I've been reading various responses to Pope Francis' call for a day of prayer and fasting on September 7th and two things have caught my attention: many people fear that prayer, while good, is an insufficient response; and many people are thinking about this call to prayer as if it were a personal and individual call, rather than a call to communal action. Let me reflect on both of these points, starting with the second one.
Pope Francis, immediately upon proclaiming a day of fast and prayer, announced he would be leading a public liturgy in Saint Peter's square. The natural outcome of this call in his mind, it would seem, is that Christians would gather to pray together. This is a very basic and very sound theological position, one that goes back to the New Testament. For Christians, prayer leads to liturgy, and liturgy is the primary action by which Christians ARE Church. When Christians gather to pray, they are enacting the Reign of God already at work in their hearts and in their midst. In the liturgy (most true in the Eucharist, but in any liturgy), the Body of Christ is in right relationship with God as it offers praise and thanksgiving; the members of the Body are in right relationship with each other as they turn to God together in love as sisters and brothers. And they are in right relationship with creation as they give voice to the desire of all creatures for God's shalom to visit us. Right relationship with God, with neighbour and with creation: this is the biblical definition of justice.
So in the liturgy, through the ritualized action we perform together, we bring to outward expression the justice that God has already given us, and we exercise ourselves in such a way that we are transformed just a little bit more by God's grace. We are empowered to move out into the world and act justly (more on this in a moment). And because liturgy is the common action of God's people gathered together, it is also the basic act of Christian witness in the world. When we gather, PEOPLE SEE US and we bear witness to the fact that right relationship with God and neighbour is possible by God's grace. This is why public gatherings this Saturday are so important – it isn't just about offering some prayers together, it is about bearing the basic and fundamental witness to God's Reign that is our right and responsibility as Church.
Now, about prayer being enough or not.
As I wrote a moment ago, Christian liturgy is never just about offering the prayers and then moving on: in liturgy, we are transformed by God's grace and EMPOWERED to act for justice in the world. It is no accident that the Eucharist ends with the "Ite, missa est!" (GO, you are sent!) Every public gathering of Christians for prayer ends with mission. Liturgy opens us up to grace, grace transforms and empowers us to act, and we go forth to act in the world. If, after this Saturday, we go home and do nothing more, we will not be collaborating with the grace of justice that God will have poured forth for us in our common worship. Saturday's prayers for peace are the BEGINNING, not the end of our action to help bring about God's Reign. This is ecclesiology and liturgy 101, the basic understanding which the NT has of our common worship.
So on September 7th let us gather in large numbers, that all people may see Christ's Body calling out for and enacting justice; and let us go forth from Saturday to act that justice out in the world!