Prayer Without Ceasing (2019-10-20, Sunday-29)

2019 October 20 /  29^th Sunday

●● Exodus 17:8-13 ● Psalm 121 ●  2 Timothy 3:14-4:2 ● +Luke 18:1-8 ●●

[__01__]  On Thursday (2019.10.17), I attended an event hosted by the Essex County Clergy Association about the dangers and responses by clergy and other caregivers … when we consider both the causes and the effects of drug addiction and, in particular, opioid addiction and painkillers.

          It was also sad to realize that so much of this so-called new awareness and new alertness is driven by the fact that the such drug addiction has moved out of the inner city ecosystem where people of color and lower incomes are disproportionately affected and into the suburban environment where people not of color and of higher incomes are now experiencing the same pain.

          The attention and alertness to the problem is overdue, but it does now exist. And, at my table, I was seated with three West Orange Police Officers who represent our own township’s commitment not just to “prosecute” but to rescue those in need from addiction to drugs and opioids.

          DEFINITION - A lot of different drugs are called opioids … many are prescription medications used for pain relief (like after you have dental surgery), but heroin is also an opioid.  Opioid drugs bind to opioid receptors on cells in the brain and throughout the body.

         

[__02__]    The whole thing made me ask this question à can you kill pain?  (repeat: can you kill pain?)

          How do you “kill” pain?

          We use the word “kill” to refer in this case not to the taking of a life either on a street corner or in a video game where a superficial flash of digital light and pixels indicates something superficial and simulated.

          In fact, I think so many of us want to the use the word “kill” very carefully and parents/mothers/fathers teach their children not to use this word casually.

          Nevertheless, when it comes to pain – to physical pain – in our lives, we certainly would prefer not to be in it, not to have it touch us or to destroy us.

          I would like to touch – in this reflection then on how pain and the faith of the woman in the Gospel reminds us to pray ..and to pray unceasingly. People in pain know how to pray!

[__03__]      Somehow, I will always remember the morning I opened a news article online – I had just started reading the news online because it was the year 2000 and things electronic were so new and novel at the time.

          I opened an online news article to read about the Seton Hall University dormitory residence hall fire in the January 2000, a fire in which three Seton Hall students lost their lives. Yes, the fire “killed” them. Many others were burned severely and spent weeks if not months at St. Barnabas hospital burn unit.

          A friend and priest whom many of us know – Father Williams Sheridan formerly of Immaculate in Montclair – was a priest chaplain on the Seton Hall campus at the time.  He told me of his many visits to SBMC  (St. Barnabas Medical Center) to visit students who had suffered much… one of whom thanked Father Sheridan because he knew that his presence had provided comfort to his parents.

          So … no… he could not “kill” the pain…but he could surround it with love and with community and affection and presence of Christ through his ministry.

[__04__]       Can you kill pain?

          The late Cistercian Trappist monk, Thomas Merton of Gethsemane Abbey in Kentucky, wrote this about suffering:

          “Some men [men and women] believe in the power and value of suffering. But, their believe is an illusion.  Suffering has no power or value of its own.

     It is valuable only as a test of faith. But what if we enter into suffering with a strong faith and then discover that suffering destroys us?” (Thomas Merton, “The Word of the Cross”, No Man Is An Island, p. 78)

[__05__]       What I’d like to suggest is that suffering does not have to eliminate or negate FAITH ..but rather that suffering helps us to encounter and know our FAITH and knew our Savior who suffered and died for us.

          Josef Pieper wrote this about FAITH. Pieper wishes to dispel the notion that faith is only “make believe”.  For is this not what some people will make fun or of mock in the devotee of religion and of worship and church and all the Sunday and prayer “stuff”?

          Some people may say this is “make believe”.  But Josef Pieper’s point is that not you cannot make anyone believe anything.  “Make-believe” is not real ! It does not exist. (Josef Pieper, “Faith”, Faith Hope  Love. p. 26)

          So, you cannot make me or anyone believe anything.

          A few Sundays ago, Jesus said in the Gospel that faith the size of a mustard seed will help us to survive. That is, a small amount, a small quantity of faith as seed or seedling is sufficient.

          Belief is then not only real. It is also binary. It’s not about how much faith you have, but just that you have some and this is the starting point we all benefit from.         

[__07__]     Faith is also not the same as pride and is in fact the opposite of pride.  The New York Jets might say they had both faith and pride, defeating the heavily favored Dallas Cowboys in a football game last week… but that’s just how sports people talk.

          We need faith ..not pride and while “pride might tell me” – as Thomas Merton points out – that I am strong enough to suffer (or pride might even tell me I can avoid having to suffer) … faith knows that the mercy of God is given to those who seek him in suffering and by his grace we can overcome evil with good. (Thomas Merton, “The Word of the Cross”, No Man Is An Island, p. 78-79)

[*** pause ***]

[__08__]     Can you kill pain?

          I was moved to ask this question at this conference on opioid and drug abuse prevention, especially after 1 particular speaker tried to put this is not just a “medical & scientific” but also a “moral & spiritual” context. Of course, medically and scientifically, we heard about prescriptions and pain receptors and synapses and …and whether it is better to take Advil or Oxycodone after you get your wisdom teeth extracted. (yes… Advil… don’t use the strong stuff or too long and do so only the care of a physician).

          But, then, the speaker asked a moral and spiritual question … “what is holy?” …what do we revere? What and whom do we respect?

          Thomas Merton had put it this way… sometimes we try to make the suffering/pain “holy”…but it’s not the pain that is holy but the person who is holy. The Cross was holy because Jesus hung upon it.

          The speaker asked this moral and spiritual question … “what is holy?” …what do we revere? What and whom do we respect?

          He gave an example of a bottle of water being on the table. OK, so here you have a bottle of water = H₂O.  Water itself is neutral and not a pain killer …  but what if that bottle became a bottle that were a bottle of pills, a bottle of wine, a bottle of whiskey.

          Do you or I as an addict or aficionado change or regard or worship the solution to our pain?

          I am not saying you cannot or should not have a glass of wine or maybe more than one glass.

          Nor should we eliminate the true medical pain killers from a treatment plan. But for the least of our brothers and sisters who may suffer addiction … that person is – sadly and perversely – finding peace where there is no real peace, and consolation where there is really only more pain.   That person is revering and respecting and worshiping something that is bad.

          But then again, he wants to kill his pain. What’s wrong with that?

[__09__]  The whole thing reminded me of my mother.

          When my mother and my aunt and uncle were children living with my grandparents, they grew up in a house with my grandparents from whom I myself only knew love and affection that was dispensed like Halloween candy to receptive grandchildren, even without costumes!

          There was absolutely nothing corrupt or wrong in my relationship with my grandparents.

          Therefore, it is a contradiction and hard for me to fathom how difficult it was for my mother and my aunt and uncle to grow up with my grandparent both of whom were heavy drinkers, alcoholics.

          My mother, as a teenager, went to Alanon, a treatment program for the family members of alcoholics …and my mother in many ways is a thriving survivor of the experience.

          My mother did not kill the pain, but encountered the pain … and ultimately found a way to pray and to forgive.

          What I took from the Essex County clergy /drug abuse conference was that our goal as disciples is not to be destroyed by the pain but to surround the pain with love, just as you would wrap your injured arm or hand in something to heal, you and I also need the love of God, the precious blood of Christ, to live as the widow of the Gospel lives, who lives with the pain of the corrupt judge, but returns each day knowing of God’s presence which surrounds her and enables her to pray without ceasing.  [__fin__]