Ask and You Shall Receive

28 Saturday May 2022

Tags

Charity, God-moments, Grace, John 16:23-28, Love, Prayer

(A reflection on the Gospel of John 16:23-28)

One night a week or so ago I didn’t sleep well and I woke up groggy and too late to go to 7:30 morning mass. In fact, I barely had time to get my act together and make it to 9:00 mass at another parish. I didn’t have time for my morning meditation and, because of the slew of errands i I had to run during the day, I knew I wouldn’t be able to fit it in until my Adoration hour that evening. So, my resolution for the day was the standard I use in situations like this: “Heavenly Father, grant me the grace to recognize and act on the opportunities you present to me today to be charitable to others. I ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

My first stop after leaving mass was the grocery store. As I pulled into the parking lot the skies opened up and it began to pour down rain. I decided to wait it out and lay my seat back and take a little nap until it stopped raining. I checked the clock to see what time it was and then closed my eyes. Three minutes later, just as I was about to doze off, I heard a knocking on my window. There, looking me in the eyes with her nose almost touching the glass, with either rain or tears running down her cheeks, was a young woman asking, “Sir, my car won’t start, would you mind giving me a jump?”

I immediately replied, “I don’t have any jumper cables” (which was the truth), to which she responded, “I do!”. I couldn’t very well say we should wait until it stops raining since she was already soaked to the bone, so I agreed to help her.

The shopping cart corral was between her car and mine so I pulled out and maneuvered my truck close to her little sedan. By the time I got my hood opened I was already sopping wet. The young woman pulled her jumper cables out of her back seat and they were the shortest set of cables I’d ever seen, only about three feet long and they wouldn’t reach my battery. I repositioned closer to her car, reopened the hood and connected the cables, which barely reached, and soon we had her car started. As I disconnected the cables and closed the hood, she politely told me, “Thank you.”

I got back in my truck and pulled back into my parking spot. As I watched her pull away I realized the extent of my sogginess. I started to complain when it hit me that I had received exactly what I’d asked for, a chance to be charitable to someone else. I looked upwards and, with a chuckle, prayed, “Lord, you didn’t waste any time, did you!” In my imagination I could hear God, with a chuckle in His voice saying, “You asked for it so I gave it to you. Thank you, my son”, to which I replied, “You’re welcome….and thank You!”

This memory came back to me as I read today’s scripture. In today’s Gospel, John 16:23-28, Jesus tells us that “whatever you ask the Father in my name He will give it to you….ask and you will receive so that your joy will be complete.” This was nearly the last thing Jesus said to His disciples before He was arrested. It was His last request to His friends. He had told them He was going away but He would send the Advocate to be with them in His absence. He wanted them to know that He wasn’t leaving them alone and if they trusted in Him they would still find joy no matter what.

Jesus wants us to trust Him, too. He wants us to know that His Spirit is with us all the time and all that we have to do is call upon Him and ask Him for what we need. We please Him immensely when our request is for something good, something that is in line with making us like Him, something that leads us toward holiness.

If our request is for something that is not good, we might get what we ask for or we might not. We might get it to teach us a lesson, or we might not get it because we’ve sold ourself short and He’ll give us something even better. The important thing is to ask Him, to include Him in our daily lives, to trust that His generosity will provide the best for us and that it will complete our joy.

How often do you ask Him for help?

“Lord Jesus, I know that I don’t ask You for Your help nearly enough. You’ve told me that, without You, I can do nothing. I need to take that to heart and spend more time asking You for the good things in life like: loving my family and neighbors as they deserve to be loved, being more virtuous, and loving You more dearly by spending quality time with You in prayer. Come, Holy Spirit! Amen.”

(Ask and You Shall Receive was first published on the blog Reflections of a Lay Catholic)

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The Good Shepherd

10 Tuesday May 2022

Posted by Jerry Robinson in Faith

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Jn 10:1-10, Prayer, The Good Shepherd

Yesterday’s Gospel, Jn 10:1-10, brought back memories from long ago. Like 53 years ago when I was 12 years old living in the small village of High Ham, Somerset, England. My friend, John, a year older than me, lived a few hundred yards down the road. John and his family were dairy farmers with a fine herd of Holstein cows. And, they had a large flock of sheep which they raised for the wool. I spent every moment I could down on John’s farm helping with anything his dad would let me. I learned to milk and feed cows, deliver calves, shovel manure, cut, bale and pitch hay, drive a tractor and a car, and herd and shear sheep.

To the best of my recollection, I enjoyed every aspect of it – some more than others. Perhaps my least favorite was herding the sheep. I think I preferred shoveling manure to messing with those unruly critters. Driving the flock from one pasture to another was always a challenge. If one sheep got a notion to jump through a hedge or over a low spot in a rock wall into someone’s yard, they all followed the leader. I did not have what it took to herd sheep. But John, he was the good shepherd. He had the knack. When he was herding them down the main road through the village they were perfect darlings. He loved those fluffy ovines and they loved him. He treated them gently and kindly, and spoke to them softly. With John, they were happy sheep. Me, I just wanted them to do what I wanted them to do – go from point A to point B without detouring to points C, D, E and F along the way. But, they wouldn’t listen to what I had to say.

In the 53 years since then I’ve learned that people can be the same way. We know who loves us and who doesn’t, who cares for us and who has our best interest at heart. Just like sheep, we can sense the difference between someone who is loving, caring, and sincere, and someone who is trying to control us for their own purposes. We become friends with the former and turn our backs on the latter.

Or not. Some folks decide they don’t need any help making it through life. They can do it on their own. Wander where they will with no concern for anyone else. They’ll jump the hedge when something spooks them, and poop in someone else’s yard and think nothing of it. Their actions are driven by fear, or because it feels good, or because it’s convenient, or to simply show they can. But, they’re never really happy.

Still others let other people lead them to places they shouldn’t go, and they blindly follow. Often these are unhealthy relationships based on false love. Some idolize entertainers, politicians, or athletes thinking happiness will be found if they can be like them.

For my part, since I began to follow Jesus ten years ago, I’ve learned that no one loves and cares for me more than He does. It’s His voice I listen for each morning as I sit in the solitude and silence of my daily meditation, conversing with Him, asking Him what His will is for me each day. He is my Good Shepherd. I know where He is leading me, to heaven, and I want to get there virtuously without detouring and ending up in other places that He doesn’t want me to go. Why? Because I hear His voice and follow Him out of love. It’s where I find true happiness.

To whom do you listen? Is it the Good Shepherd? Or is it the harsh and demanding voice of today’s world that invokes anxiety; or the inviting call of pride; or the sexy but illusory whisper of self-pleasure that beckons you?

“Lord Jesus, You are my Good Shepherd. I find peace and consolation each day knowing that You are watching over me, that You know what is best for me, and that You will lead me there. All I have to do is listen to and follow You. Amen.”

(The Good Shepherd was first published on the blog Reflections of a Lay Catholic)