Saturday, April 19, 2008

Asking anything

The Gospel for Sunday will sound particularly familiar to daily Mass-goers. That's because we heard it on Friday (first part) and Saturday (second part). In the first part, Jesus affirms, very solemnly, that he is "the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me." (Notice that he uses the verb "comes": that's a hint that he sees that movement from the Father's perspective.) In the second half of the passage, Jesus goes on to affirm, "whoever sees me, sees the Father."
And then he says those perplexing words, "if you ask the Father anything in my name, I will do it, so that the Father will be glorified in the Son."
St. Theresa capitalized on that promise as part of her "little way" of confidence. but I suspect many of us, with less complete confidence (and almost certainly less personal holiness) wonder why the many things we ask the Father in the name of Jesus don't seem to happen at all. Does Jesus, like Popeye, mean what he says, and says what he means? Is it really just too good to be true? Or does St. James have it right when he says that "we ask and do not obtain because we ask amiss"?
We surely don't "ask amiss" when we plead for healing, or pray for a loved one in danger or on a wrong path in life. Perhaps we could tweak our prayer a little, though, by trying to bring our desires more and more into conformity with Jesus' ultimate goal, as stated in the Gospel, "that the Father will be glorified in the Son"--or, as it says in the Sermon on the Mount, "see first God's kingdom and holiness," so that "all other things will be given in addition."

1 comment:

Sister Anne said...

What great insights, Katie! Part of the Ignatian method of making the daily spiritual examen is precisely to look over the day for the subtle signs of God's action, so that we learn to recognize how God converses with us through the day--it will not be in a generic way, because God is communicating with us personally, and that's not a one-size-fits-all thing. Maybe the greatest "skill" we can acquire in the spiritual life is to learn God's language with us, so that we can become more and more receptive to grace.