This sermon is an abbreviation of the first chapter of "The Way to Converse Always and Familiarly with God" by St. Alphonsus Liguori. The chapter is entitled: "God Wishes Us to Speak to Him."
Jesus "was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days"
Next year on the first Sunday of Lent I’ll say a word about the three temptations Christ confronts in the desert, but this year for Lent I want to focus on prayer. Christ our Lord was led into the desert where He spent forty days. In the forty days of Lent, we have an opportunity to find a deserted place—a quiet church, a corner of the house where no one will bother us—and "pray to our Father in secret."
The first thing it is necessary to realize about prayer is how much God wants us to speak to Him! Sometimes people make the mistake of thinking that speaking to God with confidence, like one would speak to a friend, is irreverent—They ask with a misplaced humility: Who am I to talk to God? Why would God want to listen to me? Holy Job in the Old Testament was awestruck when he thought about the fact that God shows us his love, and wants us to speak to Him: "What is man,” Job exclaims, "that You should make so much of him, or why do You set your Heart upon him?"
The friends of God in the Bible and all the saints throughout history teach us that, yes, you ought to revere God in humility—especially when you remember your unthankfulness, and the outrages you’ve been guilty of—yet this should not stop you from treating God with the most tender love, and great confidence.
God is Infinite Majesty; but at the same time he is Infinite Goodness, Infinite Love.
Even though God is so much greater than you, He delights that you should talk to him with that same confidence, that freedom and tenderness, which children use towards their mothers.
God loves you as much as if He had no love for anyone except you only. Christ said to his Apostles that He would shed his Blood "for you and for many," but even if He had known that you would have been the only person in all of history to accept his love—He still would have been born and suffered and died and conquered death, all just to share his love with you alone!
St. Alphonsus Liguori, a bishop and Doctor of the Church, encourages us to think about God’s love for us, and to tell God how we feel when we think about his love for us:
"Say to Him often: O my Lord! Why do You love me? what good do You see in me? Have You forgotten the pains I have caused You? But since You have treated me so lovingly—and instead of casting me into Hell, have granted me so many favors—whom can I desire to love from this day forward ... but You, my God, my all?"
St. Alphonsus continues:
"In order to strengthen your confidence in God, frequently call to mind his loving treatment of you, and the gracious ways he has saved you from the disorders of your life, and your attachments to this world, in order to draw you to his holy love." And be afraid of this one thing: "fear … to have too little confidence in God! God is displeased with a want of trust on the part of souls that heartily love Him. If, then, you desire to please his loving heart: talk with Him, from now on, with the greatest confidence and tenderness you can possibly have."
St. Paul, thinking about God’s love, wonders how we could ever think that God would ever refuse us anything good. Paul says in his letter to the Romans: God "did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all: will he not also give us all things with Him?"
Don’t only pray to God during Mass, or only just before going to bed, or only before meals, or only before starting the day. Get used to speaking with God often, alone, familiarly, with confidence and love, as you would to the dearest friend you have, who loves you best.
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