Msgr. Peter J. Vaghi
Title of Series: "What's the Word? Dei Verbum 40 Years Later"

"Prayer: The Reliable Access to God's Word"

Session 8 - May 6th, 2005

The final article in Chapter VI of Dei Verbum, Sacred Scripture in the Life of the Church, underscores the prayerful reading of scripture--a challenge for each of us whether we are clergy or the laity. "Let them remember, however, that prayer should accompany the reading of sacred Scripture, so that a dialogue takes place between God and man. For, we speak to him when we pray; we listen to him when we read the divine oracles.'" The emphasis on listening to Him reverts to the first words of this conciliar document which were "Hearing the Word of God." Listening or hearing is the posture of this entire document. It is the proposed way we approach the Word of God. Moreover, the clarion call of this last article is to immerse ourselves "in the Scriptures by constant sacred reading and diligent study." Quoting St. Jerome, the Council reminds us that "'Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.'"

I have entitled this final meditation on Dei Verbum "Prayer: the Reliable Access to God's Word." I invite you to look and listen to Jesus. There is no better prayer partner. He tells us so much about prayer, perhaps in a section of scripture where you would never consider. This text might well be for you a paradigm in the use of scripture in our prayer lives. I speak of John 4--The Samaritan Woman at the Well. Listen prayerfully as I read the applicable passage, putting yourself in the scene, letting the images speak to you, closing your eyes, if you will, listening attentively to the specific dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. This is the way prayerfully to enter into the living Word of God.

He had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, "How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." (The woman) said to him, "Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?" Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water." (John 4: 4-15)

In that passage, Jesus is on a journey passing through Samaria. Each of us is on a journey in life, a journey of faith, a journey alone, with your spouse and children or grandchildren. That is why you are here today, to allow the Lord to deepen and expand your faith in your own faith journey- individually and as members of the family of the church. Jesus was tired from the journey and He sat by a well, Jacob's well. It was like an oasis in the desert. So often each of us is tired from the deadlines of life, from the pressures of work and each of us looks for an oasis in our own lives, somewhere to get away, to be refreshed, a quiet place. Certainly that was Jesus' intent. But what happened?

Almost immediately, Jesus has an encounter with a woman, not just any woman, but a Samaritan woman. Jesus speaks first. He initiates the conversation. He asks her for a drink even though she was coming to the well for water herself. Jesus says: "Give me a drink."

The Samaritan woman shows surprise:"How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman for a drink?" She expected to be ignored as a woman. Furthermore, as a Samaritan woman, she could not believe that a Jew would talk to her. That never happened. But from Jesus she received understanding and respect.

Jesus then said to her: "If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, 'give me a drink,' you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." For St. John, the "gift" of God is the Holy Spirit. Jesus was saying that if she knew I could give her the Holy Spirit, that Holy Spirit would be gushing in her like a fountain of water. And that is his gift, to her and us.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that "every time we begin to pray to Jesus it is the Holy Spirit who draws us on the way of prayer..." CCC 2670 "The Holy Spirit, whose anointing permeates our whole being, is the interior Master of Christian prayer. He is the artisan of the living tradition of prayer. " CCC 2672 In this sense, prayer is the gift of God's Holy Spirit.

Pointing to the well, Jesus says "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." St. Hippolytus, (from a sermon on the Epiphany) describes this water as "the water of the Spirit...It is the water of Christ's baptism; it is our life." Yes, by baptism, we become temples of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is like a fountain of water welling up within each of us.

The woman than said to Jesus: "Sir give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."

How does this particular passage of scripture deepen our understanding of prayer?

The catechism gives us a clear answer: "'If you knew the gift of God!' The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being. It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; His asking arises from the depths of God's desire for us. Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God's thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him."CCC 2561

Yes, prayer is God's gift to us. It is the power of His Holy Spirit gushing like a fountain within us. And He is always taking the initiative. From one of the weekday prefaces at Mass, we pray: "Father... You have no need of our prayer yet our desire thank you is itself your gift." In effect, our desire to pray is His gift. Prayer is God's gift to us.

So often, we view prayer as our initiative, another project that is ours. We need to master one of the thousand "how to" books on prayer before we can even begin. This erroneous belief may even impede us from prayer. Prayer often intimidates us. We view it as complicated or confusing, difficult, perplexing and mysterious.

What the catechism teaches from the very beginning is quite the opposite. At its basis, prayer is God's initiative in our lives. He comes to us. He comes to us as individuals, as members of a family. He comes to everyone as He came to the least likely person, a Samaritan woman. We are no different. That should give us relief as we seek to pray in our lives. That should give us a renewed sense of confidence.

In the Pope's best-selling book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, he makes the same point: "In prayer, then, the true protagonist is God. ...The protagonist is the Holy Spirit, who 'comes to the aid of our weakness.' We begin to pray, believing that it is our own initiative that compels us to do so. Instead, we learn that it is always God's initiative within us...." (p.17)

Hopefully, that thought is reassuring. When you begin to pray, always remember Jesus--tired from His journey-- taking the initiative at the well with a foreign woman, a Samaritan woman. "God thirsts that we may thirst for him." CCC 2560 That is prayer.

Another point about prayer from the catechism:

".... Man may forget his creator or hide far from his face; he may run after idols or accuse the deity of having abandoned him; yet the living and true God tirelessly calls each person to that mysterious encounter known as prayer." CCC 2567

Focus on the word "tirelessly." Not only does God take the initiative but He does so over and over again, even and particularly when we fail or when we resist Him. Do you remember the poem by Francis Thompson called "The Hound of Heaven?" The hound ran faster and faster always pursuing him even though he resisted until one day He finally caught Him. "I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind.." Our God never gives up on us.

In the words of St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower, she writes: "For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy." CCC 2558 Prayer is a heart to heart conversation with God.

"...The heart is our hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others; only the Spirit of God can fathom the human heart and know it fully. The heart is the place of decision, deeper than our psychic drives. It is the place of truth, where we choose life or death. It is the place of encounter, because as image of God we live in relation: it is the place of covenant." CCC 2563

Each of us thirsts for God, for a God who is beyond us and yet near to us. In that very thirst, that desire for an oasis to have our thirst quenched in our life journeys, often tired from the its challenges, we find Him. We find Him individually and as members of a family, the family the church. He finds us as individuals and as members of a family, members of His church. He is our deepest longing. There is a surge towards heaven from our hearts. That is God's action, the action of His Holy Spirit within us. When we yield to God, to God's actions within us, it is then that we pray. It is God's most generous and wonderful gift to us--the gift of prayer, prayer, which is the reliable access to God's Word.

I complete my meditation with the concluding words of Dei Verbum: "Just as from constant attendance at the eucharistic mystery the life of the Church draws increase, so a new impulse of spiritual life may be expected from increased veneration of the Word of God, which 'stands forever.'" Yes, a prayerful appropriation of the Bread of Life and the Word of Life!

AMEN.