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Homily for Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent, 28 February 2024, Mt 20:17-28
The two disciples in today’s Gospel remind me of that dancing girl in the story of the beheading of John the Baptist. Remember that scene when the drunken governor of Gailee, Herod Antipas, after being so pleased with the girl’s dance performance, told her to make any wish, promising to give her even half of his kingdom?We are told that the girl went to her mother and asked, “What should I ask for?” She went back to the king afterwards, and as instructed by the mother, asked for the head of John the Baptist. Herod Antipas regretted that he had made a promise but he kept the promise anyway. I wonder if the girl herself was happy that her wish had been granted. (Mark 6:17-29)
In today’s Gospel, it’s the mother who is telling Jesus what her two sons, James and John, wish for. And Jesus directs his answer to the two disciples: “You do not know what you are asking for.” (v.20)
I wonder how often God feels like telling us the same thing when we make all sorts of petitions to him. Sometimes, when our requests are not granted, some of us are even tempted to resent it and doubt if God is listening at all to their prayers. I remember that scene in the movie Tanging Yaman when the character of Gloria Romero was praying inside the Church and her grand-daughter interrupted her prayer and asked, “Grandma, does God listen to all our prayers?” The grandma’s answer was, “Oh yes, he does, but he does not always grant them the way we ask him to.”
There is a passage where Jesus says, “Your Father knows what you need even before you ask him.” (Mt 6:8) And yet he still encourages his disciples to ask, to seek, and to knock. And in another passage, he says, “What father will grant his son a snake if he asks for a fish, or a scorpion if he asks for an egg?”(Lk 11:11-12) Let’s say you are the father and your son who just spoke to you about getting bullied in school asks you for a gun as a birthday gift for him? Will you give it to him?
There is a saying in English, “Careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.” James and John were asking to be positioned—one at the right and the other at the left, just when he was foretelling his passion and death on the cross. Would they have asked for it if they had known that it meant taking the place of the two thieves who were to be crucified beside him at calvary?
In the Book of KIngs, there is a story about King Solomon being told by God to make a wish. (1 Kgs 3:5) When he expressed his wish, God commended him because he did not ask for wealth or power or revenge against his enemies. What he wished instead was for “wisdom and a discerning heart” (1 Kgs 3:12). In short, his wish was, “Lord, teach me how to wish properly.”
Next time we pray, instead of carrying a wish list, perhaps we can just say, “Lord, teach me to desire the things that will truly give glory to your name.” Or, “Lord, teach me to desire only your will.” Isn’t that what Jesus taught us to say in the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy will be done.” (Mt. 6:10) It’s supposed to be the summary of all prayers. In the narrative about the agony of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, we are told that in his moment of doubt and weakness he felt like backing out. He actually expressed it in prayer, “Take this cup away from me.” And yet, in the end, he said, “Not my will, but only your will be done.” (Lk 22:42)
