Justin Appel
Dear Friends in Christ,
Today’s lesson from James describes the kind of diversity of needs we might expect in a community: suffering, exuberance, sickness, sin and repentance. In what way might we orient our prayer towards that community?
People with significant prayer experience seem to talk about a shift in one’s practice as one becomes more mature. In this shift, prayer increasingly expresses a kind of communal diversity.
At first, our practice might be more focused on ‘building a container’ for prayer, learning regularity, selecting which words to use, and developing a sort of grammar for prayer. Beyond this, we may learn to ask for things for ourselves or for the needs we perceive more broadly.
However, as we progress in our faith — as I am told by these more experienced people — we come to associate ourselves more closely with those around us. We find our identity to be tied up with others. Critically, we come to see how our sins affect others, and the fullest expression of this movement seems to be a sense of solidarity, not just with one’s community, but with all other created beings, bringing with it an understanding that one is not better than others. In the end, some have even been able to take on a sense of responsibility for the sins of others.
This development would indeed change the way one prays. Rather than limiting one’s prayer to parochial requests, one would start to experience an outpouring of soul on behalf of the entire world. One might plead with God to help those who suffer in particular ways we have come understand through our own suffering.
Thus, James’ injunction to ‘pray for each other’ can be understood in this deeply communal way, and our prayers can become a way of losing ourselves for the sake of the other’s good. And, because ‘the prayer of a righteous man has great power’, we can even expect our prayers to become effective instruments for the salvation of others, through the grace of God.
What a tremendous possibility exists for each of us!
Yours in Christ,
Justin