Communing Is More than Just the Eucharist

There is something fascinating to me about the moments that Jesus prays. It really challenges me to reevaluate what I think prayer is. What runs through my head is this simple question: Jesus is God...what is he praying about?

We see one of these passages in Matthew 14. At the first of this chapter Jesus finds out that Herod has killed John the Baptist. Jesus's reaction is to go out to the desert places to pray, but as often happens, the multitudes follow him. He doesn't send them away so he can pray, but rather, he has compassion on them he sees their needs, that they have been following him for three days with no food, and he feeds all 5,000 of them. Then, he sends away the disciples, he sends away the multitude, and finally, he prays. So, what or how does God pray to God?

A quote about prayer on this year's St. Tikhon Monastery wall calendar seems to help explain this a little. Two or three months back, it had a quote from St. John Climacus: "prayer is converse and union with God." That is, prayer is converse, or conversation, or interaction with God. And prayer is, also, union or communion with God. If we understand prayer this way, it is a little easier to understand what Christ is doing when he prays; he is communing with God.

Now if somewhere were to ask most of us, "What is communion?", most of us would point to the Eucharist, and that would be right. But that is not the only way we commune with God. If we open up the meaning of "prayer" to include all communion with God, we see more out of the passage in Matthew 14.

What about the feeding of the 5,000? They are communing with God...quite literally, since God in the flesh is there with them. And we commune with God in many other ways. Christ said that when you give food to others, you give it to Christ himself. And, by extension, when you spend time in the kitchen preparing a meal for your family, in service and love, that is communion with God. "When you visited me in prison, you did it unto me." When you go to the nursing home to sing a favorite hymn, or take this month's magazine subscription, or bring some hard candy, you commune with God, for Christ is there. Every action, every word, every thought can be directed and oriented toward God, and that is communion, too.

Back in Matthew 14, after Jesus prays, he walks on the water to catch back up with the disciples. In fear that Jesus is a ghost, they cry out in prayer. Now, this form of prayer is much more similar to what we may usually think of as prayer: we have a trial, a struggle, a confusion...and we turn to God. That, too, is communion. And what is Christ's response? Don't worry, it is me, I am here. That is communion. I am so frustrated with my boss, but I take a moment to turn inward, where God is, and I pray: Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. My wife or my children want to do things a different way than I want to, and before I react, I orient myself toward God, and out of love, I do their will and not mine. That is communion.

In other words, communion is available to us in every challenge we face, in every word we speak, in a reaction, in every moment. It is easy to let our bad definition of prayer limit our life in Christ. Maybe, instead, we should think of prayer as communion? Then, when we hear Saint Paul say, pray without ceasing, we could think instead remind ourselves: "commune without ceasing". And then, we would be a little bit closer to what Saint Paul actually meant. So, commune without ceasing.