Just Ask

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, October 13th, 2024:
Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Wisdom
​7.7-11

I prayed, and understanding was given me;
I called on God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.

I preferred her to sceptres and thrones,
and I accounted wealth as nothing in comparison with her.
Neither did I liken to her any priceless gem,
because all gold is but a little sand in her sight,
and silver will be accounted as clay before her.

I loved her more than health and beauty,
and I chose to have her rather than light,
because her radiance never ceases.
All good things came to me along with her,
and in her hands uncounted wealth.

​Pause. Pray. Reflect.

“I prayed and understanding was given me; I called on God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.”

Huh, the writer of the Book of Wisdom makes it sound so easy: just ask. Simply ask and you shall receive, as Saint Matthew writes elsewhere in scripture.

But is it that easy? I remember in junior high being desperate for a classic Roots logo sweatshirt for my birthday. I asked. But that wasn’t enough. I had to keep my grades up. I had to do my chores without complaint. I had to get along with my young brother. I even prayed for the sweatshirt. And finally the day came. My mom agreed to take me to the one and only Roots store in Halifax at the time and pick out my sweatshirt. I can still see it: all white with the iconic Roots logo across the front in pink with sea foam green accents. It was beautiful.  

As a kid I learned early that just asking for something didn’t mean I would receive it. I had to work for it. And when I did, the results could be as sweet as my first Roots sweatshirt. This lesson was foundational to forming my work ethic. So to think that God would just give me something, anything, whenever I asked just because I asked was always hard for me to get my head around. And yet, it is with this expectant faith that God invites me to ask for whatever I might need. Without any expectation on God’s part that I have to work for it – because Jesus already did. 

Jesus did the heavy lifting for me by dying on the Cross. In his resurrection Jesus restored my relationship to God the Father and offered to me an unconditional love that I did not have to earn or work for. It was and is freely given to me. I do however have to work to respond to that love. The Holy Spirit helps me to do that. After all, it is the Holy Spirit who at my baptism poured out over me all the gifts I needed and at my confirmation stirred up in me the gifts of wonder, awe, reverence, right judgment, knowledge, understanding and wisdom. Have I responded by using those gifts? In many ways yes, but I can easily forget that I have these gifts. They don’t always feel as tangible as my Roots sweatshirt, and yet they are so much more. They are the gifts that help me to witness God’s love. They are the gifts that help me to build relationships that grow God’s love. These God-given gifts are only gifts when they are gifted back to the world.

And when I don’t know how to use them, or even question if I have them, there’s one thing that I can do: just ask.

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​Aurea Sadi

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