Thursday 27th Week OT October 10, 2024
Fr. Alexander Albert St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville
What if I want to eat a snake instead of fish? What if scorpions are just the crawfish of the desert? Boil em up, season em, and start dipping em in the right sauce, and maybe they’re even better than eggs! Had Jesus been talking to a crowd of Cajuns, he probably would have used different examples for things people don’t want to eat. But the point is the same: when we ask God for our “daily bread,” he isn’t going to trick us and give us poison instead. He wasn’t that snakes and scorpions don’t taste good – the point is that they are venomous, capable of killing people with the toxins they can deliver by biting or stinging.
So maybe I’ll ask it this way: what if I want toxic things? What if the things I ask from God are bad for me? Will he give them to me? No. And that’s one reason there are unanswered prayers. This fact lurks behind the promise Jesus makes. After all, this whole gospel is about the power of prayer: “For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Jesus is not lying. He’s just focusing on asking for good things. He knows, of course, that we often do just the opposite.
Not that we usually know when we’re asking for the wrong thing. One of the best ways to find out is by asking… repeatedly. Take another look at the first part of the gospel. One guy goes to his friend late at night and asks for some bread. When he fails the first time, what does Jesus say? “if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.” If the sleeping friend is supposed to represent God, that means Jesus is bascially saying “you should annoy God with your prayers.” And this isn’t the only time he says that. In another part of the gospel, he tells the story of a woman who nags a judge into submission and says we should do the same thing to God with our prayers.
So, I mean it when I say you should annoy God with your prayers. Ask, seek, knock until God gives in and gives you what you want. But what if what you want isn’t good for you? What if it is toxic? Ask anyway. Jesus really stresses the fact that God is actually better than the sleepy friend, better than a lazy judge, better than earthly parents. Even earthly parents wouldn’t feed their children poison, so how much more would God only give us what is good. So, what’s going on here?
Jesus is making two points here: First, we should trust that God is good. Second, because God is good, we should be persistent in prayer. I’m adding a third thing: when God doesn’t answer a prayer, it’s for our own good. Let me explain.
When we really want something and ask God for it, there are three possible outcomes: we stop asking, we get what we ask for or, the point I’m making here, we change. That’s part of the reason God doesn’t immediately grant our every request. We think that what we want is good for us, but how often have you been wrong about that? How often have you begged and begged for something, finally gotten it, and then realized it isn’t as great as you thought it would be? One day, we’ll all realize that all the devices we so love are often quite bad for us.
Our desires are fickle. They are unreliable. They are confusing. By telling them to God, however, we are uniting a very unreliable experience with the completely reliable God. God does not change, but our desires often do. By giving our desires to God over and over and over and over again, it’s like the ocean on rocks: it wears them down, smooths them out, changes them.
Sometimes our desires actually are good, but they need to grow. So, God holds out on us to stretch them, refine them, and teaches us to persevere and to take the correct actions to actually pursue those desires. If we give up, it means we didn’t really want it. Great, we learn something about ourselves and keep growing. If we don’t give up, God shapes the desire, increases it, and when he finally grants it, it’s that much better. If we don’t give up and he never answers it, it’s because what we want is not really what’s best for us.
By not giving us the wrong things, God teaches us how to ask for the right things. Sometimes the desire for the wrong thing goes away completely. Sometimes it does not go away but we still don’t get what we want. In that case, by not giving us what we want, God teaches us stop being controlled by our desires, to trust that He gives what is good.
We are confusing creatures. Our emotions and desires are often mixed up, confusing, and unreliable. But we still have to live with them. We have to sort the good from the bad and learn to do what is good no matter what. What does this mean practically speaking? How do I learn the difference between good desires and bad ones? Yes, you can and should read the bible and catechism to learn what you’re supposed to want. But there’s only one way to really know the difference between good desires and bad ones. Give them to God. Ask him for whatever you want. Keep asking. Keep asking. Keep asking. Ask, seek, knock.
Either your desires will change to want something else, your circumstances will change to get you what you want, or you will change. In every case, God never changes. He is always good. God is always Good. God is always Good. I can say that a thousand times and maybe you’ll believe me. But the best way to really learn that for yourself? Keep asking, keep seeking, and keep knocking. Eventually, you’ll open the only door that really matters.