[REFLECTION] Prayer and the flood management mess

‘Prayer requires motion. This begins with recognizing our personal contribution to this dire state of affairs.’

The Trillion Peso March, the second a part of which occurred on November 30, aimed to “rework prayer into sustained motion.” 

At the moment, barely two months had handed when Cardinal Jose Advincula of the Archdiocese of Manila declared that the Oratio Imperata for Integrity, Reality, and Justice exchange the Prayers of the Devoted in all Plenty, “a uncommon follow reserved for the gravest of circumstances.” Seeing corruption not merely as a political and financial drawback, the archdiocese thought that the compulsory prayer was probably the most apt response to a “religious and ethical disaster” that violated human dignity and stole what was meant for the widespread good.

What will we pray for in a state of affairs of urgency and seriousness? After asking for forgiveness due to our apathy and inaction, the oratio imperata asks the Good Lord for “leaders after the Coronary heart of Your Son.” It additionally implores the Holy Spirit for braveness to uphold justice and defend the reality in order that integrity could blossom in our land. It entreats the God of Justice and Mercy for the nation “to not be poisoned by greed, manipulation, and selfishness.”

A priest pal stated that “it’s unfair to ask God to unravel issues that we people have brought on.” One other requested, whether or not within the face of all this large corruption, the phrases “lead us into temptation and ship us from evil” nonetheless imply something.

This reflection resists critiquing of the oratio imperata, which some suppose articulates nothing greater than motherhood statements. It desires to ask a fundamental query: Does prayer engender collective company?

Students have categorised three approaches to spiritual problem-solving. Some have a deferring fashion, and depend upon God to unravel their issues. On the different finish of the dimensions are these with a self-directing fashion, and train autonomy and refuse to ask God for assist and even steerage. Within the center are these with a collaborative fashion; they ally themselves with God to find options. 

Secularists maybe would insist that this system of motion towards corruption and political dynasties be self-directed, contemplating that numerous non secular teams could be defending their very own political pursuits. However which path ought to religionists take? Ought to we train passivity to God whose plans are all the time better than ours? Or ought to we make use of God as a collaborator to our greatest efforts?

Spiritual problem-solving primarily means deciding who God is for us. Is God abandoning or is God supportive however non-intervening? Research have proven that those that imagine that God has deserted them of their occasions of difficulties self-directed drawback solvers resolve to turn into self-directed. However the collaborative imagine that God helps them and can grant them the help and assist they want, however will not do the work for them.

Essential to this reflection is whether or not perception in God and company cancel one another out. Company is an motion that’s goal-oriented, and whose objective is doable and rational. An instance could be a pupil who seeks to construct a love life or a small enterprise. Such an act might not be so agentic in the event that they attempt to search out the love of their life or put up their meals stall in the midst of Examination Week. Moreover, such commendable ends will solely be agentic in the event that they acknowledge the concrete adjustments they should make in an effort to obtain it.

The agentic believer could be much less deferring, however would search to look to God for assist and steerage in looking for options to the corruption and governance points. Maybe it isn’t so sensible to anticipate that not everybody concerned will probably be sanctioned, particularly the massive fish.

Realizing that corruption won’t be fully rooted out, we’re confronted by the temptation to lose hope. Theologians clarify that the final two petitions of the Lord’s Prayer derive from the real need to repent (Forgive us our sins as we forgive those that sin towards us). Resolving to do good, we ask God the Father to not lead us into new temptation and to spare us from the Evil One.

The actual temptation, nevertheless, is the temptation to defer to God all options to issues we people have brought on. Prayer requires motion. This begins with recognizing our personal contribution to this dire state of affairs. To what extent have we labored to lift leaders who won’t be susceptible to deprave practices?

The Serenity Prayer expresses this: “Lord grant me the serenity to just accept the issues I can’t change, the braveness to vary what might be modified, and the knowledge to know the distinction.” We will begin by trying on the listing supplied on this web site of Ten Methods to Battle Corruption.

Unexpectedly, knowledge exhibits that abandoning ourselves in God’s arms, really results in company, for this act bolsters confidence {that a} troublesome state of affairs could also be resolved. If, nevertheless, we refuse to let God carry a few of our emotional burden, we would burn out, and the willpower and can energy to carry the answer to its logical conclusion get exhausted.

As Saint Ignatius in a letter to Ascanio Colonna [dated April 25, 1543] stated: “There are only a few individuals who notice what God would make of them in the event that they deserted themselves completely to his arms, and allow them to be shaped by his grace.” Think about the heights we will attain, if we notice that we’re miracles in God’s arms. – Rappler.com

Jovino G. Miroy teaches medieval philosophy and philosophy of faith on the Ateneo de Manila College. He holds a PhD from Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven in Belgium, with a specialization in medieval philosophy, and is a member of the American Cusanus Society. He’s the producer of the podcast titled “Thomas Unveiled,” commemorating the Double Jubilee of Thomas Aquinas.