[25]. Prayer
It is a most marvelous thing that even prayer has degenerated into a matter of gain. For since those were right who said that prayer is the uplifting of the heart to God, what, pray, more shameless could have been thought of than the prostituting of this union of the heart with God? Hence we eannot help seeing that the prayers we sold for a price were hypocrisy, and not a ὁμιλία [communion] of the heart with God. It is, therefore, necessary for me to speak of prayer also, since the devotion of the heart has dared to sell itself as a work of merit. Prayer has been rightly defined by Augustine and others as the uplifting of the heart to God. Not that they originated the idea, but they tried to express in clearer words what everyone who was pious felt to be the case. I shall speak, first, therefore, of adoration, that thus it may become clear whence this definition of prayer arose. Adoration is in Hebrew the same as service, for “schahah” [mmy] is a service of genuflexion or bowing down. So also the Latins sometimes take adoration in the sense of looking up to and serving. It is about this kind of adoration that the Hebrews are speaking in Exod. 20:5. When, therefore, we say, “Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them,” namely idols, it would be better to say, “Thou shalt not serve them nor be a slave to them”; for thus we could have translated the Hebrew literally, so that we should run no risk of understanding by adoration here the devotion of the heart. Adoration is, besides, the devoting of the heart to God, that is, to the Lord who can do all things and to the Father who will. This adoration, this devotion of the heart, was bound to the elements of this world by the Israelites according to the flesh. For they ordered that it be done at Jerusalem, as the woman of Samaria complained to Christ, John 4: 20. This had arisen in this way: The Lord had commanded that three times a year all the children of Israel should assemble at the temple, or tabernacle, that was at Jerusalem [Exod. 23: 14; Deut. 16: 16].
[Augustine Appendicis sermo 73 de verbo Matth., 17 [: 21]: Quid est]
[(autem oratio, nisi adscensio animae de terrestribus ad caelestia, inquisitio]
[supernorum, invisibilium desiderium?]
This arrangement brought very much gain to the priests. Therefore they began to bind men’s consciences to the place by their traditions, so that they should come oftener to Jerusalem; - for it was not lawful, according to their interpretation, to appear empty-handed before God [Deut. 16: 17]. And yet the expression, “Thou shalt not appear before the Lord thy God empty,” does not according to the real meaning of the Hebrew (to bring out this point also in passing) have this sense, but means, “Thou shalt not appear in vain.” The sense is as if He were spurring on sloth and saying: “Be not reluctant to come to me, for ye shall not come in vain.” So in Exod. 23: 15 and 34:20, although (as in Deut. 16:16, according to our version) the words seem to have the meaning, “Thou shalt not appear before the Lord thy God empty-handed,” yet if you consult the Hebrew version they have exactly the meaning that I have given. For it would have smacked of the height of greed not to be allowed to appear without a gift. I am afraid that this native meaning had always been corrupted by the priests of the Jews. The priests, then, bound adoration, in the sense of devotion of the heart, to Jerusalem; and this is what our priests also, or rather those of Antichrist, have hitherto done, inviting us to pray in the temples, where we see and are seen, in order that they may conveniently inculcate the doctrine, “Thou shalt not appear before the Lord thy God empty,” though Christ bids us [cf. Mt. 6: 6] go into our inner chamber, that the heart may freely lay its troubles before God. Yet adoration, devotion of the heart, is free, and cannot be confined to any one place. Hence not even by these words of Christ, “Go into thy inner chamber,” are we to be so bound as not to be allowed to pray anywhere but in our inner chamber. For Paul desires “that men pray in every place, provided they lift up holy hands” to God, I Tim. 2:8. It is apparent, therefore, that it is no small part of prayer to lift up holy hands, which is nothing else than to be zealous in guilelessness. Christ, therefore, John 4: 23, took adoration (to come to the point) for the careful guarding of faith and piety towards God, when He said: “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in
[Veri adoratores adorabunt.]
spirit and truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” See how sharp and clear is this exposition of worship or prayer! He says God is a spirit; hence those who are to worship Him cannot do it in any better way, nor ought they to do it in any other way, than by devoting the heart to Him; not by an oath such as the monks once demanded, but by constantly increasing love, so that nothing deceitful remains in it and nothing can come out of it but what is most true and most like unto God. This idea Cato the Elder, or rather God through his mouth, taught the children of the Quirites, saying, “If God is spirit, as the seers tell us, He is to be worshipped especially by purity of heart.” They, therefore, who have so given and devoted their hearts to God as to cleave to Him alone and to recognize Him as the one God, certainly worship Him in spirit. And when they have become thus united with Him, it follows that they speak the truth with their neighbor, which is to worship in truth; unless you prefer to understand by “worship in truth” cleaving so truly and faithfully to God that besides Him you recognize no God, that is, no helper and no spouse, so to speak. Prayer, therefore, is the conversation which as a result of faith you have with God as with a father and a most safe and sure helper. Prayer, then, is the uplifting of the heart, not of the breath or voice, to God. We pray, therefore, when the heart draws near to God, when it speaks with Him, when in sincere faith it seeks help of Him alone. Further, who could ever impute it to you as a good work that you often come to Him to ask now for money, now for clothing or food or counsel or aid? Since, then, our praying to God is nothing else than a begging of aid in some matter, why do we impute it to ourselves as a work of merit, seeing that adoration, that is, the confident clinging of the heart, is nothing but the clinging of your own heart? How can you lend that to another? You can, indeed, from faith in God pray for another, but you cannot impart a portion of your faith to anyone; for faith belongs to him only who trusts, and is not a work of merit, though Christ called it a work in a sort of figurative sense, but He did that for the sake of those who still clave to works. And He called it a work in
such a way as to mean to say by contrast: “Ye shall be blest by faith, without works” [ef. Rom. 3:28]. Adoration, then, or prayer, is nothing else than a sure confidence in the mercy of God. The consequence of this is that you come to it in every situation and appeal to it. If, therefore, you have recourse to it on account of your neighbor, it must be from love either of your neighbor or of his goods. If the first, your prayer will be answered, for love of your neighbor is based on love of God. But if your prayer is inspired by eagerness to possess, you make God out impious, as if He were not accessible to all but were a sort of respecter of persons [cf. Deut. 10: 17]. For if He heard your prayer but scorned your neighbor’s, would He not be a respecter of persons? Furthermore, you make Him an accomplice of your greed; for if He gave to another only after that other paid you, would that not be collusion? We must admit, therefore, that these mercenary prayers are an insult to God, not an honoring of Him; for what sort of honoring is it to beseech, to importune, to complain? If we are pious, the misfortune of our neighbor hurts us, so that we run to God anxiously in his behalf; if, on the contrary, we have not this love towards our neighbor, we shall pray in vain, even if we do get a thousand bushels of gold for our praying. The Truth knoweth not the prayer that is made for the sake of gain. Now, we pray when we cling to God in spirit, and truly cling, so that when any evil assails us we run to Him alone, and pray that He will alleviate our affliction, but only according to the petition, “Thy will be done” [Mt. 6: 10]. Thus all hired praying, psalms, chants, masses, vigils, fall to the ground, for what we do without love profiteth nothing, I Cor. 13:3. Now, when a price is received, the deed has proceeded from greed, not from love. Hence, however they snarl: “We take pay only sufficient for our maintenance, that we may pray while others on account of their labors have not time, and we pray from love,” I say: “Go ye also, therefore, sometime and till the fields, and let those who have hitherto labored hard while ye were idle refresh themselves in your snug nests. Let us rest and labor in turn, for this is what love demands. But now, since you do not deign even to look at a church or a psalm unless because your belly makes you, and yet at the same
time you feign love, it is evident that you are a great hypocrite. For love sympathizes, runs to aid, lifts up; but you do none of these things, but things of no avail. If you wish to pray and sing psalms, pray and sing psalms, but without expecting pay; for the expectation of pay is inconsistent with Christian love. We cannot serve God and Mammon, ὁ. e., riches” [cf. Mt. 6: 24].
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