The Jesus Prayer

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  Over the years that I have been a priest, I have come to love and appreciate the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom that Eastern Catholics and Eastern Orthodox use for most of their Divine Liturgies (what we call the Mass).  It’s interesting that, based on my research, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, and our own Roman Canon likely find their roots sometime in the fourth century or so.  From time to time I am able to attend in choir an Orthodox Divine Liturgy and have developed friendships with the local Orthodox priests here in Genesee County.  We know we don’t agree on everything, but we celebrate our millennium of shared faith and help each other understand the millennium that we’ve been separated.
    One of the hallmark prayers in the Orthodox prayer tradition is from our Gospel today.  They call it the Jesus Prayer, and it is simply the words, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.”  This is the prayer that they encourage people to pray throughout the day, to make it part of their very life.  I have even heard some priests connect it to breathing, so that on the breath in the person says, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,” and on the breath out the person says, “have mercy on me a sinner.”  The idea is that, if practiced enough, especially while simply breathing, it becomes a part of each person’s day, and helps us to do what St. Paul admonished: “pray without ceasing.”  
    The first part of the prayer is connected to the epistle.  St. Paul told us today that no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.  This beautiful prayer includes all three Divine Persons: the Lord, who is Son of God the Father, which proclamation is only possible by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Now, obviously, any person can say the words, “Jesus is Lord,” but to truly mean it; to truly recognize that Christ is God and that His way of life is normative for me because He is my Creator; that kind of faith and obedience can only happen as a gift from the Holy Spirit.  We cannot have that surrender of our lives without God giving us the grace to do it first.  And then, while we do need to cooperate, it is only God’s grace which allows us to bring that act of faith that He inspired to competition.  This is what we mean when we say that our life in Christ is all grace.  

    The second part of the prayer, “have mercy on me a sinner,” is the words of the tax collector in today’s Gospel.  The man knew who he was.  As a tax collector, not only was it his job to collect money for the Roman government, who oppressed the Jews and who advocated the worship of false gods, but, in order to make a decent living, he had to exact more money from his own people than what Rome really wanted.  Tax collectors, the word publican is also used, were notoriously hated for their exaction of money from their own people.  The very call of St. Matthew by the Savior probably scandalized many people at first, and maybe even some of the apostles took time before they warmed up to him.  
    In any case, this tax collector was reaching out to God for mercy.  We don’t know if he left his job after this prayer.  We don’t know if he changed his life.  But we do know that, at this moment, he knew he needed the mercy of God, and so he cried out to it from the back row.  And our Lord said that his prayer was answered.
    When it comes to receiving God’s mercy, are we willing to humbly come before God and acknowledge that we are sinners?  Each of us has a need for forgiveness from God.  Even the saints, who rose to the heights of perfection during their lives, knew that they needed God’s mercy.  Do we take that second step (the first being God’s nudge in our hearts to even ask for mercy) and actually make that prayer our own?  
    We might wonder what good it would do because we don’t know how we can move away from that sin.  And certainly, to receive God’s forgiveness, we do have to have a firm purpose of amendment to not sin in that way again.  But just because we think we might sin again doesn’t mean that we can’t want not to give into that sin in the future.  When I was a young boy I didn’t want to antagonize my sisters in the future as I went to confession, but it was probably going to happen again.  Sometimes all we can muster up is that act of hope that, if God gives me enough grace, I might be able to never fall into that sin again, and that’s what I want.  But that little opening to the grace of God can be all that’s needed to truly start making progress in rooting sin out of our lives.
    I am also aware that I may be unaware of certain sins in my life.  That’s why, when I go to confession, I include the words, “and for any other sins that I cannot recall, or any sins from my past.”  And each Mass after I purify the vessels, I add the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner.”  The Eucharist cleanses us of venial sins.  And this prayer, the prayer of the tax collector, can also, if said honestly and devoutly, can cleanse us of venial sins, because when we say that prayer in earnest, God will justify us as He justified the tax collector.  
    I pray that you will make that prayer your own as well.  Maybe you will say it once a day.  Maybe you will work on incorporating it into each moment so that, as you breathe in and out, it flows naturally out of you like a breath.  But this prayer has value and can change our lives if we are open to the mercy God wants to give to us when we call upon Him: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.