16 January 2022
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Everything is ultimately a gift. Even the things that you worked hard to obtain are ultimately gifts, because all your potential and all your drive to fulfill your potential come from the hand of God. Not everyone receives the same potential, the same drive, or the same gifts. God bestows different gifts upon different people according to what he judges best. As St. Paul puts it: “one and the same Spirit produces all of these [gifts], distributing them individually to each person as he wishes” (1 Cor 12:11).
What is one gift that you need to receive most this week? Perseverance in a difficult endeavor? Courage to stand up for what’s right? A free and open conversation? Burying a hatchet with an enemy? Peace of mind? Once you have clarified the gift that you would like to receive, take your request, in prayer, to the Lord. Remember that God is not your servant. Hedistributes his gifts as he wishes. You can’t control him, but you can ask him with confidence.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matt 7:7). “Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you” (John 16:23). Sometimes, God waits to give us something until we have ask for it earnestly.