28 February 2018
Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent
Children ask all sorts of things without realizing what they are saying. They run the range from weird to silly to slightly unsettling. But parents field the questions all the same, just as Jesus does in speaking with James and John. He tells them quite plainly “you do not know what you are asking” (Mt. 20:22). Yet He still guides them to understand the question, and tells them they will get what they asked for (mostly).
In prayer, we are all small children, asking God questions we do not quite understand. Every one of us has asked God for something and had no idea what it would mean. I had little clue what I was saying when I asked God to help me be a Jesuit. I suspect most parents did not know what they would be in for when they asked God for a child. Whatever God’s response, we rarely know what we are asking for. Yet if we look back to our past prayers, we may see God guiding us as Jesus guided James and John in the gospel, and trust that God will continue to guide us as we ask like small children.