In today’s Gospel, John 20: 19-31, we are given the story of Jesus appearing to the apostles and, this time, Thomas is with them. Jesus greets the apostles and then says to Thomas: “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Without anyone informing Jesus of Thomas’ earlier comment that he would not believe unless he touched the wounds of Jesus, Jesus brings it up to Thomas. Jesus knows our thoughts and actions from afar. He knows them before we even share them with Him. Some people contend that because God knows us through and through and knows what we have done, have said or planned to do or say, that there is no need to tell him, to be honest with Him and reveal ourselves to Him. The truth is that Jesus, in most healings, asked the person what he/she wanted of Jesus. He waited for the person to tell his/her story before He intervened. He did the same with the disciples on the way to Emmaus. When the disciple expressed his frustration at Jesus seeming to not know, Jesus asks “What things?” We need to be honest with Jesus, bare our souls to Him, for our sakes, not his. It is our openness that prepares the way for God to pour forth the needed graces. We have to open the door by open communication.
Showing posts with label Communicating. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Communicating. Show all posts
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Monday, August 5, 2013
Communicating with the Lord in all Honesty
In today's first reading, Numbers 11: 4b-15, the people are complaining bitterly against Moses about being stuck in a desert without their cherish foods, especially meat. "...[W]e see nothing before us but this manna." God responds angrily, the author of Numbers tells us, at the people's grumbling and forgetting how He freed them from 400 years of slavery. Moses, likewise, is angry. "Why do you treat your servant so badly?...Why are you so displeased with me that you burden me with all this people....If this is the way you will deal with me, then please do me the favor of killing me at once, so I need no longer face this distress."
"Moses, don't you know that you are talking to God," we might want to say to Moses. God does not kill Moses and neither does Moses take his own life. What we learn here is to deal with crises in our lives by being totally honest with the Lord. No pretensions! It is okay to say: "I'm angry, Lord. I feel treated poorly. What gives!" With close friends, a person does not need to mince words! Neither do we need to withhold our real thoughts and real feelings from God. When I was grieving the death of my mother, the absence of my father, hate letters from my stepmother, and a host of other smaller losses, I was outraged at God. My anger was palatable. I was also convinced that God was displeased with me--why else was life so awful, at least it seemed that way to me at the time. The Lord made it clear to me during one of my prayer times that He had no problem with my anger but that I did.
Moses and God were intimate friends. They talked "real" to each other all of the time. What about you? Are you transparent with God? Are you honest with God, sharing all of your thoughts, feelings aspirations, hopes, dreams, fears; sharing the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, the positive and the negative? If not, why not? And do you wait upon the Lord for His response? Do you take time to listen to the Lord to communicate with you, to assure you of His Presence, of His cconcern?
"Moses, don't you know that you are talking to God," we might want to say to Moses. God does not kill Moses and neither does Moses take his own life. What we learn here is to deal with crises in our lives by being totally honest with the Lord. No pretensions! It is okay to say: "I'm angry, Lord. I feel treated poorly. What gives!" With close friends, a person does not need to mince words! Neither do we need to withhold our real thoughts and real feelings from God. When I was grieving the death of my mother, the absence of my father, hate letters from my stepmother, and a host of other smaller losses, I was outraged at God. My anger was palatable. I was also convinced that God was displeased with me--why else was life so awful, at least it seemed that way to me at the time. The Lord made it clear to me during one of my prayer times that He had no problem with my anger but that I did.
Moses and God were intimate friends. They talked "real" to each other all of the time. What about you? Are you transparent with God? Are you honest with God, sharing all of your thoughts, feelings aspirations, hopes, dreams, fears; sharing the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, the positive and the negative? If not, why not? And do you wait upon the Lord for His response? Do you take time to listen to the Lord to communicate with you, to assure you of His Presence, of His cconcern?
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