10 October 2019
Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
You will find a first reflection on this scripture at https://www.magisspirituality.org/ignatian_reflection/19-08-04/, which reminds us of the importance of asking for the specific things that God wills for us (Lk 11:5-13). Our God will not give us a scorpion if we ask for an egg, but he will not be pleased either to give us a scorpion even if we ask it, especially if we have some perverse attraction to scorpion venom. The better we get to know our God, who is fully revealed in Jesus Christ, the more truly we will have a sense of what he wills for us. And what God wills for us, above all, is for us to share God’s own life through the Holy Spirit (Lk 11:13).
Merely knowing God’s will is not enough for it to be fully accomplished in our lives. God’s life is free and therefore we can only share in God’s life freely. If we do not desire to share in God’s life, then we cannot share in it, because the divine life cannot be constrained, even in us. This is why we should ask for God’s Holy Spirit, ask to share in God’s life. If we find ourselves unable to ask for such things, then perhaps we ought to ask for the desire for those things that God wishes to share with us, so that one day, finally desiring them, we may ask for them and this prayer might be granted.