Mark 1:35-39 (RSV- CE)
And in the morning, a great while
before day, he [Jesus] rose and went out to a lonely place, and there he
prayed. And Simon and those who were with him followed him, and they
found him and said to him, “Every one is searching for you.” And he said
to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also; for
that is why I came out.” And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in
their synagogues and casting out demons.
Reflection
This gospel passage from St. Mark
is set within the context of Jesus beginning His public ministry of preaching
and healing: After His baptism, Jesus “was in the wilderness forty days,
tempted by Satan” (Mk 1:13). Now, He is in Galilee, “preaching the gospel of
God” (Mk 1:14). In the midst of His work – having preached in the synagogue,
healed the sick, and exorcised the possessed just the day before (Mk 1:21-34) –
Jesus “rose and went out to a lonely place” to pray (Mk 1:35). Afterward, He
continued to preach and heal. While reflecting on His public ministry of
preaching and healing is worthwhile, we will focus on Jesus taking an apparent
“break” or “pause” from His work when He went to a lonely place to pray.
“A lonely place.” Other
translations render the Greek as “a solitary place” or a “deserted place.” The
notion here is to contrast what Jesus experienced just the evening before while
at Simon Peter’s mother-in-law’s house: “the whole city was gather together
about the door” to be healed or exorcised (Mk 1:33). Although the whole city
was not literally bombarding Jesus, the literary device (called a hyperbole)
that St. Mark makes in his gospel is clear: there were many people surrounding
Jesus and, from a human perspective, the work was overwhelming. Early the next
morning, we find Jesus in a lonely, or solitary, place to pray.
What was Jesus praying about? Although
there are times when the gospels reveal the content of Jesus’s prayer to the
Father, St. Mark does not reveal it here. What we do know is that He did pray.
That
Jesus prayed has caught the attention of Christians for centuries. The question
that eventually comes up is, if Jesus is God, why does He need to pray? Several
theologians have responded to this inquiry at various times and in various
ways. Among them, we believe that Jesus, though a divine Person, is likewise
man. In the Nicene Creed, which we profess every Sunday, we say, while bowing, that
Jesus “was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.” In His human nature,
therefore, Jesus can pray to the Father.[1]
Also, Jesus, as the Second Person
of the Holy Trinity (and therefore distinct from the Father), is not praying to
His own divine self but to another divine Person, namely, the Father, the First
Person of the Holy Trinity. It is not unusual for the three Persons of the
Trinity to communicate. Indeed, they are always communicating.[2]
Finally, we hear from the eminent
theologian and Doctor of the Church St. Thomas Aquinas that Jesus “wished to
offer prayers to the Father, not as though He were incompetent, but for our
instruction.” St. Thomas goes further and explains that Jesus wished to instruct
us about Him coming from the Father and “to give us an example of prayer.”[3]
Returning to the passage from St.
Mark’s gospel, what example of prayer is Jesus giving to us? As mentioned
earlier, other gospel passages reveal the content of Jesus’s prayer, that is,
what Jesus says in prayer, and therefore giving an example of what to pray. This is not the case in
this particular passage. We can then conclude that the example of prayer Jesus
is giving to us is not so much the content
of prayer but the context of prayer.
We have already examined the context of Jesus’s prayer in the gospel passage
from St. Mark: in the midst of His work, when “the whole city” had been coming
to Him and when He would again “go on to the next towns,” Jesus goes to a
deserted place to pray. Therefore, in the midst of our own work and
responsibilities, even if we feel as though we are bearing the whole city on
our shoulders and yet there is still more to do, we must pause and find a
solitary place to pray. We cannot use the excuse, “I am too busy to pray.”
Jesus was not too busy to pray.
Furthermore, Jesus taking time to
be alone in prayer shows us that prayer is not separate from work, especially the
apostolate). Rather, prayer is His work’s conclusion after droves of people
came to Him for healing. Prayer also begins His work, as after praying He goes
to the next towns. Our work, too, must begin and end with prayer, for work
without prayer is empty work. Without prayer, our work is in vain. Work – even
good work – can be a tool of the devil to distract us from the source and
summit of our work: prayer.[4]
Neglecting prayer in order to work does not make us Christians but makes us
workaholics.
A final note. St. Mark takes the
time to identify the time of day when Jesus prayed: “in the morning, a great
while before day, he rose and went…” (Mk 1:35). Although the Church has never
obliged the faithful in terms of the hour
in which one prays, many saints have put into practice the example of Jesus’s
time of prayer. Hence, we have the practice of a number of religious orders who
have prayer vigils or community prayer in the middle of the night. The example
offered in this gospel passage from St. Mark shows Jesus praying first thing in
the morning, right after rising from sleep. The first appointment of the day is
prayer: God is first. There is also a practical dimension to praying “a great
while before day”: the distraction of the day’s work will not be able to
“steal” prayer from us.
So a point we can learn from St.
Mark’s gospel is that we must follow the example of Jesus and go away to a
lonely place to be with God the Father and pray. Preferably, we can set this
time of prayer early in the morning.
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