10 March 2022
Thursday of the First Week in Lent
Everything in Scripture points us toward hiding nothing from God. Even though we understand God to be all-knowing and not in need of personal disclosure to understand who we are, manifesting our desires and seeking things from Him are part and parcel of relating to Him. Perhaps doing these things doesn’t change God so much as change us, our receptivity to grace, our willingness to put ourselves out there and express the deepest yearnings in our heart.
Seek and you will find. Never stop looking for God. Part of what I love about this verse is how it gives rise to two possible and equally plausible interpretations.
On the one hand, Jesus’ words are a commentary on the spiritual seeker, the person who knows they don’t have the wisdom they’re looking for and nevertheless persist in their search for truth. Conversion and vocation stories often possess this dynamic: someone continues to seek out something that is missing, and they find it when Jesus steps into their lives in an explicit and final way.
On the other hand, these words are for those who are in desperation. Esther finds refuge for God when her people are in danger of facing a genocide. Being desperate, Esther shows us, doesn’t necessarily lead to despair, but it can bring us to our knees for the most visceral prayer a human being can ever utter.
Given these two readings, let us lift up in prayer all those who are searching for God, and let us lift up those people who are most desperate, especially all of those from Ukraine whose lives are torn by war. We pray especially that there be Christians who find Christ in those needing refuge.