Homily: May 16, 2016 Saturday of the Sixth Week of Easter (Ask)

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“Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.”

What do you ask God for?

When I was little, I asked God for many small things. One of them was the snacks from a tea shop on the way to school. Once in a while, my parents  would buy them for me, and I loved them. I even wished sometimes that I had been born as the tea shop owner’s son, so I could eat those snacks every day.

Years later, one of my friends whose father owned a tea shop told me that he was tired of those snacks because he had them every day. He wished he had grown up on a farm like me, with fresh food and fruits.

Very often, we ask for small and temporary things, thinking they will make us happy.

Even now, as adults, many of our prayers are like that. We ask for things that are passing, things that do not truly satisfy the heart.

But Jesus says: “Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.”

Not temporary happiness—but complete joy.

So maybe today we should ask for something greater:

A joyful heart.

A grateful heart.

A heart satisfied with God’s blessings.

A heart that finds joy in Jesus Himself.

The joy of knowing Him,

believing in Him,

and living with Him.

That joy no suffering, no problem, no disappointment can take away.

And when we live with that joy, others will begin to notice something different in us. Our joy itself will lead people to Jesus.

So today let us pray:

“Jesus, fill my heart with your joy. Teach me to desire what truly matters.”

Amen.


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