“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts ne’er to Heaven go…” (Shakespeare, “Hamlet”).
I love Shakespeare. If there is a type of play that I enjoy watching and reading, it would have to be Shakespeare. There is something so clever in the way that a Shakespearean play is written that just fascinates me. I like the way he structured the lines and the use of metre and rhyme. I enjoy his interpretation of existing stories and understand the mechanics of how he arranged the action in the play to ensure that the audience was captivated by his work in a time when there were no lights or curtains or even a really sensible backstage area…
One of my favourite Shakespearean plays of all time is called “Hamlet”. In that play, the old king of Denmark (Old King Hamlet) is killed and after his death, his murderer (who is his brother) marries his widow and assumes the throne. As a result of this injustice, the Old King Hamlet’s ghost appears to his son, Hamlet, and asks Hamlet to avenge his murder…
It is a complex play and a Shakespearean tragedy, which means that the tragic hero (who is a good and noble man) has some tragic flaw in his character (in Hamlet’s case this is Hamlet’s tendency to procrastinate), which contributes to his own tragic ending…
There is a scene in Hamlet, upon which the whole tragedy turns. Hamlet’s murderous uncle is apparently praying the church and Hamlet – seeing the murderer apparently praying – procrastinates and instead of killing the man, decides to wait and see what the man does in action. This means that the uncle survives long enough to kill Hamlet instead.
In fact, the uncle was not really praying. He was saying, “My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts ne’er to Heaven go…”
Now, of course we do not promote revenge or vengeance. In fact, revenge is the opposite of what Christ taught us. But, nevertheless, I have been thinking about that, because the murderous uncle was not praying from his heart and therefore, there was no prayer…
Saint Augustine wrote, “If the cry to the Lord uttered by those who pray is made with the sound of the bodily voice without the heart being turned to God, who can doubt that it is made in vain? But if it comes from the heart, even if the bodily voice is silent, it can be concealed from everyone else but not from God. Therefore, when we pray whether aloud as required or silently -- to God, our cry must come from the heart.”
And it occurs to me that while I have not murdered any people, I am not unlike that murderous uncle in that play. You see, oftentimes my words are flying up, but my heart is otherwise engaged. And it seems to me today that such a thing is a very sad thing for my God. A very very sad thing…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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