Monday Morning Meditation #136

Entering this Monday morning has been so different from the last several weeks. First, I had a very relaxing Sunday, sharing lunch at my house with a couple friends from work. It is so rare these days for me to have these kinds of lazy and refreshing moments or even to spend quality time with people I like and from whom I can learn. Second, I don't have to go into work first thing in the morning. Yay! I am leaving for Alaska (on business), but my plane is not until mid-afternoon. It will be nice to have some weekday morning time to deal with personal issues and needs that get ignored for weeks at a time. Of course, knowing me, I will probably try to squeeze too much of that in, run out of time, pack in a hurry, and depend upon Donnie to get me to the airport in time.

So, I have continued to read Matthew, taking the time to think through what I have read at leisure. (This is a real pleasure and rarity, indeed.) As I have said before, I think Matthew is a great gospel. This week I stopped at the very beginning of Chapter 16, i.e. I did not get very far at all. The verses that stopped me are ones that have often puzzled me -- not the verses themselves so much but the verses of yesteryear counterposed to the behavior, thinking, and even happenings of today. The topic is discernment, and that, too, has been something I have struggled with, so for a number of reasons, I stopped right here:

Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.

² He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’;

³ and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.

⁴ A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.

Reading: Matthew 16:1-4

Meditation: OK, so I "get" a few things here. I get that Jesus is foreshadoing/foretelling his own death -- three days of darkness in the tomb (like Jonah in the belly of the way) -- and resurrection. I get that this will be the only "proof" of his being the Messiah/Christ, and I cannot imagine that any other "proof" would ever be needed.

What I don't get is the comment about signs. Almost everyone I know who is in the process of discernment asks for a sign that they are going in the right direction. In fact, I did this just two weeks ago. I had turned down a promotion because I did not believe that God wanted me to take it. Logic seemed to indicate that I should stay where I am. Intuition seemed to indicate that I should stay where I am. But others kept whispering to me that I should take it? Were these whispers from God or Satan, or just compliments and desires of others? I felt I needed to know when a co-worker I trusted sat me down and talked to me about how disappointed she and others were in my lack of desire for the appointment (promotion). So, in a final effort at discernment I asked God to put the right words in the mouth of this colleague, and then I called her the next day to raise the topic again. She told me that my words the day before had given her peace with my decision. So, I took this as a sign that I was moving in the right direction. Is this really bad or wrong? Or is it unrelated to the comment made by Jesus here about signs? Was he only referring to a sign of whether he was/is what he said he was?

Therein lies my confusion. Any thoughts?

Contemplation: That is far as I can go with you this Monday morning. I now retire to private prayer to
thank God for leading me as openly as He does, to repent if I have wrongly asked for help in discernment via "signs" of some sort, to praise Him for His willingness to intervene in my life in whatever manner works, and to ask Him to help me become better at discernment (to notice the timing of the red sky).

I will leave you now to your prayer and contemplation. First, though, I would like to bring to your attention a Monday morning prayer post that you might enjoy:

Fr. Austin Fleming, priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and pastor in Concord, Massachusetts, posts a prayer each Monday morning that he calls "Monday Morning Offering." I enjoy his prayers very much. I think you also will find them inspirational. He has graciously given me permission to include a link to his blog on my Monday Morning Meditation posts. (During the week, he also posts great homilies and other thoughtful discussions. I enjoy reading those, too, as do readers of this blog who have taken the stroll over to his blog.)

For additional inspiration throughout the week, I would point out two sets of blogs: (1) the list of devotional blogs on my sidebar and (2) my blogroll, where I am following a number of inspirational priests and writers about spiritual matters. I learn so very much from all these people. I highly recommend them to you.

Monday Morning Meditation #124: Ask!

How did Monday morning arrive so quickly? Last week is still a blur. I spent the beginning of the week at home, as in the first day of the week. Then I was off and running, first via redeye  to a conference in Maryland that my boss asked me to attend in his stead, (He is on vacation. Mashaallah, as the Arabs say.), then on a more normal evening flight to Kentucky via the Nashville airport, returning very late Friday evening, as in arriving in San Francisco at midnight and then wending my way back to San Ignatio through empty roads. Nonetheless, it was good to be home! This weekend, though, was no less busy. I was helping a friend with the PR for his newly published novel -- took all day both days, except for some time squeezed out for Mass. (I will put up some information here as soon as I get a chance. It is an interesting book.)

This week, I continued to read Matthew 7. I think I shall be spending a lot of time on this particular chapter; it is so rich. The next set of verses are ones about which I have always have some question, so I will share my opinion and would love to hear the opinion of readers. Here are the verses; I am sure they are equally familiar to you, too:

⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 

⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 

⁹ “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?

¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?

¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Reading: Matthew7:7-11


Meditation: I have seen people take these verses to mean that God will give you anything that you ask for. In practice, though, it seems that many people do not get what they ask for even if they ask for it repeatedly. The parallel to a parent responding to a child's request is helpful here. Clearly, if your child asks for something that is not good for him or her, you would not accede to the request. So, it makes sense that neither would God accede to a request that is not in our best interest. The most obvious example that comes to mind is when the kids in my catechism class say that God did not answer their prayer because they prayed for an A on a test but got a D. When I ask if they studied, they say no, they prayed instead. That one is pretty much a no-brainer, but what about the requests for health or for the stricken mother of a family of young children to live. When the latter kind of prayer appears unanswered, it causes confusion as to why we are told ask and we shall receive. (Of course, there are times that prayers are answered but we do not see the answer because we were expecting one thing, but God gave something better.)

In short, I have only partial answers for my religious education students -- and for myself although I am wont to assume that I am not smart enough to ask for what I should be asking and therefore God, being smarter than I, is likely to deflect and defer where appropriate. Actually, there is little I have personally asked for that has not been answered, often in a different and better way, nonetheless there have been times when the answer was not forthcoming or unclear, particularly when I was praying at the request of someone else for someone else; of course, I usually do not know all the details in these cases, so maybe I am unaware of what God has done, is doing, or did differently.

In any event, I would love to hear others' take on this.

Contemplation: That is far as I can go with you this Monday morning. I now retire to private prayer to praise God for knowing what we need even without our asking. I will, of course, also ask God to help me see where my prayers may have been answered differently than I expected, and I will repent for each time I have failed to ask because we are told to ask. As always,  I will thank God for all the petitions I have been granted; they have been many.

I will leave you now to your prayer and contemplation. First, though, I would like to bring to your attention a Monday morning prayer post that you might enjoy:

Fr. Austin Fleming, priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and pastor in Concord, Massachusetts, posts a prayer each Monday morning that he calls "Monday Morning Offering." I enjoy his prayers very much. I think you also will find them inspirational. He has graciously given me permission to include a link to his blog on my Monday Morning Meditation posts. (During the week, he also posts great homilies and other thoughtful discussions. I enjoy reading those, too, as do readers of this blog who have taken the stroll over to his blog.)

For additional inspiration throughout the week, I would point out two sets of blogs: (1) the list of devotional blogs on my sidebar and (2) my blogroll, where I am following a number of inspirational priests and writers about spiritual matters. I learn so very much from all these people. I highly recommend them to you.