no longer quid pro quo - 1sr week tuesday

Today we continue our reflection on our first reading, from the book of Samuel.  Today we find Hannah in Shiloh where the ark of covenant was.  The ark was still in a tent, God was living, so to say, in a tent.  There was no temple yet. Jerusalem was not even under the rule of the Israelites yet.  Hannah was barren.  It was a curse.  She prayed to God with an intensity which Eli the priest mistook as rumblings of a drunkard.  Hannah was asking God to remember her.  Remembering is not just a mental exercise nga nadumduman ka.  But it was a call to act, a call to do something to mend the situation.  IT is more or less the same when in our dialect we say especially after Christmas baw wala mo gid ako nadumduman.  It means that you never greeted me, including, and I would say more importantly, you have not yet given me a gift.  So when God remembered Hannah it means God took notice of her situation and God is moved to action on her behalf.  We also use the same word when we pray to God in the Eucharist – remember Lord your Church, remember also our brothers and sisters, or be mindful O Lord.  It was also the prayer of the good thief crucified with Jesus in Calvary, Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom.

Remembering in the language of the bible is not just a wish or simply a thinking about someone, or a mental exercise, but it is to take notice of the situation and to be moved to act in behalf of the other in order to remedy that situation.  Wala mo lang ako ginlabayan ukon ginligaran, wala mo ako ginkalimtan.

In asking to be remember, Hannah made a vow to God.  The vow or panaad is more often a quid pro quo arrangement with God.  Quid pro quo means this for that, I will give you this if you will give me that.  Amo ina ang panaad indi bala?  If you give me health then I will serve the church.  I remember gin-panaad man ako sa Sto. Nino sa Tigbauan because of my poor health as a child.  So every year, before I entered the seminary, I was required by my parents, which I happily did, to go back to Tigbauan for the fiesta, to participate in the mass and to light a candle.  That’s quid pro quo. This for that.

 For Hannah however it is different.  She asked God for a son and promised to give her son back to God.  Indi bala mas budlay ini?  Give me a son, I promise to give him back to you. The very thing she asks for is the very thing she gives back to God.  What she asked from God she also promised to God, what she received from God she also gave back to God.

I think this is what prayer should be about.  It is asked from God, it comes from God, it is used for God and others.  Hannah I believe is also teaching us what real prayer is - it should not be selfish, it should not be centered on the self, it should not even primarily benefit the self.  Even in our prayers we should learn to be other-centered.  “Lord if you feel that my presence is still beneficial for my family and community then give me health, give me the physical strength to be of service to others.”  When we pray we give that necessary space for God otherwise we are not truly praying but dictating, demanding as if we are four-year olds demanding out toy.