Prayer during the Easter season…and always

Spring…Easter…New Life…on Easter Sunday, Jesus rose from death to new life and since then, the call to share in his new life is made to each one of us. 

But in the Gospels, especially Luke’s Gospel, we read about the apostles’ experiences of Jesus’ suffering and death during what we know as Holy Week. Bewildered, they wondered if this was the end of their whole amazing experience of being his followers and co-workers. 

We have similar experiences when we experience tragedy among our family and friends, in our home, work or life situation. In these situations we often ask God if he has abandoned us, and this is a genuine prayer coming from our heart. The answer to that questioning of prayer is, of course, “no.” God does not abandon us, but it might seem to be the case when we experience life’s difficulties.   

However, the Gospels tell us that on Easter Sunday and thereafter angels from heaven appeared to Jesus’ followers bringing them messages that Jesus was alive. This happened, first of all, to the women who had cared for Jesus’ apostles (Lk 24:1-9). It is also true of Peter at the tomb (Lk 24:12) and of the apostles (Lk 24:13-32) who were convinced that no, this was not the end. Their statement in relation to the experiences was, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?”(Lk 24:32). 

The Risen Christ continued to appear to the apostles until his ascension into heaven (Lk 24:50-51). After the ascension, we are told, they “returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God.”(Lk 24:52-53). Luke assures us that their experience of the Risen, Ascended Lord was totally positive. 

John picks up the account in his Gospel in Chapter 24, the last chapter of this work. He tells us of Jesus’ enabling the apostles to have an extraordinary catch of fish, and this caused John to say to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When they came ashore with their wonderful catch, Jesus gave them breakfast. Then Jesus made Peter’s vocation known; “feed my lambs,” “feed my sheep” (Jn 21:16-17).   

We too live in the era of the resurrected Christ. He lived, suffered, died and rose again for us. Many people, however, do not relate to this most important truth. For them, prayer is basically the prayer of petition. When we need–or just want–something, we pray, asking God to give it to us. When we receive it, we may or may not thank God for His gift. Then prayer is no longer a part of our lives until our next need occurs–which happens often, of course. 

And yet we are 21st century followers of Christ. We are called to adore him as God, to relate to him in love in the quiet of our hearts, just to be with him at all times, to be persons of gratitude for the many graces and blessings he has given us. In all the possible forms of prayer, do we have to relate to him? Yes. Relate to him through words? No. He reads our hearts and is in touch with our deepest desires. 

Let us enter into and pray as we find prayer in the Gospels in all its forms. Gospel prayer can be a profound prayer for Christ’s followers.