Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Before You Ask


Blessed is he who shall have seen you and who falls asleep in your friendship.  For we live only in our life, but after death our name will not be such.  O Elijah, enveloped in the whirlwind!  Sirach 48:11

Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.  Matthew 6:8b

Piety
LORD, you are king and the earth -- held up to you -- is a poor image.  Its clouds and darkness surround you but your fire, like Elijah, consumes your foes and lights up the world with love.  Ignite our lives with that fire so that we may live in your friendship overcoming all obstacles.

Study
When you are with a friend, sometimes that person knows what you are thinking before you say anything.  A friend wants to do the same thing you want to do. 
Jesus showed us that at the Last Supper when he predicted that Judas would be the Betrayer before he left the room and that Paul would be the Denier despite his close friendship. 
We, like Paul, have to get over the source or sources of our denial.  Ben Sirach tells us that holy is the person who falls asleep in the friendship of the Lord.  Mathew reminds us that when we have a friendship with the Lord, the Father knows what you need before you ask.  Yet that does not negate or minimize the need to ask and to hold up our portion of the crucial conversation. 

Action
The psalm today is filled with imagery of the purifying work of fire.  Light a candle and watch how the wax melts and drips away.  When we live in friendship with the Lord and each other, the obstacles in our path melt away. 

Who or what is the obstacle in your path today?  Can you turn over that person to the Lord to let his fire melt that obstacle into something good? 

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