Reflection - Talking

By Steve Hall

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022622.cfm
James 5:13-20
Mark 10:13-16

If I ever read the letter accredited to the Apostle James, that reading has totally slipped my mind. It is the letters of Paul that we hear most frequently in the liturgy — probably because he wrote so many — with the letters of John taking second place. Consequently, the text for today is not a familiar one even if the message is.

Paul frequently says to pray: Pray for me. Pray for your fellow Christians. Pray for the spread of the Gospel. I pray for you. However, I could not find one text from Paul which was as specific to the individual as these few verses from James. The closest I could come to having Paul’s message echo James is in the following two verses:

“Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.” (Ephesians 6:18)

“Pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (I Thessalonians 5:17-18)

Paul is far more general than James when admonishing the Christian converts to pray, so it is particularly useful to meditate on the passage from James, even if it is brief. The portion of the text which concerns prayer is primarily in the opening verses.

If someone is suffering, he should pray.

If someone is in good spirits, he should pray (with a song of praise).

If someone is sick, he should gather others to pray with him.

When you stop and think about it, James few words cover a broad spectrum of issues that effect us all. Suffering, for example, is not limited to physical pain. It is a primal or elemental word for the whole variety of ways in which human life is negatively impacted. A description of its range may start with the physical or mental but we temper the word with innumerable refinements. I may suffer from isolation, from family discord, from the loss of a friend, from disappointment, from the evils in the world or the evils done to me — the list goes on. Similarly, with good spirits. I may be in good spirits because of a sense of joy, a sense of success, a sense of accomplishment, or simply knowing I am recognized or loved. 

And again, the list goes on. James concludes this part with words about one who is sick. The Mayo Clinic has a book of several hundred pages which lists and describes many or most of these issues as regards the physical. There probably is a similar book listing the various ways in which one might be mentally sick. James didn’t list these varieties by name or description. What he does do differs from Paul primarily by connecting prayer with the condition of the individual.

Rephrasing the word ‘pray’ is something I have found to be more expressive of its meaning for me. The ‘translation’ is simple. Let me put it together with the admonitions from James.

If someone is suffering, he should talk with God about it.

If someone is in good spirits, he should talk with God about it.

If someone is sick, he should gather others to talk with God about it.

At first glance one might think that the first and second readings were put together because they were ‘left over’ and there was no where else to put them. Even if that were the case, it was because the Spirit arranged for that to happen. So, what ties these two passages together?

“Let the children come to me; do not prevent them,
for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
Whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child
will not enter it.”

We have heard these words of Jesus often enough. The connection that Jesus intends between adults of faith and children has been understood in a variety of ways. But today’s combination of readings suggests that we might consider Jesus’ words in the context of prayer.

A man by the name of Art Linkletter used to have a TV program called Kids Say The Darnedest Things. On the show he would have several children from the early elementary grade level and talk with them, asking them questions. In one such interview he asked a young girl what she would do if she were president. Her reply: “Keep my mouth shut.”

Every teacher, every grandparent, every parent knows the simplicity and naïveté which so frequently guides a child’s speech. Sometimes it is open, trusting and un-restrained beyond adult belief. Today’s combination of texts would suggest that that is the prayer, the conversation that our Father would prefer to have with each of us. It is that kind of prayer which makes it easy to pray always.