19 January, Thursday – Asking and Taking

Thursday of Week 2 in Ordinary Time

Heb 7:25-8:6
Mk 3:7-12

He cured many and as a result, those who had diseases were pressing upon him to touch him.

The scene of our gospel reading today is markedly different from yesterday. Today, we see Jesus mobbed by the crowd, pressed in from all sides, by people eager to meet the new miracle worker in town. In Jesus’ time, access to healthcare was a luxury available only to the powerful and the wealthy. Most people did the best they could within their limited means. This included consulting local medicine men, witch doctors and false healers, all who were more than eager to exploit the poor, the weak and the vulnerable. They saw in Jesus, a new kind of hope. No one was really interested in the healing he could bring their soul; everyone was just in it in order to be healed physically, so they could get on with their lives. In a way, the mob was exploiting Jesus too for their means, and he knew it – “he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him”.

Many of us treat our prayer time as an opportunity to rattle off a litany of requests to God. I have often wondered what it must be like to be on the receiving end of this. I know I get annoyed when friends and family just take and take and take, without even thinking of how they might give back. It makes me feel used and taken advantage of. I feel exploited. I get angry and resentful. Wouldn’t God feel the same? Though He is above these negative human impulses that doesn’t mean He won’t recognize our selfishness in the long ‘lists’ we call ‘prayers’. If when we approach God, we just focus on asking and taking instead of giving and serving, why would God listen to us?

Jesus doesn’t want believers who are just interested in taking. He wants to have a relationship with us, and a relationship is a two way street. He called us because he saw in us, a quality that he wanted in a friend. Perhaps we should re-examine our intentions then, rethink our prayers to see if we are in this for what He wants, or whether we are simply here for the asking and the taking.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Sharon Soo)

Prayer: We pray for the self-awareness to examine our prayers and our petitions. When we ask, do we ask with the right intentions?

Thanksgiving: We give thanks for the grace of God that allows us to become better versions of ourselves.