16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (year A)

(Rom 8:26–27)

Romans 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that cannot be put into words;

The context here is that of prayer, and so our weakness here lies within the realm of prayer.  Although the Christian has been baptised into the death and resurrection of Jesus, they still remain in a state of weakness, and this fact is also evident in their prayers. For although we generally know what we ought to ask of God, we often do not know what, specifically and at any given moment, is useful and appropriate for us. In other words, we do not fully know God’s will, and so we are not always sure what His will is or what we ought to pray for. 

The believer finds themselves caught between two worlds: on the one hand, still bound by a sinful nature, whose ways are opposed to those of the Spirit and which ties them to the realities of a fallen world; on the other, the regeneration and rebirth into a new world, which operates according to the ways of the Spirit, opposed to those of the flesh. It is in this inner conflict within man that his weakness lies. To overcome this weakness, the Lord has provided valuable help. He has given the Holy Spirit, and has given Him as the guiding principle of the Christian’s prayer.

“In the same way,” he says, expressing the Father’s complete solidarity with fallen humanity through the gift of the Spirit, who helps us to bring forth this new world that already lives and works within us; who helps us by sustaining us on our spiritual journey; and who helps us to enter into a relationship with spiritual realities with which, precisely because of our weakness, we do not even know how to relate. In prayer, we can only feebly express what is fitting, what is right, and what we ought first and foremost to pray for—that is, what is in accordance with God’s will.

Only the Spirit speaks the Father’s language. The Spirit goes beyond our thoughts and asks for everything we lack, so that the Father may meet those needs of which his children are unaware. The Spirit is given to us to come to the aid of our weakness in thought and will; the weakness of those who do not know, of those who do not understand, of those who cannot. ‘Comes to our aid’ is ‘synantilambanetai’, a word composed of two prepositions, ‘syn’ (together) and ‘anti’ (against), which are prefixes of the verb ‘lambanomai’ (to take possession of, to hold). The metaphor therefore presents us with a person who carries a burden in collaboration with another, positioning themselves at the opposite end of the burden itself; in other words, they share the load with us to give us relief.

In life, unfortunately, the slightest thing is enough to make us turn back or fall by the wayside, without having reached the goal of hope. In this weakness, it is the Holy Spirit who becomes the soul and spirit of the Christian and prays in their stead; yet the Spirit prays with ‘groans’ that Paul describes as ‘inexpressible’, that is, they cannot be translated into human words, which define, conceptualise and express material realities, whilst the Spirit’s action operates on spiritual levels; and for his groans to be perceived and understood, a person must rise spiritually, becoming attuned to spiritual language. They are inner stirrings, inspirations, intuitions.

Jesus’ intercession takes place at the right hand of God, whilst the Spirit’s intercession takes place within us. ‘Intercedes’ is the translation of ‘hyperentygchanei’, which means ‘to bring someone near or to call someone’. We know that we must ask God for everything, but we do not know what to ask God for. Not knowing what to ask for, we may even pray in vain. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, knows God’s will for each of us. When He is in us and we are in Him, it is He Himself who prays and intercedes for us. However, He does not pray in a language we can understand, in the sense that He makes us understand what is best for us. He prays with inexpressible groans; He prays with our heart, but without our mind. It is the groaning of One who does not share our weakness, yet participates in it and takes it upon Himself. The groaning of the Spirit has no language; it is wordless, ‘alalētois’; it transcends all language.

There is something profoundly great and mysterious in this verse. When the Spirit dwells within a person, it is as though He were taking the person’s place; it is as though the person had handed over the helm of their life to Him. The Spirit guides life towards the goal that is inherent in human nature, without the person realising it, and directs them towards their supreme good. This explains why the saints sometimes find themselves doing things the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of which even they do not fully understand. They do not know; it is the Spirit of the Lord who moves them from within and guides them.

This is the true movement of the Spirit. When, on the other hand, everything is subjected to human reason and conscience, to human decision-making, there is no true movement of the Spirit; rather, it is man who is in control of his own person and intends to guide it according to his own principles of choice, even if, whether cunningly or naively, it suits him to attribute his own thoughts and decisions to the Spirit of the Lord. 

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation – an exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, in the mystery of the Trinity

Jesus’ prophetic discourse (Matthew 24–25)

All Generations Will Call Me Blessed

Catholics and Protestants Compared – In Defence of the Faith

The Church and Israel According to St Paul – Romans 9–11

(Available on Amazon)