Dear Friends

When I meet someone I haven’t seen for a while, I usually ask, ‘How are you?’ Almost always, the answer is ‘fine’! It’s the answer I was expecting, and it’s the answer I usually give when asked how I’m doing, but it’s pretty meaningless!

Out of interest, I looked up ‘fine’ in a dictionary – there were 37 separate meanings! Granted, many of them would make little sense in answer to, ‘How are you?’, but ‘Fine’ is still a very ambiguous answer. Two questions spring from this: ‘Why give such an ambiguous answer to a straightforward question?’ and ‘Why bother asking a question when we expect a fairly meaningless answer?’.

The answer is, of course, ‘Social Convention’, those unwritten rules that guide our behaviour in society. We’re expected to ask how someone is but, in turn, the other person is not expected to give a full answer unless it’s being asked by a doctor or close friend. Only then do we let our defences down and open up. Why? Because we can be sure that we’re safe.

Jesus was often under pressure. Not just pressure to heal or teach, but pressure from knowing that there were powerful factions trying to discredit, harm or kill Him. Even one of His 12 disciples, those closest to Him, became the instrument of His betrayal. In these circumstances, there is One in whom Jesus knew He could absolutely trust, with whom He could be completely open, His Father, God!

There are at least 38 times in the Bible where Jesus talks directly to God, including at least one when He prayed all night. But, in truth, Jesus was in constant prayer mode. St. Francis of Assisi said, ‘Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.’ Meaning, when actions demonstrate the principles of the Gospel they become preaching. Everything Jesus did was in accordance with His Father’s will, built upon perfect communication between Father and Son!

‘Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on His own, but only what He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.”’ (John 5:19)

A shining example of a life lived in this way can be seen in the life of the 17th century French Carmelite, Brother Lawrence, who spent his adult life working in the monastery kitchen with an attitude of total submission to God. He wrote, ‘I have abandoned all particular forms of devotion, all prayer techniques. My only prayer practice is attention. I carry on a habitual, silent, and secret conversation with God that fills me with overwhelming joy.’ He also said, ‘It is not necessary to have great things to do. I turn my little omelette in the pan for the love of God.’ In his own, very humble way, Brother Lawrence was following his Lord with total devotion, constantly in prayer-mode, regardless of what he was actually doing. As the Apostle Paul wrote,

‘Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters,’ (Colossians 3:23)

This should make us ask, ‘How can we glorify God in our everyday lives?'

Many blessings,

Carl