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“Anything”
ALLELUIA! CHRIST IS RISEN! He is risen
indeed! Alleluia!
Today’s Gospel tends to disturb us. We are impatient and
overly sensitive. We are easily and quickly offended when we ask a question and
get no answer. And we are cynical. We both say and believe that it’s easier to
ask forgiveness than to ask permission. But most of all, we are slow to
believe. We are so sure that others won’t come through that we’re already making
a “Plan B” even before we ask someone a favor.
And then we hear about St.
Paul, and that only confirms us in our impatience and
cynicism. You know the story. It’s seared in your memory, and it haunts you
every time you pray. Paul writes, “A thorn in the flesh was given to me, a
messenger of Satan. Three times I begged the Lord that He might take it away
from me.” We all know St. Paul’s
frustration, because we’ve all lived it. And then Jesus says, “Most
assuredly, I say to you: Whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give
you. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” Sinners that we
are, we hardly believe what Jesus says. “Ask anything”? We’ve tried that, and it didn’t
work. We think He must mean something else.
But we also have selective hearing. The singer Paul Simon
wrote, “A man hears what he wants to
hear and disregards the rest.” This perfectly describes the ears of the
sinner. We hear what we want to hear, and we make the Bible say what it never
says. We pray only because we’re supposed to. And sometimes we do not pray at
all. Instead of asking “anything,” we believe that God helps those who help
themselves. Of course, you won’t find that anywhere in your Bible. What your
Bible does say is this: “LORD, it is nothing for You to help those who have
no power; help us, O LORD our God, for we rest on You, and in Your name we carry on.”
So why is St. Paul
not helped? Paul certainly prayed in Jesus’ name. The problem is, we refuse to
see Our Lord’s help when He gives it. We give up on the Lord when we don’t get
our way. We think He doesn’t keep His promises. But the truth is, St. Paul is helped.
He himself says so. His thorn is not
taken away so that he might keep his eyes, his heart, his mind and his soul
fixed on Our Lord and His mercy. If his ailment goes away, then Paul says, “I
will be exalted above measure.” In other words, we would believe in ourselves
and the power of our prayers and the strength of our faith. And the worst thing
a man can do is believe in himself, for then he is believing less—or not at
all—in the Father who created Him and who provides what is truly needful.
That’s why Jesus tells us to pray the way He does. We should
not ask for things that make life easier. We should seek His mercy, which
increases our peace even when we’re in pain. We should seek His grace, which
increases our joy even when we’re sad. We should seek His compassion, which
gives us true peace even when we’re depressed or stressed.
So the “anything”
in our Lord’s “Ask anything” is not “anything you want.” The “anything”
we’re to ask for is that which helps us attain the Lord’s kingdom, that which
grows and matures and perfects our faith and life in God. He urges us to pray
for those things which aid our salvation, which are useful for our life in God,
which reinvigorate our communion with God.
Ultimately, the “anything”
that we ask for is not a thing, but a person, for it is in the Holy Spirit that
our life in God begins; it is through Him that our selfish desires our
suppressed; it is by Him that our hearts are cleansed; it is in Him that our
communion in God is made whole; it is through Him that we receive every
blessing, including the kingdom of heaven. And so we pray for and rejoice to
receive the Holy Spirit, so that our joy may be true and full. Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen
indeed! Alleluia! In the name of the Father and of the Son (†) and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
The
peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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