“The Humble Ask Good Questions”

You need to be on your toes when you ask Jesus a question. If it does not pertain to his current message, he ignores it or answers another question. Jesus was not into small talk… “hey Jesus, how bout them Knicks” is not going to get much of a response from the Lord.  

The recent gospel from John 6 has Jesus walking across the sea and the crowd wondering what’s going on. “And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” (This was the equivalent of asking Jesus, ‘how bout them Knicks’). Jesus answers another question….. and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” They slowly begin to get with  the program and ask a real question…..”So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”(John 6:22-29)

It’s good for us to ask the Holy Spirit what questions we should be asking. If not we may ask questions that God won’t answer…questions that don’t really mean anything…. that will take us off track. Remember when Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, what about this man. Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!” (John 21:22) Woe sorry Peter, wrong question at the wrong time….. woe, what is that to you?  You have to have thick skin if you want to dialogue with the Lord; you can’t be offended when he doesn’t answer with “great question Dave, I could see why you asked that question, you are making terrific progress, but let’s hold that one for a moment”.

Actually better than “thick skin”, we need humility in order to dialogue with the Lord…. humility allows us to “know He’s God and I’m not.” 

Here’s a few further thoughts from the Magnificat today on humility. “As paradise is only for the humble, therefore in paradise everyone will have more or less glory according to his degree of humility. Every morning we ought to make this prayer and daily offering to God: I offer you, O my God, all my thoughts, all my words, and all my actions of this day. Grant that they may be thoughts of humility, words of humility, and actions of humility—all to your glory. Also during the course of the day it will be well to exclaim with this prayer: “Lord Jesus, give me a humble and contrite heart.” These few words contain all that we can possibly ask of God; because in praying for a contrite heart we ask him for that which is necessary to ensure forgiveness for our past life, and in praying for a humbled heart all that which is required to secure life everlasting. Oh, may I, at the hour of death, find myself with a contrite and humbled heart …. a contrite and humble heart, O my God, you will not despise. We very often offer prayers to God to which he might justly reply: You know not what you ask, but when we ask for holy humility, we know for certain we are asking for something which is most pleasing to God and most necessary to ourselves; and in asking for this we must believe that God will maintain his infallible promise: Ask, and it shall be given you.” (Mt. 7:7) (ref. Magnificat, April 24, 2023: Father Cajetan Mary da Bergamo, († 1753)

So, let’s ask for holy humility and then all the questions that follow will be great questions.