The Prayer

If you wired an eye to someone, yours will be taken away, a simple and very common law in children’s minds and, alas, even in a lot of adults.

The child thinks in this way, if he is given a kick, it’s right for him to return it, if a toy is stolen, he feels in the right to steal to counterbalance the bad at once.

So, the prayer is still dominated by fear of a dangerous divinity, by it is permeated by the hope of being able to ingratiate it.

God himself follows the same human evolution, transforming himself from being capricious to ethical, if he is treated with the proper ways.

The last true religious development, what should represent the transition from a childish humanity to a teenage humanity, which is on its way to the adult stage, is Christianity, the advent of Christ.

From this point of view, Christ completely overthrows all of mankind because it is still powerful and therefore capable of working miracles, but which allows itself to be killed without manifesting its strength.

The Doctrine of Christ focuses on unconditional love, it teaches us to abandon the law of the retribution, to stop reacting, to stop making a bread for cakes by virtue of a higher love.

He teaches us to stop looking for causes on the outside, in other people but to look inside each one of us, to stop judging others but to judge oneself.

Bu this teaching requires that the mankind take responsibility and move from the stage of the child, that needs its parents, to that of a self-sufficient adult.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth’. But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coats as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you” (Matthew 5:38-42).

Why does Christ teach all this?

It is out of all logic, what benefit could we ever gain from such behavior?

But there is one reason, and it is very important: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful”. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:36-38).

What does all this mean?

It means that what happens to us does not depend on external circumstances, but it is created by us, by what we are within ourselves.

If we are irascible, for example, we will continue to experience situations where such irascibility will continue to come out and to surround ourselves as a series of events throughout our existence.

In other words, our irascibility will attract further irascibility, this in order to be able to manifest itself, since it is what we choose to be.

If we are poor, but more than being poor, we believe that we are poor, we will only attract more poverty around us.

If we hate our neighbor, we will continue to live this hatred towards us because it is what we have chosen to live, vice versa if we live in love, love is what will be refunded to us, and in abundance.

This is the promise of Christ, who brings us closer to the divinity as his children and not as dancers in his hands.

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), this is the encouragement, becoming the image and likeness of the divinity, becoming co-creators of existence.

The life is manifested around us in the exact way in which we believe it is, the predominant thoughts in us will be those that will prevalently form what surrounds us, according to the ancient axiom “as above, so below”.

And how does prayer evolve when this point is reached?

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be give to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Luke 11:9-11).

This is therefore the true role of prayer, that of being connected with heaven and to be able to obtain, to be able to change one’s own lives, to be able to desire what one wants.

WE ASK

No one gets tired of being.

The aid is an act in accordance with nature.

Do not tire of receiving or sending it.

Marcus Aurelius

We people act rather strangely in the field of prayer, or simpler in asking.

We would like to live different lives, we have desires, dreams, hopes, objectives, goals or purposes, the desire to have more or better, but, despite all this, we do not ask, neither to God, nor to ourselves.

It seems that what concerns improving our existence makes us feel ashamed, ashamed of having more than others, ashamed of succeeding where others fail, ashamed of flaunting riches in the face of a world full of poverty.

On the one hand, we want to show to our neighbors that we can afford the latest version of smartphones, the latest generation of expensive TV or expensive vacations, that we often use various forms of financial support to obtain them; on the other hand, however, we feel uncomfortable as soon as we are in front of ourselves, instead of our neighbor or those who like us, display such affections, have the poor, the beggar, the wanderer on turn.

In front of our neighbor we are in competition not to make us be labelled as poor, in the depths of ourselves, but we feel guilty for having more than others.

We are always wearing these our blame and shame, although not always in the sunlight; but always as our companion of life who always tries to judge and degrade us, especially whenever we desire more for ourselves.

So it happens that we are just content; instead of wanting, for example, to earn millions of euros, we just have to get rid of the payouts that suffice to pay mortgage, eat, some fun and sparing some money; instead of aspiring to high peaks, we are just content to be just above sea level.

And, instead of looking at the summit of the mountain that we see in front of us as a spur to conquer it, to want to explore it, to see what treasure can hide us, we look down towards those who are at the foot of the mountain and who do not have the ability to climb.

On the one hand we believe we have a kind of compassion towards them, on the other hand, we actually have the insane fear of being like them, of rolling back down the mountain again and not being able to get back.

Do not be able to climb it again, because by now we are not as young as when we climbed it the first time, now we cannot any longer to make those sacrifices served to get to where we have arrived; we cannot any longer do it because full of people who aspire to climb and that we will therefore not have enough space to emerge, to pass further, or, even simpler, not able because we are already there without doing anything, to be born more fortunate than others.

The crisis that has been created in the industrialized Countries is the tangible and evident proof of this fear; the suicides of those, who have found themselves from having so much to have nothing, show all the fears that I mentioned, the failure to manage to see opportunities.

We live in a world where since childhood we are being taught the message of avoiding selfishness in favor of others; for example, to share our toy with someone even if we did not want, to avoid shouting and certain types of behavior in favor of a common style or respect, to see us denied something because we cannot have everything from life.

But who decided that you can't have everything from life?

Let's not say that sharing with one's neighbor is not right, it would be lacking, but that must be a spontaneous evolutionary step for the child.

The child must want to do so because he understands by himself that it is right and it must not be imposed on him.

But this must necessarily first come from one's own selfishness.

Egoism is not wrong, on the contrary, it is the springboard for launching into altruism, it is necessary for the formation of self-love, an indispensable element of every person.

Selfishness is healthy, only its surplus is perverse.

First of all we need selfishness for survival, we are unique human beings and we have the right to live like any other person and any other living human being; and who will never do this work to keep us alive?

At the beginning of our life, when we are little and vulnerable, they are our parents who take on this duty, they are also happy because it is beautiful to have care of another life, especially if it has been generated by us.