When God sees today all the wickedness in the land, He is still looking for someone to stand in the breach. Of course, it is God’s own Son who has sacrificed Himself for our sins and who “always lives to intercede” for us (Hebrews 7:25). But Christ is the Head; where is his Body? Where are those who must suffer what still has to be suffered for the sake of his Body, the Church? (see Colossians 1:24). If Christ is the only intercessor, why did St Paul keep asking his people to pray for him? Why do we all ask others to pray for us? If no one asks, no one receives. If no one is pleading for mercy and blessing, the floodgates of grace will not open.
By the nature of their vocation, monks are called to “stand in the breach” for God’s people and pray for his mercy. To be able to do this fervently and consistently, the monk must have an awareness of the suffering of the world, and to lift it up to the Lord along with his own share in it, in union with the Crucified One. Adrienne von Speyr, in her commentary on the Letter to the Colossians, writes:
“If a Christian is permitted by faith to have a share of the fullness of the Lord, then for him that does not mean flight from the world and from human experience, or being closed off from everything that goes on in the world, or insensitivity toward its sinful condition; on the contrary, it means being more heavily burdened…because the disparity between God’s intention and man’s alienation is more tangible to him… When a Christian walks the way of the evangelical counsels in order to belong more exclusively to the Son, he too must always do so with a view to redemption, face to face with the sinfulness of the world, with the firm purpose of bearing consciously what the Son so sorely suffered under on earth… The person consecrated to God must suffer more deeply from the sins of the world, the more he has really commended himself to God… there is no question that it corresponds to his increasing participation in the fullness of Christ’s life, which lives in him and is made actual.”
To intercede for others, then, means to have a share in the ministry of Christ, in his love for mankind, his awareness of the sin and suffering of the world, and in his offering of it all to the Father. It is not a task that we perform and then forget about; it is an integral part of our way of life, of who we are in Christ, reaching the depths of heart and soul. Therefore it “costs” something; it is not easy, nor is it a matter of indifference to us. It is a “spiritual sacrifice” which we trust is “acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1Peter 2:5). To intercede for others is part of what it means to take up our cross and follow Christ. We cannot literally take upon ourselves the sufferings of others, since Christ has already borne the sins and sufferings of mankind on the Cross—and since He is the only one able to do so. But we can stand before Him on behalf of those in need (since God has given this responsibility in a particular way to monks and nuns), sharing in some way “the suffering required of your brotherhood throughout the world” (1Peter 5:9). We lift up heart and voice, crying out, as we do in our liturgy: “O Lord, save your people and bless your inheritance!” (Psalm 27/28:9).
A beautiful counsel (which I’ve quoted before) has been given us by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, through the lips of the Elder Zosima in The Brothers Karamazov. It expresses the love which binds the members of the Body of Christ together, and how God blesses that selfless concern for another human being:
“Every day and whenever you can, repeat within yourself: ‘Lord, have mercy upon all who come before you today.’ For every hour and every moment thousands of people leave their life on this earth, and their souls come before the Lord—and so many of them part with the earth in isolation, unknown to anyone, in sadness and sorrow that no one will mourn for them, or even know whether they had lived or not. And so, perhaps from the other end of the earth, your prayer for his repose will rise up to the Lord, though you did not know him at all, nor he you. How moving it is for his soul, coming in fear before the Lord, to feel at that moment that someone is praying for him, too, that there is still a human being on earth who loves him. And God, too, will look upon you both with more mercy, for if even you so pitied him, how much more will he, who is infinitely more merciful and loving than you are. And God will forgive him for your sake.”
Such compassionate prayer for others need not be offered only for those who are about to stand before the judgment seat of God. The mystery of the Body of Christ is such that we are always connected spiritually with one another. Thus our love and our prayer can instantly travel around the world to bring God’s blessing to those whom we know and those whom we don’t, for in the Spirit of the Lord our hearts go out to all the people of God. We are called to love those whom He loves, and to put it into practice through active intercession. Seeing our love and concern for others, the Lord will bless those who pray and those for whom the prayer is offered. Won’t it be wonderful to discover in the full light of heaven how much we have been assisted and blessed through the prayers of others? And how much we have helped others through our prayers?
There is another passage, a pious legend (recounted by Dostoyevsky in the book quoted above), which expresses a complementary truth to the one expressed there. If we love others, that love will help bring them to God, but if we live only for ourselves, not only will others not benefit, but we ourselves will be lost:
“Once upon a time there was a woman, and she was as wicked as wicked could be, and she died… The devils took her and threw her into the lake of fire. And her guardian angel stood thinking: what good deed of hers can I remember to tell God? Then he remembered and said to God: ‘Once she pulled up an onion and gave it to a beggar woman.’ And God answered: ‘Now take that same onion, hold it out to her in the lake, let her take hold of it, and pull, and if you pull her out of the lake, she can go to paradise, but if the onion breaks, she can stay where she is.’ The angel ran to the woman and held out the onion to her: ‘Here, woman,’ he said, ‘take hold of it and I’ll pull.’ And he began pulling carefully, and had almost pulled her all the way out, when other sinners in the lake saw her being pulled out, and all began holding on to her so as to be pulled out with her. But the woman was wicked as wicked could be, and she began to kick them with her feet: ‘It’s me who’s getting pulled out, not you; it’s my onion, not yours.’ No sooner did she say it than the onion broke. And the woman fell back into the lake and is burning there to this day. And the angel wept and went away.”
What does this have to do with intercession, you ask? Some people think that monks are in monasteries merely to save their own souls, unconcerned with the needs and sufferings of others—that we are trying to get to heaven on the “onion” of our ascetical labors or devotion, caring little about so many in the world who are in desperate need of salvation. But the mystery of genuine intercession changes all that. If we love God and love our brothers and sisters enough to bring them daily (at least) before God in earnest supplication, trusting in his divine mercy, then many souls will travel joyfully with us from Earth to Heaven.
It is true that even the most fervent of prayers cannot force another’s freedom in their choice for or against God and the Gospel of salvation. But prayer does help clear obstacles out of the path, it does bind up the demons who try to lead people astray, it does please the Lord who said: ask and you shall receive. So we go on praying, not trying to measure results, nor to second-guess or manipulate the will of God. We simply approach the throne of grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16)—for your sake, and for the glory of Christ who told us to love God above all and our neighbors as ourselves.
Just thought you might want to know what we mean when we say that we pray for you.
Making All Things New 