The Gospel teaching on asking, with its embedded parable, seems to set the tone. Though I am sympathetic with the sleepy householder (Ask sooner, friend? Ask more quietly, more politely? Bake your own bread?) I hear something quite different: Ask for anything. Ask importunately. Ask for basics. Ask for big. When I redirect to Abraham asking God for a threatened city, Abraham sounds too careful, too tentative, too easily satisfied. Why stop at ten? Maybe Lot’s wife is a small recap of the story, set inside the main narrative: Commit to what you want and need rather than lean back for what might be more sensible. The psalm, as usual, restates as though there were no problem: When I call, God responds. Sometimes I think that is the scandal for believers today: How can God have let "x" happen? But St. Paul suggests to me that the promise made is not that we will get everything but that we get the most wonderful of the gifts: eternal life which swamps our deficiencies, weaknesses, stubborn propensities, our sorrows. They simply cease to matter as we are folded into something much deeper. Barbara Green, O.P.
Ask for Anything
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
Pope Leo XIV’s statement was read at the premiere of a play about the Peruvian investigative journalist Paola Ugaz, who was subject to death threats because of her reporting on sexual abuse.
About a dozen religious leaders from the San Diego area, including Bishop Michael Pham, visited federal immigration court on Friday “to provide some sense of presence.”
In a time of increasing disaffiliation from and disillusionment with the institutional church, a new theological perspective on the church is needed—one that places Jesus’ own teaching at the center.
This week on “Jesuitical,” Zac and Ashley are thrilled to speak with their friend and colleague Father James Martin about his new podcast, “The Spiritual Life with Fr. James Martin, S.J.”