Good News Reflection Monday of the Third Week of Lent March 24, 2014 Today’s Readings: 2 Kings 5:1-15 Psalm 42:2-3; 43:3-4 Luke 4:24-30 Expect the unexpected Is your soul athirst for the living God, like we read in today’s responsorial psalm? Are you tired of waiting to behold the face of God (in other words, his love up close and personal)? Are you spiritually or emotionally thirsty because it seems like God doesnt really care about you or isnt moving fast enough to rescue you from hardships? We get thirsty when we havent had enough to drink. In this life on earth, we will never fully quench our thirst for God, because its only after death that we come face to face with God, and its only after being completely purged of everything thats not of God that we enter into the fullness of his goodness and love. However, we can relieve some of that thirst here and now. Often, were much more thirsty than we need to be. An unquenched thirst for God usually manifests itself in loneliness, despair, frustration, self-indulgence – or any other feeling or behavior thats triggered by lacking what we need. And yet, as Christians who spend time every day with God, we should feel like we have everything we need. Why dont we? We get a clue from todays first reading. Observe the behavior of the leper Naaman. God gave him the healing he asked for, but at first Naaman didnt believe it because it was offered in an unexpected way. Usually, when we think that God has abandoned us, whats really happened is that hes not giving us what we want the way we want it! To see what God is doing and to receive everything that he wants to give us, we have to first get rid of our expectations. When dealing with God, we should expect the unexpected! The people in the synagogue at Nazareth (in todays Gospel reading) had been waiting a very long time for the Messiah. They had been praying for his arrival for many generations. But they, too, did not recognize the answer to their prayers because of unmet expectations. The Messiah landed on their doorstep in quite an unexpected way! How often we get angry, like those people did, because Gods love and his answers to our prayers are not what we want the way we want it! Like those people, we reject Jesus even while trying to find him. In saying no, this cant be right to whatever he places in front of us and by turning away and staying focused on whatever were expecting, we say no to his gifts and blessings. This is why our souls are parched! We need to spend time this Lent identifying and repenting of all the ways we say no God, this cant be right, whether its no to a Church teaching because we don’t like it or no to a bad situation that doesnt end no matter how hard we pray. We find our miracles when we expect the unexpected. Subscribe to receive the Good News Reflections, like this one, daily by email! gogoodnews.net/cgi-bin/subscriptions/mail.cgi/list/eastdr/ © 2014 by Terry A. Modica, Good News Ministries, gnm.org. Used by permission.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 09:36:22 +0000
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