The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to ponder the way in which God answers prayer and invites us to break free of the constraints of conventional wisdom.
Ponder our needs
The reading from the Book of Esther is Esther’s Prayer for deliverance.
Esther’s character matures over the course of the narrative. As a girl she is recruited for the king’s harem because of her physical beauty. But at a key moment in the book (chap. 4), she rises to the challenge to risk her life for the salvation of her people. At that point, she transforms her status as queen from a position of personal privilege to one of power and public responsibility.1
Psalm 138 offers thanksgiving and praise to God.
* [Psalm 138] A thanksgiving to God, who came to the rescue of the psalmist. Divine rescue was not the result of the psalmist’s virtues but of God’s loving fidelity (Ps 138:1–3). The act is not a private transaction but a public act that stirs the surrounding nations to praise God’s greatness and care for the people (Ps 138:4–6). The psalmist, having experienced salvation, trusts that God will always be there in moments of danger (Ps 138:7–8).2
In the Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus urges us to ask, search, and knock as He reminds us of The Golden Rule.
* [7:9–10] There is a resemblance between a stone and a round loaf of bread and between a serpent and the scaleless fish called barbut. * [7:12] See Lk 6:31. This saying, known since the eighteenth century as the “Golden Rule,” is found in both positive and negative form in pagan and Jewish sources, both earlier and later than the gospel. This is the law and the prophets is an addition probably due to the evangelist.3
Joan Blandin Howard (from 2004) shares that what I dare to ask of God depends upon who/what I experience God to be. Is God the healing force who I turn to in times of illness, begging for physical relief for me or someone I love? Is God the source of joy I turn to in gratitude when I am feeling so richly blessed? Is God the pillar of strength in times of struggle, pain and vulnerability? Is God the career counselor in times of unemployment? Is it my experience that God says “no” as often as “yes” – or more so? Is God the puppeteer who can make things happen, if God wants? “Who do you say I am?” asks Jesus. There is a note of longing and maybe a hint of incredulity. You have no idea who I am or maybe, How can you not know who I am!
In the scriptures we read that Jesus most certainly did cure many - deaf to hear, lame to walk, blind to see. Jesus most certainly did feed the hungry and brought comfort to many. But most assuredly, Jesus did not cure all the ill, nor did Jesus feed all the hungry, nor did Jesus alter the social, psychological, or physical situations of all in need. What Jesus did do was invite all to “come to me.” He offered himself as a source of companionship, solace to those in need. He offered himself as a model to those who would follow him. He offered himself as faithful companion for the journey. The mystery of God is just that – a mystery. The irony in the person of Jesus is that in calling and encouraging me to ask, seek, & knock, God also asks, seeks and knocks on my heart.4
Don Schwager quotes “The gift of being good,” by Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"He who has given us the gift of being gives us also the gift of being good. He gives to those who have turned back to Him. He even sought them out before they were converted and when they were far from his ways!" (Commentary on Psalm 103, 2)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 7:7-12 comments that just as every parent wants to instill confidence in their child, God wants to instill confidence in us as we pray. Not just self-confidence, of course, but “God-confidence” as well—the confidence that comes from faith in our heavenly Father. As we pray, we see that the One we’re asking is good. We see that he is trustworthy. We see that we can rely on him.
Jesus tells us that to develop this faith, we need to “ask,” “seek,” and “knock” in prayer (Matthew 7:7). The original language implies a continual asking, seeking, knocking. In other words, we’re to be persistent. Whatever happens, don’t give up. As we ask and keep asking, we open our hearts to a deeper experience of God’s goodness because we begin to see how much he cares for our every need. As we seek and keep seeking, we learn that he is trustworthy because we discover that he won’t abandon us. As we knock and keep knocking, we begin to understand his justice and generosity because we find him giving us not necessarily what we want but exactly what we need. In all of this, our relationship with our heavenly Father grows deeper and deeper.6
Friar Jude Winkler explains that there are various versions of the Book of Esther that were never consolidated into a critical edition. More gracious than our parents, God knows our needs in depth. Friar Jude reminds us that Christians are called to treat others with exaggerated respect, more than they think they deserve.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares three further “ways of knowing” that can allow us to access greater wisdom.
Images: Imaginal knowing is the only way that the unconscious can move into consciousness. It happens through fantasy, through dreams, through symbols, where all is “thrown together” (sym-ballein in Greek). It happens through pictures, events, and well-told stories… Aesthetic: In some ways, aesthetic knowing is the most attractive, but I think it’s often the least converting. Art in all its forms so engages us and satisfies us that many go no deeper. Still, aesthetic knowing is a central and profound way of knowing. I’ve seen art lead to true changes of consciousness… Epiphany: The last way of knowing, which I’d think religion would prefer and encourage, is epiphanic knowing. An epiphany is a parting of the veil, a life-changing manifestation of meaning, the eureka of awareness of self and the Other. Scholar Christopher Pramuk describes how Jesus engaged his listeners and followers in ways far beyond their minds. He writes: When Jesus of Nazareth prefaced his enigmatic sayings with the words, “let those with eyes to see, see, let those with ears to hear, hear,” scholars tell us he was speaking as a teacher of Jewish wisdom, appealing not just to the head but to the whole person of his listener: heart, body, mind, senses, imagination. Like a lure darting and flashing before a fish, Jesus’s words dance and play before the imagination, breaking open our habitual assumptions about “the way things are.”. . . To be “born again” is to break free of the stultifying womb of conventional wisdom. . . . [1]7
The mystery of God calls us to faith that trusts that our needs to be more intimately connected to the Divine are always the root of the response we receive from our prayer.
References
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