When we read both the Epistle of James (James 1: 22-27) and the gospel (John 16: 23-33), we see a combination of prayer and work. On one hand, Jesus says “Ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full.” On the other hand, James says, “Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only.” Now, where is the connection?
The answer to this question is in another question: “what should we pray for"? For money, for food, for clothes, for fame, or for prosperity? Our prayers should not be to ask for any of these things, “for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” (Matthew 6: 32).
What then should we pray for? We should pray for the grace (favor), wisdom and guidance to do the will of God. When we operate under the favor or the grace of God, we will not miss the point of doing the will of God; our joy is full, and we are blessed in our work. And that’s the foundation of our religion.
Our life goes according to a certain cycle. So also goes our liturgy, our celebration of who God is. Remember, we worship as we believe, and we believe as we live and work.
The cycle or the pattern goes as follow: we come to the altar to offer “ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto the Father through the Son.”
We offer our confession, our supplications, our doubts, and what we have. We offer to God the best, but also the confusing image of us. What do we receive back? God gives us back his blessings, his grace, “that we may continue in that holy fellowship, and do all such good works as he had prepared for us to walk in”.
You see, we bring to God our distractions, our disorder and chaos; God takes this and brings forth the order and beauty of his new life in us.
And that’s what true religion is all about. That’s what Rogation Sunday is all about.
Let’s be reminded that a good harvest is still the product of dependence on God “from whom all good things do come”.
Fr. Thierry
"For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay” (Habakkuk 2:3).
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