Play to Pray (2020-12-20, Advent-04)

2020-12-20_  Advent (4^th)

●  2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16  ●   Psalm  89 ●  Romans 16:25-27 ● + Luke 1:26-38 ●

Title: Pray to Play .

Bibliographic Reference:

Romano Guardini, “The Playfulness of the Liturgy”  The Essential Guardini,  Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 1997, pp. 147-252. Originally published, “The Spirit of the Liturgy” (1918) pp. 196-198.

 [_01_]  Imagine you are having lunch with 2 people whom you have known for a couple of years. You have been to parties with them, you have been away on vacation with them. You have bonded over mutual love of vanilla and chocolate ice cream.

          Together, they have also spent tens of thousands of dollars on you. The thing is – you cannot remember any of it – or at least you cannot put it into words.

          They are your parents.

          So, you cannot put those experiences into words early in life. The most dramatic moment of our lives is the day of our birth. We have no recollection of it. That leads up to our first steps (walking), our first words (talking), but most (if not all of us) have no specific recollection about any of these momentous events.

          It seems to have something to do with the human development of what we consider “memory.”

          It would be inaccurate to say that babies are not retaining anything. In fact, the infant brain is growing at an exceedingly rapid pace.

          We observe that a very young child cannot only learn words but even learn words from 2 different languages simultaneously.

          Many of us truly were “Baby Einstiens.”

          Also, while cannot actually say or state – in adult way – who his parents are, he certainly can identify them without being able to say anything about it.

          In other words, there is something happening on the inside, on the interior, what is unseen.

 

[_02_]  Coming to church and being a disciple of Jesus Christ – having a personal relationship with our Savior – is similar to learning to walk and learning to talk.

          Father Romano Guardini writing about the “The Spirit of the Liturgy” – i..e, the spirit of our Catholic worship – wrote that our worship of God and celebration of God’s power in our live cannot be said to be a plan of instruction or curriculum in the same way as going to school.

          This applies whether you are going to school at the school building or at home, on Google-Meet, or Zoom…

          In school, the instruction always has a plan, an outcome, for every desk, every # 2 pencil, every lesson, every equation has a purpose to help us to get to the next level.

          We learn grammar and sentences so that we can read literature.

We learn to measure so that we can understand geometry.

          We learn American history so that we can learn world history.

 [_03_]     All of these things are to help us “function” in society and to make us look good, or look better.

          It’s beneficial to look good, even to gain some credit or glory.

          But, so much of what we learn in school does not come out of us naturally.

          For example, we did not go to school to learn how to talk. We went to school to increase our vocabulary.

Some of that vocabulary is poured in from the outside.

          But, at school we learned other things – about triangles or angles or the Declaration of Independence – thee are important things to know, but we could not come up with them on our own.

          That’s why it is called studying or work…or homework.

          I’m suggesting that learning to be a disciple is – while requiring some effort on our part – is not really based on WORK, but based on PLAY.      

          You may think coming to church is work – the good news is…. it’s PLAY!

[_04_]     Reading Father Guardini, I was reminded that our worship and praise of God is not meant to be like work but more like “play”.

          And, what is play, what is play time?

          Our time at church and our time with God are designed to allow us to walk and talk at our own pace and to connect with God who is a father at play with us – who loves us for our own sake.

          Loving a child, we learn to love another human being not for what the child does – for the child not capable of much…but we love the child simply because he or she is, for existence. We love the child for his own sake not for any secondary purpose.

          We may – at times – be tempted to see God as a teacher or boss or coach or drill sergeant with a stop watch and clipboard taking down our every move and misstep.

[_05_]    But, this is not Jesus’ image of God. Consider the father of the Prodigal Son parable who waits playfully and joyfully for his son to return, even running out to meet him.

          If you have ever been part of a reunion or welcoming event for someone at your home, an important visitor, a surprise party, etc…yes, there is effort involved, but is this not more play than work?

          Or, consider the image of the Good Shepherd who leaves the 99 to go in search of 1 lost sheep – the 1 lost sheep for whom he might have to climb or look for in the dark.

Such a father/Savior is not waiting with a stopwatch and clipboard.

[_06_]   Such a father/Savior loves us for our own sake and waits for us to come at our own pace.

[_07_]    Our prayer to God [our worship, Sunday Mass…] is not work, but is more like play, more like learning to walk or talk.

          There is goodness inside of us. There is a law written in our hearts.

          Consider this – did someone really have to teach you to be honest, not to lie or steal?

          It is true that we can be tempted to think that dishonesty will get us certain rewards or enable us to avoid certain retribution (suffering). We may need to go through a learning process to catch on to “honesty” as the truly best policy.  However, after we learn about the honesty and truth, we realize that the honesty and truth come out from the inside…they are not theorems we memorize.

          So, by some trial and error, we have learned what is the right way? Sometimes, we learned by a seemingly aimless series of movements, but it all ended up in what we might call “conscience” or “God” or a “voice inside”.  It happened more like “playing” than “working”’ And, it comes from the inside out.

          Or, consider this – did someone have to teach you to forgive someone who deeply hurt you?  Certainly, no one can force you to forgive. But, inside, we can learn because we have been blessed by God that gift of forgiveness is better than grudge of revenge. It’s better not simply for the person who hurt me. It’s better for me.

          It may take a few missteps and falling down to learn this. I may have to forgive over and over again, like learning to walk, before I get it. But it’s in there, somewhere.

[_08_]     Father Guardini’s point is that with the aid of grace, we are given the opportunity to understand our fundamental essence of what we are à “children of God”. You are a child. I am a child. And, in the liturgy, God gives joy to our youth.

          We come to church not to learn super complicated theories and techniques, but to understand simplicity.

          There is nothing simpler than learning to walk or learning to talk. But, even simple things require a lot of trial and error. We are all learning to walk.

          There is also sometimes a lifetime – many years – of prayer and reflection required before we really learn how to talk – how to talk with truth, with love, with peace – before we really say what we really mean.  [_fin_]