Prayers, Questions and Answers

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 27th week in Ordinary time

October 11, 2023: Jonah 4: 1-11; Luke 11: 1-4

At times persons have a perplexity, that they are tempted to ask the Lord so many questions when they have difficulties! Do they really need to be perplexed about it? This is the reflection that the Word today can inspire within us.

Can we question the Lord? Is that prayerful at all? Let us think a bit: what else is prayer then? 

It is not at all wrong to ask questions to the Lord. But it is important to wait for the answer. What is wrong is, we ask questions and move away from the Lord, abandon the Lord, quit the presence of the Lord. That is the problem most of us give in to.

Ask whatever question you want to, because the Lord is your Father and Mother who loves you above all. But after asking the question, remain there till the Lord answers you, as the Lord answered Jonah today. The answer will come, now, later, much later, God alone knows when, but it will come. Because God answers prayers, that is, God answers the question your raise in prayers! God will surely answer...I need to wait!

Praying can very well be asking questions, but only when I am determined to get an answer from the Lord, whatever time it takes! For God's is the kingdom, God's is the power, God's is the glory for evermore!

Listening and Doing

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 27th week in Ordinary time

October 10, 2023: Jonah 3:1-10; Luke 10:38-42

Is listening better than doing? What about that young man that Jesus spoke to, who came to Jesus and asked a question about being saved and Jesus looked at him with compassion and explained? He listened... was that enough? Or what about that son, in Jesus' parable, who listened to his father with such eagerness, saying 'yes' even before he could finish telling him to go to work in the vineyard? He listened too... was that enough? Today Mary is listening... is that enough?

Is Martha less than Mary for doing so many things, all for Christ? What is the problem here? Martha's doing was like the doing of the Hebrews, all for God but nothing with God! Whatever you do, do it with God... listen and do! That is the point Jesus was arriving at. Like the people of Nineveh, who listened and acted, Mary was listening to act, listening to do, listening to transform herself!

Neither listening alone nor doing alone will make a difference in our lives, says the Word today. Listening and Doing is what we need to learn. Listening alone will make us useless. Doing alone will make us place the work of God prior to the God of work. So the right Christian attitude will be listening and doing - a doing that is born out of listening and a listening that moves us towards doing!