“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Matthew 6:6.
There is a certain repetition when it comes to the weekday Gospels. Yes, we have a three-year cycle, but the daily Gospels follow a more frequent cycle, sometimes repeating the same Gospel multiple times in the same calendar year, even on the same day of the week.
Today’s Gospel is one such. I have written on it many times. One might look at the repetition and get bored or frustrated with it. To a degree, the individuals who write these Gospel reflections may even encounter the same Gospel they have previously written on and find a bit of frustration. That’s fair. It can be difficult to write on the same thing multiple times. But there is a preciousness that comes with repetition. A preciousness that is found in God’s unrelenting call to us through the Scriptures. A call to constancy with Him, a constancy in interior intimacy with the Lover of our Soul.
Today’s Gospel, and indeed the repetition of it in the Lectionary, is a call to return to our interior room. Not a specific room in our house, but the room of our Interior Castle, our soul. It is in the depths of our souls that we encounter the living God. We are not meant to only reflect on this inner room one day a year or on a three-year cycle. This is a sacred space we are meant to enter daily. The Lord is patiently waiting at the door to your inner room, knocking softly, anticipating union with the Beloved. The issue that so many of us face is that we are so preoccupied with what is happening on the outside that we miss that knocking. And then, when we have quieted the external noise, we enter into conversation with the Ego. We talk to ourselves through that inner monologue we all have. That is the default.
Today is a reminder that we need to put aside the default. Put aside the inner monologue and open the door to your soul and allow the Bridegroom to enter. Set a place for Him at the dinner table. Enter into intimate conversation with Him.
On the subject of repetition, for those who pray the Liturgy of the Hours, probably the most repetitious day is Sunday, Week I. The Church has us pray this set of Psalms every four weeks on the usual rotation, but also on every Solemnity and other high feast days, as well as usually throughout an Octave, etc. Very repetitious. Again, there is a constancy there that we must rest in. The first Psalm recited on Sunday, Week I, is Psalm 63:
“Oh God, you are my God, for you I long; for you my soul is thirsting. My body pines for you like a dry, weary land without water. So I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory.” Psalm 69:1-2
The common prayer of the Church reminds us of this necessary constancy. We are so often returned to the idea that our whole person, body and soul ought to pine for God. We are to thirst as if we are dying to be united to Him.
We must return daily to this interior room, thirsting for the living God, the Lover of our Soul. If we constantly come back to God in our thirst, it will be satisfied as Our Lord tells us in John:
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” John 7:37–38.
For more from Dr. McGovern, visit his Substack at A Thomist, Dedicated to the Theological tradition of St. Thomas Aquinas. Exploring Thomas’ Spiritual Theology and topics in Christology and Mariology.