Praying for rain

In the wake of El Niño, Catholic priests in the country have been advised by their archbishops to say the Oratio Imperata after every holy mass. The idea, according to church authorities, is to ask God for forgiveness that He may shower the land with rain to restore its fertility. For the last three or four months no rain has fallen in many parts of Luzon and the Visayas and rice and other crops could not be grown. Without farm produce, how could rural folks feed themselves?

Even before the onset of the dry season many families had already been on survival state. Hunger has been their lot. Thousands could not sufficiently feed themselves because their produce has seldom been enough. Now with farms getting dry, what will happen to them?

Yet the situation is not completely hopeless. To those who believe in God, and most Filipinos do, there's always room for hope. For in the midst of this food crisis they are likely to call to mind these words of Jesus Christ: "I tell you not to worry about your life: What are we to eat? Or about your body: What are we to wear? For your life is more than food and your body more than clothing. Look at the crows; they neither sow nor reap; they have no storehouse and no barns; yet God feeds them. How much more important are you than birds!"

Consoling words indeed! But the Lord has a caveat. He adds: "Let all the nations of the world run after these things (food and drinks); your Father knows that you need them. Seek rather the kingdom and these things will be given to you as well."

Praying the Oratio Imperata is one way of seeking the kingdom of God. Such prayer recited heartily and reinforced with faith could bring about the divine intervention we are asking for.

I said could because God's ways are strange ways and oftentimes difficult to understand. He may answer our prayers or He may not. But whatever happens, we are taught to trust in His goodness as a child does his own father. For as Jesus says, if the Father sees to it that birds don't starve, how much more important that we His own children get the food we need?

The Church teaches us that God always answers prayers, but that His answer may be "no" for the moment and "yes" later. Which means that for our present problem there would be sufferings first before relief, hunger first before abundance.

Suffering is always part of a Christian's life, says the Church. Like a grape wine, regular pruning is needed in order for us to be fruitful. For God wants us to bear fruit that others may profit from our life. (Remember how Jesus reacted to a fig tree without fruit?) Being pruned can of course be painful, but if the pain is accepted for God's sake, rewards would be forthcoming.

Some skeptics say God is cruel for making His people suffer. But they say so because they misunderstand God. They misunderstand life too. They think life should be a walk in the park or a perpetual banqueting affair.

Christians, at least the true-blooded ones, understand the meaning of suffering. They think of Jesus and remember his trials and privation from Nazareth to Calvary. The cross they know is the emblem of their faith. Loud and clear to them: Take up your cross and follow me. Yet there's also this: My yoke is easy and my burden is light. And this: I have come to give you life and have it abundantly.

But what kind of abundance the Lord was talking about? The Bible is silent on this. It could be abundance in material wealth or it could be abundance in spiritual blessings. And most likely the latter if one recalls His Sermon on the Mount and admonitions against surfeit of possessions and excesses in life.

It is said that where the Lord treads the grass grows green, for He is life. Hence, to make our crops grow we have to invite the Lord. But how shall we do this? Like John the Baptist, we have to clear the way for the divine feet, uproot the brambles and the hagonoy and burn these. Ah, but there are many of these in our minds and hearts! That abortificient of a congressional bill our leaders are poised to impose on us is one. But more serious is our collective greed and crass secularism.

Yes, we have to pray for rain. But before rain can come to cool our farms, it must first fall on our hearts and cleanse these of impurities.

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