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“Let my tongue be silenced “A leper approached... What impresses me about this leper is the certainty of his expectation as well as the courage of his initiative. What strikes me about Jesus is his ownership of power and the vigor of his command. Immediately God's desire to make the leper whole is accomplished. How different from my ordinary approach. Though the Gospel is clear, “ask and you shall receive”, I am too often tainted by memories of having claimed the promise and God has seemingly not delivered. I want very much to believe that “whatever you ask in my name” will be given and yet .... something seems to be lacking. I have heard of explanations that I may be asking for the wrong thing or I am not asking in the right way. This may be true, but where do I go from there? What has been most helpful for me is to be reassured that such questioning will take me to the very heart of faith. There I will find that in the matter of a deeper loving and a deeper trusting, God will never say no. I may not “see” it, but always it will be given. It does help to ask myself, “Do I have a real desire for a deeper love, a deeper faith?” Perhaps even more important, do I have a conscious, felt need for the power of love that is not in me, for the trust I lack? If I do not have this real desire or felt need, it is important that I acknowledge my spiritual poverty (powerlessness). Then I can ask from genuine desire and honest need for the power to love where I am unloving and the power to trust where I am lacking trust. The Eucharist is so important in this process: to feed our faith, to deepen our trust. Here is remembered the Event that has brought life out of death. Here God's desire to make us whole is realized. Here is our Jerusalem, sign of God's faithful promise. “Let my tongue be silenced |