The line in question comes at the end of the second verse, right at the point where the action picks up wherever this is played (offertory/communion/etc.) and distracts us from the song. Nevertheless, I want to give my thoughts on one of those neglected lyrics:
Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?
Let's just say that when I heard this line on Sunday, it stuck out to me in a way it never has. Right there in the pew, I pulled out my very professional, very organized prayer/Mass journal and jotted down a very clear reminder that I hope to meditate on this line later and perhaps write.
Just kidding. I pulled out the tiny telescopic pen that lives on my keychain and scribbled a few lines that could in some universe be perceived as letters on the back of my hand. It worked, okay?
Anyway, that line got me thinking about the nature of prayer, people and God's influence in our lives.
We know that there are different types of prayer. I'm not talking about the grades of prayer (vocal, mental, meditative, etc.) but rather the "intents" of our prayers. If you take every prayer everybody makes, you could pretty much fit them in one or more of these categories: Adoration/Love (In which we praise God for being pretty freaking awesome), Expiation/Contrition (In which we apologize to God for being pretty freaking fallible), Petition (In which we ask God for one teensy-little favor that's really no trouble at all) and Thanksgiving (In which we thank God for that one teensy-little favor that we hope wasn't too much trouble).
If we're being honest with ourselves...I think we know which one we tend to use most. Whether it's that quick little plea for divine assistance before a math test, or the desperate bargain where we swear we will give up every single vice and say ten rosaries every day if God just lets us slide this once, we always seem to be asking God for things.
That's not a bad thing - our daddy wants us to tell him what we need. Sure, he already knows every one of our wishes and necessities, but by asking we are showing that we trust him to provide for us. It's not like reciting our little list will change God's mind about anything, and it's not a shopping list for heavenly help. It's talking to the God who loves us about our needs and trusting that he knows what's up.
Pictured: Not God.
So when we ask God for something, I can assume we want God to fulfill/answer our prayer. If we pray for math help, we at least hope for some divine division assistance or some saintly subtraction. We want more than for God to say "That's nice."
Do we ever consider how God will answer our prayers, though? In thinking about this, I started to realize that I really...don't. When we pray for courage or strength, do we expect God to zap us with the warm-fuzzies?
I think God summed it up pretty nicely when he was in that movie a few years back, Evan Almighty:
"Let me ask you something. If one prays for patience, do you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If they pray for courage, does God give them courage, or does he give them opportunities to be courageous?"
Pictured: God?
Really, though. Do we ever stop to think how God will answer our many, many prayers? Now we start to see how the song makes sense:
"Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?"
As I sit here, right now, it is June 25, 2013. There have been easily hundreds, if not thousands of people that have been in my life in some capacity. I would even argue hundreds of new faces in the last year alone. Some of those people didn't really make much of a mark (although I would argue that we can't really know that for sure) while others made large, visible impacts.
Sometimes we don't know the changes someone caused until much later, if ever. For example, if I wasn't chosen to go on a retreat to Saint Francis, I would have probably never considered the school to begin with, let alone ended up there three years later. I had never even heard of the place before I was called to a random classroom one morning and handed a paper about something called a FLASH Summit. The teacher that selected me as one of eight students to go on this trip had never had me for class. I never did end up in one of her classes. We had probably only talked once or twice. Everything she knew about me was based on word of mouth.
At the time, she seemed a minor part of my life. A background character. An NPC in the video game that is my life. But because of that one tiny action - writing down my name instead of anybody elses - she started me on a path that would take me to Loretto years later.
Sometimes, like in the case of Ms. Leach, their impact is so subtle we don't realize its implications until years later - if we ever do. I can only imagine how many tiny, arbitrary decisions made by other people I might not have ever met have affected my life in big ways without me ever knowing it. Other times, as in the case with friends and family, we feel their impact distinctly and unmistakably. I can pinpoint the ways certain people have influenced me, from tiny mannerisms to major beliefs. I can highlight the moments people changed my life for better or worse.
So with that much possibility, it would be foolish if God didn't use some of it to answer prayers. If we wake up one day and get struck by a lightning bolt like Saint Paul, we can pretty clearly see that it was God. Wouldn't it make more sense for God to work through people, in ways we might never even recognize?
I would like to share with you a quote from Rabbi Kushner, the author of "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" - "People are the language of God."
Think about that for a moment. God doesn't always speak to us through booming thunder, but through the words and actions of our friends. God's love for us is most clear, most distinct, and most present to us in the love of our friends.
Pictured: God.
With that in mind, let's think for a bit about the kinds of prayers we make. What do we ask for? It's only once we start looking closely that we notice God answers a lot more of our prayers than we think. We think that just because we don't have the booming voice or angelic vision that God doesn't hear us, but the fact is he hears us all the time and is always answering us...in the love of our friends, and in the silence of our hearts. It's up to us to listen.
That means you are a prayer, too. You don't just make them. You are the answer to somebody's prayer. You are the solution to somebody's crying out in the night. You are the love of God somebody out there is craving.
And do you know what? That makes you impossibly important. That makes you part of God's plan.
The people that are in your life are the voice of God to you. Sometimes we find somebody who is the answer to our prayers and we find that we are the answer to theirs, and we fall into a mutual sharing of God that we call love, or friendship, or any number of names.
So there we have it. There's your challenge for today, and every day. Recognize that the people in your life - not just the ones here now, but the ones who came and left, or the ones yet to arrive - are the face of God to you. When you pray, listen for an answer - not only in your heart but in your life. Recognize that you are the answer to somebody's prayer. You have been set aside by God as a channel of his love. God has chosen you to bring his love to the people you meet.
To all those reading this, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for being the answers to my prayers, for being wonderful vessels of God's love, and for letting me be the same to you.
I am thankful in God's design He planned that your path cross mine.
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