Word to the Wise
Thursday, March 5, 2020 - 1st Week of Lent - Thurs
[Esth C:12, 14-16, 23-25 and Matt 7:7-12]"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asked for a loaf of bread, or a snake when we asked for a fish? If you, then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him." [Matthew]
At every celebration of the Eucharist there is a "Prayer of the Faithful," or, as I am hearing now, "Universal Prayer." Some of the petitions are quite predictable: peace, good health, care for those in need. Others can be very personal. In the university environment I live in, exams, jobs and relationships are a good bet for petitions. And I do hear the occasional complaint that it is no use to pray for something because it never seems to happen. I think that underneath all "prayer of petition," there is an underlying question of trust. It helps us to voice our needs, but do we trust God to give us what we need?
Sometimes the needs we express cloak another deeper need that we are denying or are just unaware of. Something or someone may not have been available at a critical moment in the past and we are trying to find some compensation for that from God. Sometimes we do not realize that we are trying to satisfy an appetite that is unhealthy. Sometimes we are asking God to remove a problem that WE are unwilling to take steps to overcome, not realizing that "grace builds on nature," and we have to do our part to accept that grace and work on the problem ourselves with the help of God.
All of this is simply to say that Lent offers us a time to purify our motives in prayer. Yes, much of what we need or ask for may be very good. If so, can we trust God to work with us or with those for whom we pray? It can be comforting and scary at the same time to trust like that, but Jesus promises that the Heavenly Father knows how to give us good things. AMEN
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