Oct 31 Tue
Reflections on Psalm 2 (4) TUESDAY
Trust God's help. “I contemplate the Work as God wanted it to be, Saint Josemaría told us, and we have to wait. I see it projected forward in time, centuries away, cutting a deep, broad furrow, bright and fruitful, through the history of mankind, with humble, silent work.” But for this to come true, we need to pray.
“Ask of me,” Psalm 2 goes on. God foresaw all the prayers and joyful sacrifices offered by everyone. “God wants to be asked, says St Gregory the Great; he wants to be coerced, he wants to be overborne by a sort of importunity.” Jesus Christ teaches us this in many parables. The conclusion is always the same: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Truly, truly I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name. Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
Although God had decreed the Incarnation of the Word, he wanted to be asked for it insistently. How often, and with what confidence in God's promise, the just men and women of the Old Testament “demanded” - so to speak - the help he had pledged to give. After one of the many times when Israel had sinned and merited God's anger, Moses stood up to God in these terms: “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?... And the Lord repented of the evil which he had thought to do to his people.” Moses' prayer was necessary, in God's Will, for the Jewish people to reach the Promised Land.
To ask for things in prayer is to identify ourselves with God's Will. “Pray, pray, this is the system; and then work, serenely and joyfully,” because God relies on our efforts to do His Work; and our efforts, paradoxically, consist, above all, on letting God's power act.
“Lord, you are who you are. I am nothingness itself. You have all the perfections: power, strength, love, glory, wisdom, authority, dignity... If I unite myself to you, like a child who goes to the strong embrace of his father, or sits on his dear mother's knee, I will feel the warmth of your divinity, I will experience the light of your wisdom, I will sense your strength running through my veins.”
I trust in you, O Lord. I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hand. Let us put our trust in God:
“Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”
He will perform this sowing of holiness and apostolate throughout the world.
Video: