A Note From Father Eickhoff

August 4, 2024

 

The Opening Prayer to today’s Mass begins this way:

“Draw near to your servants, O Lord, and answer their prayers with unceasing kindness”

There are two parts to this opening line that I want to draw your attention to. The first is the element of motion in the first phrase “draw near to your servants” that is ascribed to God. This suggestion of God moving towards us speaks of God being active in the world. At times throughout history people have conceived of God as being passive or uninterested in the universe. That God having created the universe has stepped aside from being concerned with what is happening within the universe on a grand scale such as the fates of stars and planets or on a small scale such as individual human beings. The whole of salvation history as described in the Holy Scriptures and revealed through the Church does not support such a notion. God is interested and active in the universe. And God is aware and concerned with what we human beings are doing. Furthermore, God is not just listening – so to speak – but actively seeking us out to better assist us. We might have trouble moving towards God, but God has no such trouble moving towards us. God does this not because we human beings have laid a requirement upon him, rather God out of His goodness is willing to do so out of care and concern for us.

The second part that I want to draw your attention to is the phrase “answer their prayers with unceasing kindness.” It is not just that God is actively seeking us out that is important. It is also that God is desiring to aid us as well. And God aids us at all times with compassion and care. Now it is true that we human beings do not always (or even often) perceive this compassion and care. After all, what we think we want or need from God at any particular moment in time is often different from what we actually want or need. By this, I mean that God has the ability, an ability that we human beings lack, of understanding every part of a situation or problem and devising an answer to it. This answer may not be one that we understand now, or ever for that matter, but there is an answer. Furthermore, this answer will be one that can work out for our benefit even through we may not understand how it helps at the moment or even for years to come.

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Stephen Eickhoff
Pastor