Today’s Gospel points to a paradox in the Bible that I don’t see addressed often enough. On the one hand, Jesus tells us things like, “ask and you will receive” in Matthew 7. He also tells us in today’s Gospel that not everyone in need will get a miracle. How are we to reconcile these seeming contradictions?
I suppose the simplest, most complete answer is that it is a mystery that we will not understand completely in this life. “We know,” Paul says in Romans 8, “that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”
However noble our petitions are, God may have a bigger plan that we simply cannot see. Like Christ on the eve of His passion, we can pray for our suffering to be taken away, but also pray for God’s will to be done first and foremost.
Let us pray today for all those who are struggling to understand why the God they love did not grant them the miracle they longed for. May God give us all the humility to accept His will even when we don’t understand it.
El Evangelio de hoy señala una paradoja en la Biblia que no veo abordada con suficiente frecuencia. Por un lado, Jesús nos dice cosas como, “pidan y se les dará” en Mateo 7. También nos dice en el Evangelio de hoy que no todos los necesitados obtendrán un milagro. ¿Cómo vamos a reconciliar estas aparentes contradicciones?
Supongo que la respuesta más simple y completa es que es un misterio que no entenderemos del todo en esta vida. “Sabemos”, dice Pablo en Romanos 8, “que a los que aman a Dios, todas las cosas les ayudan a bien, esto es, a los que conforme a su propósito son llamados”.
Por nobles que sean nuestras peticiones, Dios puede tener un plan más grande que simplemente no podemos ver. Como Cristo en la víspera de su pasión, podemos orar para que nuestro sufrimiento sea quitado, pero también orar para que se haga la voluntad de Dios ante todo.
Oremos hoy por todos aquellos que batallan por comprender por qué el Dios que los aman no les concede el milagro que tanto anhelan. Que Dios nos dé toda la humildad para aceptar Su voluntad aun cuando no la entendamos.
J.M. Pallas has had a lifelong love of Scriptures. When she is not busy with her vocation as a wife and mother to her “1 Samuel 1” son, or her vocation as a public health educator, you may find her at her parish women’s bible study, affectionately known as “The Bible Chicks.”
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