Year of Prayer with Benedict XVI: Why are we moved to pray?

In the first of a series of articles on catecheses by the German pope, we learn how human beings are naturally inclined to prayer.

In his general audience of May 11, 2011, Benedict XVI showed that human beings are by nature called to prayer. In modern times, this anthropological evidence has been contested by the secularism of our societies where materialistic thought has made the false amalgamation between religion and obscurantism in order to discredit the impulse of faith of men towards God. However, Benedict XVI notes that the tragedies of the 20th century have belittled the claims of triumphant reason to want to build a world without God.

Lifting the veil on the enigma of our existence

According to the theologian pope, all great civilizations were religious. Now, religion implies an outburst of prayer directed towards divinity. Human beings find themselves faced with the universe and their own existence as if faced with an enigma to be deciphered. This is why we turn to the One whose transcendence is capable of enlightening us.

But it is not only the external world that is enigmatic for us: we ourselves also represent a mystery in our own eyes. Who will reveal our destiny to us, our deep vocation and the meaning of our presence on earth?

Through prayer, we hope to obtain clarification by addressing the Being who is more consistent than ourselves. Deep down, we sense that we will not be able to answer these existential and metaphysical questions alone. Wittgenstein, an Austrian philosopher of the 20th century, said that “to pray means to feel that the meaning of the world is outside the world.”

Furthermore, when we become more self-aware like the prodigal son in the parable of the merciful father in the Gospel of Saint Luke (Lk 15:17), we sense that we are fragile and dependent. We did not create ourselves. Also, in our neediness and constitutive weakness we have the reflex to seek help from the divine, who is the All-Other, in order to overcome our finitude. And this request is called prayer.

Prayer, expression of the alliance between God and man

However, Benedict XVI notes that prayer is not always self-serving. By first calling man to Himself, God made him a creature in whom He inscribed the desire to turn towards his divine Source. St. Thomas Aquinas defined prayer as “the expression of man’s desire for God.” Human beings are attracted by the Being that we sense to be at the foundation of the world, but also beyond it. Prayer is an impulse towards infinity.

Finally, Pope Benedict underlines a crucial point: only God’s revelation of himself can fill this impulse humanity has to pray. By moving us to pray, God ensures that our prayer does not end up in a void.

And even if we forget our Creator, he constantly reminds us of himself, as the Bible tells us in many places. Prayer gives rise to a reciprocal movement: from man towards God and from God towards man.

Benedict XVI concludes by maintaining that prayer is the most complete expression of the alliance between God and his creature. It is also at the heart of what constitutes humans in their deepest being.