One approach to prayer is to get in touch with ourselves before trying to get in touch with God. For example, we sit in a chair and relax. We become aware of our clothes gripping our shoulders, legs, arms. We feel the chair gripping our body, shoes gripping our feet. When we are in touch with ourselves, we then try getting in touch with God. For example, we pray to God like this:
"Father, you embrace us as certainly as the clothes we wear, as the chair we sit in. May each sensation we feel deepen our awareness of your loving embrace."
The inspiration for this approach to prayer is today's reading, where God uses the analogy of clothes gripping the body to express his close relationship with people.
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How aware are we of God's closeness to us? "We need not cry very loud; he is closer than we think." Brother Lawrence
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It would be rather awkward and embarrassing to talk about undergarments in a sacred and holy context of the homily. Even the mention of the word "underwear" will irritate some sensitivities. Yet the 1st reading was so graphic in description about the loincloth and its decay. But the purpose of graphic language is to irritate and cause discomfort to us. Because when we see decay, we get this disgusted feeling.
When God sees our spiritual decay caused by sin, He too gets disgusted. And He will employ all means to wake us up to our decay and destruction, even using an embarrassing and awkward item like a loincloth.
Whenever we see something that is rotting and decaying, we turn away in disgust. Yet it is strange that whenever we sin, we turn away from God and we foolishly swirl in rot and decay. Yet the Lord reaches out to us sinners and binds Himself to us just as man wraps a loincloth closely around his waist.
God wants to wake us up from our foolishness and stupidity so that we will cling to Him as a loincloth clings to the waist of a man. Yet along with the mercy and forgiveness of God, there is also a stern warning. As the Lord says: If you do not stand by Me, you will not stand at all (Isa 7:9)
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