St Paul declared: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith also is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). Our faith is anchored in the Good News of the Resurrection. The Resurrection is the Father’s response to the cross. His defiant answer to a world that hoped violence could keep Jesus in its hold.

If death had spoken the final word about Jesus, it would have only been a matter of time before everything about Jesus had been reduced to a curiosity, a forgettable footnote in the crowded history of lost causes. But God had the last word.

In raising Jesus from the dead, God raised every value that Jesus cherished, every parable that Jesus narrated, every preference that Jesus made, every purpose that Jesus followed. All this was given new life, and new significance.

The Resurrection of Jesus was not a hysterical invention of people who refused to accept Jesus’ death. The Father’s act of raising Jesus from the dead is the Father’s way of accepting His son’s death. Jesus is wakened to glory by the applause of His Father, by the sheer energy of His Father’s Love, and by the loud shout of His Father’s gratitude. The Father refuses to write RIP over Jesus’ grave. Our faith focuses not on an empty tomb, but on the everlasting presence of Jesus as Lord; a Lord whom we continue to meet each day in personal prayer.

In personal prayer our faith talks and listens and meditates. In prayer the challenge is to be real, truthful, heartfelt and unaffected. In personal prayer, as oblates we approach the God of all mercies without make-up or disguise, without mask or pretence, hoping to find an expression for who we are and what we’re facing in our lives. Personal prayer is not about performance; it is the language of real life.

As in the great book of the Psalms, prayer can be a cry for help, a groan, a grievance for some slight offence we have suffered, or perhaps an angry complaint; it could be a thank-you note for a loved one or for a special grace; it could be delicious praise, shyly made. The Psalms teach us that we should pray always, and as oblates, we shape our lives by living the wisdom of Christ as interpreted by St Benedict, sharing in the sacrifice of the Mass, and full Divine Office, with our own monastic community, striving to be people of God, and temples of the Holy Spirit within our own communities.

Prayer, of course, is not just about ourselves, transfixed with our own agendas. We are expected to have a place in our prayer and in our lives for those who are poor or lonely, for those who feel rejected or forgotten, for all who feel hurt by life, and have no-one to support them. Prayer is not only about being open to God about ourselves, but also about asking God to care for the legion of overlooked, and neglected in our world. Prayer forces us to look out beyond ourselves into the wider world in which we live.

I’d like to share a story with you now about one man’s search for meaningful prayer in his life:-

“A priest went to visit a sick parishioner in his home. He noticed an empty chair at the patient’s bedside, and asked what it was doing there. The patient said, “I had placed Jesus on that chair, and was talking to Him before you arrived………For years I found it very difficult to pray, until a friend of mine explained to me that prayer was simply a conversation with Jesus. He told me to place an empty chair nearby, and to imagine Jesus sitting on that chair, and to speak with Him and listen to what He has to say in reply. I’ve had no difficulty praying ever since.”

Some days later, the daughter of the parishioner, came to the rectory to inform the priest that her father had died. She said, “I left him alone for a couple of hours. When I came back to the room I found him dead. I noticed, however, a strange thing: his head was resting not on the bed, but on a chair, which was beside the bed. I was surprised by this, but I think he passed away peacefully, because he had a smile on his face.”

Let us now conclude with a Prayer:-

Look, we beseech you, O Lord, upon the people of this land who are called by your holy name: grant to us all that, laying aside all our divisions, we may be united in heart and mind to bear the burdens that have been laid upon us, and enjoy the new life you grant us. This we pray through the risen Lord. Amen.

John McKinlay

Oblate of Pluscarden