Let him who is wise understand these things; let him who
is prudent know them. Straight are the paths of the Lord, in them the just walk,
but sinners stumble in them.
(Hosea 14:10)
And
when Jesus saw that (the scribe who asked about the first of all commandments)
answered with understanding, he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom
of God.” And no one dared to ask him any more
questions.
(Matthew 12:34)
Piety
Lord, I ask
for the wisdom to accept Your will and Your words rather than analyze them to
death.
Study
It happens
often in the Gospels. Jesus says something or does something, and people want
to ask questions or press him in some other way, but they don’t. Perhaps it’s
because they remember what’s happened in other cases, where he answers a
question with another question. Or perhaps there was something about his demeanor
that made it less than comfortable to continue the querying.
Or perhaps
it’s because we know in our hearts and souls that the Lord has imparted all we
need to know in a lesson. Consider today’s Gospel reading, when Jesus has
identified the two greatest commandments. What else would one ask? The third
greatest commandments? If there are any exceptions to the two greatest
commandments? A “what if” scenario—“What if I try to love my neighbor but my
neighbor is a jerk?” We already know the answers… or know we don’t need them.
I’ve heard
people say God’s going to have some explaining to do when they get to heaven.
They want to know why specific things in their lives or those of people they
loved didn’t happen. I suspect when we get there, it won’t be so much that we
don’t dare to ask those questions but that rather, we will finally grasp the
greatness of God and we will realize such questions are irrelevant. Instead, we
will focus on thanks and adoration.
Action
Try to
leave words like “why” and “explain” out of your prayers today.
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