Jesus said in reply, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? – Luke 17:17
The verse above was taken from today’s reading where 10 lepers approached the Christ to ask for healing and yet only one returned to give thanks. As I was listening to the gospel during mass today and the homily from the priest, it made me pondered on my own life. The priest, in his homily commented on how we are so much more focused on the hand of God rather than on God himself. It reminded me of a quote I heard some time ago where we should look at his face rather than his hands.
Too often times we are more focused on our own petitions – our own supplications, our own needs. So much so our prayer becomes a laundry list or a wish list for God to read through and to work on them. It’s as though we give God a task list for Him to see to. And you know what’s the worst part? we worry as though God may not come through with His promise – will He deliver the goods? Will he listen to MY prayer requests?
It’s little wonder then isn’t it how we sometimes wonder why our faith in God is so shallow – why we fret so much with life’s complications and we worry and become anxious. I was listening to a talk on the Lord’s prayer where the speaker was explaining on the part of “give us this day our daily bread” – the speaker commented that in it’s truest form, daily bread means just for today, not tomorrow, not next year, but for today ; that when we say this prayer, we ask God to just give us enough to live by for the day. It really made me stop in my tracks and reflect on this – just enough for today – and this is from the Christ himself.
It made me wonder, more than just supplication, that our lives should be focused on the Healer, on the Divine, on His face ; not so much what he can do, but more of having intimacy with God – a deep relationship. And when you have that deep relationship with God, when you have intimacy with Him, asking him to provide our daily bread becomes more of a trust and less of a demand-based or expectations-based relationship. Like how a child knows that everyday there will be food on the table whether he has been a good or bad son, I am personally convinced this is how a relationship should be with Him.
There’s definitely more to the spiritual life than just bringing your laundry list to Him…
