Praying and Suffering

Monday, December 15, 2025

Happy Monday, my friends! I apologize that this present season has caused me to be unable to write and publish Monday Moments as regularly as in the past, but I’m happy to be able to write something for you today. At Blue Ocean Faith Columbus, the church I pastor, we’re reading Living Buddha, Living Christ by the Zen Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hahn. As the title implies, Nhat Hahn writes about the similarities and differences between Buddhism and Christianity which he senses having studied Christianity and interacted with Christians including both French Roman Catholics and American Progressive Protestants (among them Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bayard Rustin).

Though his project is oriented to comparing the Buddha and Jesus, he also spends time discussing Buddhist mindfulness and community consciousness and the Holy Spirit. Speaking to mindfulness and the Spirit, he addresses prayer: “Many people pray to God because they want God to fulfill some of their needs.”[1] Very true, we do almost always pray because we want a need fulfilled, from our favorite team to win a game to the recovery of a loved one who is close to death. We also pray in thanksgiving and because something routine, but nevertheless important has happened. My TFAM siblings often talk about getting out of bed and thanking God for waking them up another day. I admit that is not part of my normal prayer routine.

Nhat Hahn goes on to address praying for our enemies, a practice preached by Jesus, but by no means unique to the Christian tradition. He says, “When you look deeply into your anger, you will see that the person you call your enemy is also suffering. As soon as you see that, the capacity of accepting and having compassion for him [sic] is there…The idea of ‘enemy’ vanishes and is replaced by the notion of someone who is suffering and needs your compassion.”[2] A perhaps overused phrase that is nevertheless true says that “hurt people hurt people.” When we looked closely at the people who hurt us, who commit evil against us and against others, we often find a person who is themselves deeply hurt. It should be obvious, though, that just because a person is hurt and suffering, the evil they do is not excused. We can be hurt and still be accountable to our actions. We can be hurt and be forgiven, but forgiveness is not immunity from the consequences of our actions.

Praying for our enemies and recognizing their suffering no less makes them immune to consequences as it relieves us of our call to practice the work of justice. Nhat Hahn ends his section on prayer, enemies, and suffering with a reminder that prayer necessarily involves action: “To a Buddhist, praying without practicing is not real prayer.”[3] So too for a Christian.

Do you recognize how the people you call “enemies” are also suffering? How can you merge prayers for your enemies and holding them accountable through your actions?

Let us pray: God, we pray for our enemies not only because Jesus commanded us to, but because we know they too are suffering. We know that their actions are a product of their insecurities, their attachments to ideas and paradigms which aren’t life giving. Yet, we still do not excuse their actions. Help us to walk the path of prayer and forgiveness which still participates in the work of justice, and which never negates accountability. Grant us the grace which Jesus had as he prayed for those people who participated in his death. We ask this in the name of Jesus, our savior and liberator. Amen.

Blessings on your weeks, my friends! Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you.

Faithfully,

Ben +

[1] Thich Nhat Hahn, Living Buddha, Living Christ, (Riverhead Books, 2007), 78.

[2] Thich Nhat Hahn, 2007, 78-79.

[3] Thich Nhat Hahn, 2007, 79.