As Christians, we don’t light the lamp of prayer and then hide it under a table
As Christians who desire to pray, we need examples, mentoring, and spiritual formation. The church offers each of these and much more to the soul that is yearning and pining for a vital and personal relationship with God.
The entire fourth part of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is all about the ascetical and mystical life. It is the deep dive into all things spiritual. For example, in part four, section one, chapter one, article three, we see the movement of the various forms of prayer.
Article three starts by emphasizing blessing and adoration. It then moves to supplication and its various expressions, namely, petition, repentance, and a yearning for God’s kingdom. After supplication, article three moves to intercession. Each of these movements of prayer are important and we need to value each one as well as the connection each of them have to one another.
As we move to intercession, the Catechism defines it as: “Intercession is a prayer of petition which leads us to pray as Jesus did.”
The definition begs the question: What is the difference between supplication and petition on the one hand, and intercession on the other? While admittedly the different words could be used as synonyms and there are some serious internal similarities, the spiritual tradition usually associates supplication and petition as the prayer of believers for themselves or the prayers offered alone by themselves, while intercession is the active praying for others and oftentimes with others. And so, intercession has a more communal expression to it.
Christians are called to offer intercession, even publicly. It’s no mistake that one of the more fluid parts of the Catholic Mass are the General Intercessions, sometimes called the Prayers of the Faithful. The prayers of the General Intercession can be composed by the local pastor or community at their discretion. And such a license is given so that the assembly at Mass can make intercession for universal needs, but also for very local ones.
Intercession should not be a peculiar thing in the Christian community.
The Catechism explains: “[Christ] is the one intercessor with the Father on behalf of all men, especially sinners. He is ‘able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.’”
As the Lord Jesus makes intercession before the followers, so his disciples are empowered and summoned to do the same. It should be the most natural (and comfortable) thing in the world for one Christian to pray for another. As we pray within our hearts, so we are to pray for others. As we make intercession in private, so we should make intercession in public.
The Catechism points us to the Holy Spirit: “The Holy Spirit ‘himself intercedes for us . . . and intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.’”
Just as the Lord Jesus make intercession, so the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us. He prays for all the holy ones that God’s will may be accomplished in us and through us.
It would be an odd reality for baptized Christians not to make intercession as their Lord and the Spirit make intercession. It would be a noted break in the relationship between the Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and the baptized Christian if that believer didn’t intercede for the needs of others, of the church, and of the entire human family.
As a people of prayer, Christians are de facto intercessors. It’s one of the ways in which we love our neighbors and fulfill the Lord’s command to be Good Samaritans. As Christians, we do not light the lamp of prayer and then hide it under a table. We nurture a relationship with God through our personal prayer with him, and then we intercede – as friends of God – before him and pray earnestly and heartfeltly for those in need, distress, darkness, confusion, or pain. We feel the sufferings and needs of others, and we offer those to God by our intercession before him.
At times, our intercession will be smooth and relatively peaceful, while at other times our intercession will be marked by tension and intensity as we plead, demand, insist, request, persist, and persevere with our prayers before God.
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