Lent Reflections.. Nineth Day..."ASK AN YOU WILL RECEIVE" Thursday, February 26, 2015

“Ask and you will receive”!

 

In our prayer we often ask God for favors. Most of the time we storm heaven with our list of ‘wants’ and ‘needs’.

 

Very often we ask out of our own selfishness. Queen Esther ask for the liberation of her people and the destruction of the enemy of the Jews.

 

How do we know what to ask for or pray for?

 

Richard Rohr says, “ You only ask for what you have already begun to experience otherwise it will never occur to you to ask for it. Further, God seems to plant within us the desire to pray for what God already wants to give us, and even better, God has already begun to give it to us”.

 

We see in the passionate appeal of Queen Esther to God a sense of strong desire help save her fellow Jews from annihilation in the hands of Haman one of the royals in the palace of King Ahasuerus.

 

 She knew she was ‘taking her life in her hand’ because you can be put to death to go before the King without being summoned by him. She was willing to take the risk and demanded that God help her for she is “alone and have no one but you, O Lord my God”.

 

She asks for ‘persuasive words’ to convince the king. God had already begun to give her courage and right words to make the appeal to the king. Jesus said, “don’t worry about what you are to say. God will give you the right words at the right time.”(Mathew 10:19)

 

As we come before God can we show complete honesty in opening our heart to God where God aligns His desires with ours?

 

Soon to be Saint Oscar Romero, the Bishop of El Salvador prayed at a funeral of the victims of Oppression, “ Lord today, our conversion and our faith are supported by the persons whose bodies are in these coffins.

 

 They are the symbols of what our nation is really experiencing, the symbols of the noble aspirations of the church that does not want anything other than the salvation of the people. And look, Lord, this great crowd gathered together in your cathedral is itself a prayer.

 

This crowd is the petition of a nation that weeps, that cries, but does not lose hope because it knows that Christ has not lied.” This is a prayer that can only be inspired by the One who resides at the sanctuary of the human person.

 

Bishop Oscar Romero endured martyrdom for his courageous witness to Christ. This indeed is reflected in the words of Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium #24 “The disciple is ready to put his or her whole life on the line even to accepting martyrdom, in bearing witness to Jesus Christ”.  So let us learn to pray from the heart.