542. When did Jesus pray? (part 2 continuation)
(Comp 542 repetition) The Gospel often shows Jesus at prayer. We see him draw apart to pray in
solitude, even at night. He prays before the decisive moments of his mission or
that of his apostles. In fact, all his life is a prayer because he is in a
constant communion of love with the Father.
“In brief”
(CCC 2620) Jesus' filial prayer is the perfect model of
prayer in the New Testament. Often done in solitude and in secret, the prayer
of Jesus involves a loving adherence to the will of the Father even to the
Cross and an absolute confidence in being heard.
To deepen and
explain
(CCC 2602) Jesus often draws apart to pray in solitude, on a mountain, preferably
at night (Cf. Mk 1:35; 6:46; Lk 5:16). He
includes all men in his prayer, for he has taken on humanity in his
incarnation, and he offers them to the Father when he offers himself. Jesus,
the Word who has become flesh, shares by his human prayer in all that "his
brethren" experience; he sympathizes with their weaknesses in order to
free them (Cf. Heb 2:12, 15; 4:15). It was for this that the Father sent him.
His words and works are the visible manifestation of his prayer in secret.
Reflection
(CCC 2603) The evangelists have preserved two more explicit
prayers offered by Christ during his public ministry. Each begins with
thanksgiving. In the first, Jesus confesses the Father, acknowledges, and
blesses him because he has hidden the mysteries of the Kingdom from those who
think themselves learned and has revealed them to infants, the poor of the
Beatitudes (Cf. Mt 11:25-27 and Lk 10:21-23). His exclamation, "Yes,
Father!" expresses the depth of his heart, his adherence to the Father's
"good pleasure," echoing his mother's Fiat at the time of his conception and prefiguring what he will say
to the Father in his agony. The whole prayer of Jesus is contained in this
loving adherence of his human heart to the mystery of the will of the Father
(Cf. Eph 1:9). [IT CONTINUES]
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