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MAIN OBSTACLES TO
PERSONAL COMMUNICATION WITH GOD: Why do we have difficulties
in communicating with God?
There are some
obstacles in prayer we have to keep in mind in order to arrive at
a good pedagogy and to know how to foster prayer life in ourselves
and in our young people. The main obstacles are:
1) Not giving time to communication with God,
2) False images of God,
3) Isolating ourselves from real life,
4) Denial of our deep feelings,
5) Giving in to our feelings and emotions,
6) Not questioning our ideas and criteria,
7) Not questioning our friendships.
1) Not giving time
to communication with GOD. We gladly give time to those we
respect and love. We can measure our respect and love for God by
the amount of time we put aside for Him. If we want to be Christ's
disciples and be guided and transformed by His Spirit we have to
give time to prayer. This is not because we might think that we
can only encounter God during moments of solitude and silence. As
apostles we hope to listen and encounter Him in all things and at
all times. But in order to obtain the grace of "contemplation in
action" we have to put aside, regularly, long times of prayer.
2) False images of
GOD. It is not rare among our young friends to think of God as
an incorruptible law enforcement officer, an intransigent legal
expert. In that case, aware of our wrongdoing we cannot but feel
afraid of Him, when actually God is on our side. He is "Emmanuel"
and wants the best for us because He loves us. We might forget
that our sins hurt Him only because they hurt us whom He loves.
We can also think of
God as a God who enjoys testing and making us suffer. Some say:
"God makes suffer those whom He loves". They think that if we
offer ourselves to Him we run the risk of bearing special crosses
and hardships. We forget that God is the source of joy, love and
peace. That His callings appear in our own hearts as deep desires.
That when we deny ourselves and surrender to Him it is because we
have discovered a higher love, a greater treasure.
There are other false
ideas and prejudices against God like feeling unworthy of His
love, doubting our vocation...
3) Isolating
ourselves from loving people (and real life). It is easy to
become afraid to love, afraid to be hurt, avoiding exposure to
human joy and suffering, deaf to deep experiences of need and
injustice beyond our control and power, afraid of deep emotional
involvements, of intimacy, trust and love. We do not want to be
poor! We refuse to become vulnerable! We try very carefully to
avoid all emotional dangers, and the threat of rejection, building
around us a comfortable and safe life, without risks or
weaknesses, a life to our own size, that fits us, that we can
control, in which we depend on none.
If we try very hard we
might succeed for a period of time and enjoy a comfortable and
safe lifestyle but... we pay a high price for this commodity:
inner emptiness and the silence and absence of God! God is love
and wants us to love the others as He loves us. God communicates
with us through the experiences of life. When we isolate ourselves
from the real world around us, God has nothing to tell us. And if
God does not speak to us how can we listen to Him?
4) Denial of our
deep feelings. It is easy to fall into the trap of avoiding
our unacceptable and unbecoming feelings, denying them. There is a
dark hidden side in our highest and most beautiful feelings, needs
and desires which we might ignore completely. Or if we are aware
of its presence we consider it too dangerous or unbecoming for us
to face. Then we deny this dark side. We may try to ignore the
fact that we are angry at our best friend, that we are
disappointed with our children, that we do not feel any love
towards our spouse, that we have feelings of rejection towards
them, that we feel drives of lust in some of our dearest
relationships, that we also wish to seduce a close friend, that we
are deeply afraid, or hurt, that we have an inferiority complex or
a desire to control and lead.
If we deny our deep
feelings we certainly are going to be influenced and controlled by
those very feelings we find unacceptable. God who protects and
sanctifies us in truth cannot communicate with those who ignore or
deny the truth of their hearts.
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