It's our community day (and was it ever a full one!).... so I'm only now putting down a little something from today's Gospel, which we heard at Mass (and again in our community Hour of Adoration). I think it must be everyone's favorite because it's where Jesus says, "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened..."
Years ago Sr. Patricia Edward and I led a summer Bible program in a rural Kansas parish. She had the little kids. I had the junior high. (We were both junior professed sisters in our early twenties with no teaching experience.) Anyway, the kids were as involved and cooperative as they could be for their age. When we had to do a giant banner for the parish picnic at the close of the program (these were the early 80's), the junior high kids insisted that the message be "Seek and you shall find."
The parable of the persistent neighbor is darling for what it tells us of Jesus' knowledge of human nature, but it's not in the story that Jesus really gives us the secret of God's heart. It's after the story, after the exhortation to ask, seek, knock. Jesus practically reproaches us for selling God short. "Would any one of you give his child a snake if he asks for a fish, or a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you, with all your sins, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to all who ask."
Sometimes we ask for the spiritual equivalent of snakes and scorpions, but God insists on giving us "what is good"; his own Holy Spirit.
Thursday, October 08, 2009
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2 comments:
Good post, Sister. I am always surprised but love it when I ask for something and God does not give me what I expect; He gives me something better.
Perhaps God did not give me what I prayed for and expected, nor something better as far as I can determine. Looks suspiciously like a stone or a scorpion, but nice. I guess I will make my wishes a little clearer knowing God's sense of humor is alive and well.
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