to the cross with him in order to destroy our sinful body, so that we may be slaves to sin no longer. " In these moments we, all of us, are united in the Body of Christ in the experience of purification.
"I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave up his life for me."
(Galatians 2:20)
