We ought to be aware of how the Holy Spirit prays in and through us
By Fr Jeffrey Kirby, from Catholic Herald.
The prayers of supplication include petition. There are many and various different forms of petition. As we look at the Sacred Scriptures, we see that lamentation is a predominant form of supplication. Interestingly, lamentation is not as prevalent in the New Testament.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church observes: “The New Testament contains scarcely any prayers of lamentation, so frequent in the Old Testament.”
This is not to say that God’s people in the New Covenant are not without their own struggles, cries, and concerns. They are as fallen, and life is as difficult for people in the New Covenant as it was for those in the Old Covenant.
The difference was not in the level of sorrow or broken-heartedness. The difference is in the understanding of God, the acceptance of suffering, and the level in which God’s closeness and care are experienced by his people. The difference is the Incarnation of the living God.
In the reality of the Incarnation, God has come to his people. He has become one of us. He loved, worked, suffered, cried, and died like each of us. In Jesus Christ, God accompanies and consoles his people from the inside out.
Such an encounter culminates and finds its greatest expression in the Resurrection. The Lord Jesus didn’t just suffer as we suffer. He destroyed and beat suffering at its own game. He converted suffering into a means of love and redemption. This transformation is visibly seen in the Resurrection.
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