Father Roger Luís Photo: Natalino Ueda/cancaonova.com
“As the men turned and walked on toward Sodom, Abraham remained standing before the LORD. Then Abraham drew near and said: “Will you really sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous people in the city; would you really sweep away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people within it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike! Far be it from you! Should not the judge of all the world do what is just? The LORD replied: If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”New American Bible. (2011). (Revised Edition., Ge 18:26). Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
God had a profound friendship with Abraham, and a context appears that Abraham is obligating God to do something, being being a man of he wants to put himself in a position of asking.
Abraham questioned God which conceded to him the response: “If I encounter the just, I will pardon them.” God is the merciful judge and reveals Himself before the heart of men. If your prayer is a monologue, if you only speak and do not silence yourself to heart God, you will not be able to understand the will of God for your life, generally, it is a prayer that does not produce fruits.
At times we arrive in the presence of God and we only speak, we do not give God the opportunity to speak with us. Pray is a bold dialogue as that of Abraham.
I want to ask you: Being a soldier of prayer do you have compassion for some city or at least the one where you live? To be a soldier of prayer is to be an intercessor, for Abraham prayed for Sodom and Gomorrah. Do you remember that Jesus also cried for the city of Jerusalem? He had compassion. Prayer of intercession should not come only from personal interest, but also for those to whom we are entrusted. Pope Francis in the city of Lampedusa, Italy, spoke exactly of this. The intercessor needs to have compassion in the heart. Have you cried for the situation in Egypt? And crying is not sentimentalism, but is an attitude of the intercessor.
Unfortunately, we have only one life for God, looking only to ourselves, the intercessor should put himself in the positionof the other. Pray for the problems of your brothers, of your neighbors, of your city and even of your country, doing this you will be brought to leave the globalization of indifference, where you will see that there are many people suffering more than you.
Do not be Christian satellites, they do not know what God wants for they do not listen to Him. Ephphatha! Abraham opened his heart to God. Perhaps the god that you have served is a god created in your head, no! We have a God that speaks with us and asks us to pray for one another. We have a God that shares himself for his children that they will not be lost. If we are soldiers of prayer, we should feel all this “with” God.
Be an authentic Christian, we do not have the right to give less to our brothers, if you can be a vine of joy, because up to today you have been a Christian of vinegar with salt, which is sour.
We are at times spiritually insensitive. Prayer has the power to rescue us and transform us, if He calls you, He gives you the ability! Do not resist what God want to do in your heart. How many more soldiers of prayer put themselves in a place where God makes them more courageous. Praying is putting oneself in the attitude of daughter before God.
Transcription e adaptation in Portuguese: Luana Oliveira
Translated from Portuguese