Bread of Life: November Reflection
After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone
Matthew 14:23
In the end, after everyone (crowd and disciples) has gone away, Jesus, alone, goes up the mountain to pray, and when evening comes, he is still there in solitary prayer. It is a scene that is often found in the Gospels, and certainly a part of Jesus’ life that particularly impressed the disciples and the first Christian community. To help us reflect, we will divide the work into two parts: solitude and prayer in Jesus.
First part: solitude. Jesus needed to retreat in these moments, because it is right there, in prayer, that he decides what to do day by day. Jesus in solitude is an icon that we should keep more in mind. Why? Because in solitude you can seek the will of the Father. In solitude, Jesus felt and lived his own messianic vocation; he fought in solitude against temptations, overcoming Satan thanks to the only support of the Word of God, kept, interpreted, and prayed in the heart.
Jesus lived at least thirty years of solitude before his public mission; therefore, solitude was not for him a place of absence but of the presence of God. To be this way, it must be permeated by prayer. This is why the Gospels testify on several occasions that Jesus withdrew aside to pray.
The Carthusian monk Guigo I wrote: “We believe that nothing is more fatiguing, in the exercises of religious life, than quiet, silence, and solitude.” For us human beings, loneliness can be evil (isolation of sin, of selfishness, closure towards others) but it can also be good, as in this case. Nevertheless, we cannot forget that it is an essential dimension of our life, to be sought for and to be lived. It is necessary to be fully ourselves in freedom, to be able to listen to the voice of God who speaks to each of us in the heart. Only in this way does prayer become effective and work miracles: the conversion of those who pray and the ability to love enemies.
“After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone”
Matthew 14:23
Second part: the prayer. Jesus’ prayer is life; it is relationship with the Father; and, above all, it is listening. Listening in silence is the heart of the prayer: “Mary […] was sitting at the Lord’s feet and was listening to his Word” (Lk 10:39).
When Jesus prayed, the Father always listened to him, because he always did the things that were pleasing to him (cf. Jn 4:34; 11:42). In this absolute summit, reached in the prayer of the Son of God, a singular adaptation of will takes place: Since men ask only what God wants, it happens that God wants everything that men ask. In this way, prayer is not a law, but a grace (cf. Gal 4: 6)!
It is through this grace that we must always aim for the peak, which is love, a love that is expressed in real obedience to the will of God. For the prayer to be high, it requires an interpersonal relationship with Jesus, with the Father, but also with the Holy Spirit (cf. Compendium CCC n. 556). Thus Benedict XVI wrote discussing St Maximus the Confessor: “Jesus lives his life in accordance with the center of his Person: His being the Son of God. His human will is drawn into the I of the Son who abandons himself totally to the Father. Thus Jesus tells us that it is only by conforming our own will to the divine one that human beings attain their true height, that they become “divine”; only by coming out of ourselves, only in the “yes” to God, is Adam’s desire — and the desire of us all — to be completely free.”
Jesus spoke a lot about prayer, so much so that the teaching on prayer is equivalent with that on love. Jesus gave a lot of time to prayer, despite the work that pressed around him: He even backs out of charity to pray. Everybody was waiting for him and he leaves the people because he has to pray: People, the poor need us, but if we are poor of God, we are too poor for the poor.
Whoever does not pray is not suited to love. Jesus also spent nights in prayer (Lk 6:12). For him, praying was so important that he carefully chose the place, the most suitable time, detaching himself from any other commitment. Life changes starting from the moment in which the decision is made to reserve time for personal prayer every day. This is the commitment that the Lord asks of us today.
We pray: Lord, grant us to seek you in silence, in solitude chosen for love; grant us to listen to your voice and to pray with you and for you without ever getting tired. Let our life become prayer and prayer become life. Amen.
“[I]t is only by conforming our own will to the divine one that human beings attain their true height.”
(Benedict XVI)
Note: The “Bread of Life” is designed to help users meditate a different aspect of it a week, throughout the entire month. It can serve as a foundation for personal or group bible study. I encourage you to start and conclude with a prayer and to ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand and appropriate spiritual truths for your life.
Anna Maria Vigiano
A teacher in Religion Studies at high school level in Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy). She is a wife and a mother of two. She has been a senior and a leader in the Comunità Magnificat Dominum for 35 years.