NOTES for Th1 5:12-28

How can one rejoice by an effort of will? And can one always walk around with an “American smile”? Is this what the Apostle Paul is speaking about? Hardly. This strange joy, which is essentially given as a commandment, is apparently also connected with the following “commandment”: “Pray without ceasing.” There are, of course, traditions of constant verbal prayer, such as the Jesus Prayer in the Eastern Church. But in the Apostle Paul's time there were no such established traditions, which means that he has something else in mind. What? Probably a governing focus: the principal thing in our life at this moment, at every moment. And this principal thing is our relationship with God, a living relationship with a living Person. To remember Him every instant is unceasing prayer, and such a relationship cannot fail to be a source of joy.

"Give thanks in everything..." We know very well that thanksgiving is one of the most important, "supporting" pillars of our faith. But knowing this, we are often tormented by the fact that our thanksgiving feels strained and insincere; it is clear that we simply do not want to grieve the Lord. And sometimes there may be no thanksgiving left at all, only cries of emotional or physical pain, and that happens too. What happens to our faith at such a time? How can you explain to a father who has lost his beloved nineteen-year-old daughter, lost her not to illness but suddenly, simply because a car struck her to death, how can you tell him that he must give thanks for this, that he must believe... There is such cold churchliness, which simply places a person before a choice he is incapable of making. It exists. But there is another theology as well. Here is an unexpected thought from Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh: "In order to give thanks now for sufferings, in order to give thanks now for the sorrow of the earth, one must already see it glorified, one must already discern the Lord's victory; otherwise our thanksgiving is blasphemous, and we do not give thanks, we are powerless to give thanks, because we do not live by the Kingdom for which we pray." (Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, "After the New Year's Prayer Service," December 31, 1967.) Let us look carefully at the words "otherwise our thanksgiving is blasphemous." Let us think through all their seriousness and understand that it is better not to give thanks than to give thanks blasphemously. And what we need to seek is not the fruits of faith, but faith itself. One can go everywhere looking for where to get apples, or one can plant an apple tree oneself, cultivate it, water it, fertilize it, wait several years, and then it will bear fruit.

The apostle Paul’s words are quoted quite often and sound very comforting and seemingly simple, although anyone who has tried to fulfill even one of these commandments is unlikely to agree that it is easy. Indeed, in our world it is not easy to “rejoice always” and “give thanks in everything,” especially when those close to us fall ill and die, and when we see the lawlessness and injustice committed in the world. Even praying for half an hour a day is not so simple, let alone praying without ceasing.

The apostle’s contemporaries were probably no different from us, and their lives were no easier. Yet this is what today’s Bible readings tell us. The Lord came into a world full of darkness and brought light into it. Although we most often cannot find this light within ourselves, we are called to bear witness to it with joy and thanksgiving. Then, perhaps, relying not on our own strength but on God’s help, we will succeed in becoming, in the words of Saint Francis, an instrument of His peace.

Describing the spiritual life of a Christian as, in the apostle's view, it should be, Paul places prayer at its center: continuous prayer, and necessarily with thanksgiving. The whole life of a Christian is built around such prayer. It would seem impossible to pray continuously: there are other things in life that have to be done, so one will in one way or another have to be distracted from prayer. But it only appears so to someone for whom prayer is merely certain words that have to be said to God.

Meanwhile, words are only the outward form of prayer. In some cases one can do without them altogether. In all spiritual traditions, at least those that go back to Abraham, there exists the practice of prayer without words, silent prayer, or prayer in which short prayer formulas are used. They can easily be repeated to oneself in a whisper or even mentally anywhere, under practically any circumstances. It is possible that Paul has something similar in mind. Among believing Jews in his day such prayer was known and popular. The prayer formula usually used was either the prayer "Shema" ("Hear, O Israel...") or simply the invocation of the sacred name, the name of Yahweh, which could not be pronounced aloud but which no one forbade invoking mentally. In church practice, especially in the East, inner prayer later became widespread and is usually called the Jesus Prayer, because in it, and there are several versions of such a prayer, the name of Jesus is present, whom the one praying invokes.

But whatever the prayer formula may be, it still remains only a means to direct the will of the one praying toward the One whom he wants to address, toward God or toward Christ. The goal remains precisely the union of the human will with the will of God or with the will of Jesus. Ideally there should be no gap left between the two wills; they should form a single whole, while each remains itself, as it was with Jesus Himself and His heavenly Father. Such unity of a person with God makes possible everything else that Paul lists in his letter: constant joy, attention to every movement of God's breath, listening to prophetic revelations. But the most important thing is that it creates that space of relationship between God and the person outside of which normal spiritual life is impossible at all. That is why the apostle places prayer at the center of Christians' spiritual life: it makes possible everything else in it, as Paul reminds the Thessalonian Christians.