As she is flipping through radio frequencies she hears the voice of a Chinese man on the other end of the line and his filled with hope, only to realize that it is a radio station she is picking up from Earth. In what seem to be her last moments of life, she begins a conversation with this man, who obviously cannot hear her. She asks him to say a prayer for her and admits that she would pray herself, but unfortunately, she doesn’t know how. “No one ever taught me,” she says.
A Cry for Help
This was one of the most powerfully insightful lines in the film for me. It is a cry for help. And sadly, it is the truth for scores of us who call ourselves Catholics. We talk a lot about God. We study theology and dissect doctrine. We expound on metaphysical mysteries and complex christology. Yet we hardly, if ever, teach anybody how to pray.
I’ve realized this first hand in the trenches as a catechist. Most of the parents who I encounter in my work have only learned their prayers – you know, the Our Father and the Hail Mary – but prayers are completely different than prayer.
If our religion is to be anything more than a topic of study. If our faith is to be life changing. If we are to call ourselves Christians, followers of Christ, than shouldn’t we learn to maintain a relationship with Him? Christianity, above all else, is a relationship with Jesus Christ and His people.
The Sheep Need a Shepherd
How can we teach people about Jesus, and never introduce them to Him? How can we teach people their prayers, and never show them how to pray? As Christians we are followers of Christ, leading others into relationship with Him. The only way to do that is to show them how to walk with Him, how to talk with Him. Never should a Catholic ever be faced with death and have to ask someone else for prayer since they don’t know how to pray themselves.
If this reality is true enough that the surrounding culture agrees enough with it to put it on the big screen, then we should take this seriously. We should take it personally.
“At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.”
~ Matthew 9:36-37
People are hungry for God, yet they don’t know how to talk to Him. We need Christians who will stand up lead them into the intimacy with God that they so long for.
Our sole purpose in our brief, Earthly existence is to know God, intimately, to fall in love with our Creator, to begin an eternal love affair with the God who is love. How are we to expect anyone to ever fulfill their life’s purpose, until we begin to teach them how to pray?