April 19, 2020

“As Jesus came near to Jericho a blind man sat by the wayside begging . . . and he cried out ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy upon me.” Luke 18:35,38

There are many silver linings to the current Covid crisis in this country. One is that it gives us ample time and plenteous topics for which to pray.  My guess is that people are praying more whether we recognize it or not.  

At its most fundamental basis prayer is simply a crying out to someone “other” or something “else” that is bigger than we are.  Most people call that someone God.  The Gospels are filled with examples of people who did so to Jesus, the blind man being only one example.  His words in Greek are “Kyrie Eleison”, and they mean “Lord, have mercy.”  That is the simplest, yet perhaps the most profound prayer one can pray.  It is short and to the point. It gives the Spirit ample space to work on our behalf what our own words can’t capture. 

The words “Lord have mercy” are foundational for the “Jesus Prayer, that is based on the story of the Pharisee and Publican that Jesus tells in Luke 18.   Two men go to the temple to pray.  One, a Pharisee, is quite pleased with himself and thanks God that he is “not like other men” and goes on to recount his good deeds and attributes.  The other, a tax collector, stands far off and says, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”  Jesus commends this man as the one who is justified in the eyes of God.  And thus the Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy on me a sinner.”  Note that this prayer in English has twelve words that are easily remembered.  Its simplicity makes it very “pray-able” anywhere, everywhere and at any time.   When combined with one’s measured breathing it is conducive to a meditative state. 

But the thing I personally like best about praying “Kyrie Eleison” or the Jesus prayer is the combination of simplicity and humility.  It doesn’t require a great deal of thinking or preparation or planning or even traveling to a special place to get into the right frame of mind.  It simply is.  God is.  Merciful.  I am.  In need.

Leo Tolstoy tells a parable about this kind of prayer that I think is pertinent.  Three monks lived on a faraway island.  Their bishop decided to go and visit them.  When he arrived he discovered that they didn’t know the Lord’s Prayer, so he proceeded to teach it to them.  As his ship was sailing away the bishop looked back and saw the three monks running on the water to catch up with the ship.  When they reached the ship they said “Dear bishop, we forgot the prayer that you taught us.”  The bishop was amazed by what he had seen and heard and asked them, “Dear brothers, how then do you pray?”   They answered, “Well, we just say ‘Dear God, there are three of us and three of you, have mercy on us!”.  The bishop, struck by their simplicity of faith and sincerity of prayer simply bid them to go back to their island and be at peace.

Simplicity and sincerity.  Those are the key ingredients when it comes to praying.  It is what we see evidence of in the blind man, the tax collector and so many others, hopefully even and especially in our selves.  But then again, what we see in ourselves doesn’t matter so much. It is what God sees—and hears—that alone matters.  Kyrie Eleison.