Do You KNow What You Want

We can relate to Jesus’ reaction to the crowd in Matthew 11:25-30 as well as in the preceding verses, as he compares his followers to a bunch of children who cannot make up their minds: For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon”; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” 

Today, Jesus may well have asked “do you people really know what you want? What else will it take for me to help you understand how much God loves you?” It is difficult to exactly pin down the emotions Jesus is expressing but to me they reveal human emotions to which we can all relate. It helps us to know that the Incarnate, whose Word we follow and live by, can experience these human emotions that are so much a part of our lives.  

We all view the world through our own prism or lens which are largely influenced by the world around us. Two people can hear an identical message and have different interpretations. This is part of our human nature. But sometimes we consciously create our own reality that serve our desired expectations and “wishes” based on what we want to hear. In most cases, our perception is unconscious and consistent with our view of reality. When we attempt to “re-write” or “re-create” our own “script” in the face of reality, we work at cross-purposes with God’s will. Philosophers tell us that “wishing” is more a fanciful dream, not based in reality while “hope,” has a factual basis based on reasonable expectations and possibilities.

“What do you want? Jesus seems to ask the crowd. Except he knows they won’t answer because they can’t, because what they want is to grow, to evolve, to improve and more. And yet paradoxically, they want to be left alone, untouched and unchanged. Why? Because to change is to lose something, and so to change can feel a little like dying to oneself. And while the followers of Jesus wanted to grow, they preferred the comfort of the status quo. Change, delves into the unknown. Change is not certain. Change implies risk and even potential loss...which is why we often stay in failed jobs and relationships. 

Thomas Keating tells us “that there are all kinds of ways in which God speaks to us—through our thoughts and/or anyone of our faculties. But keep in mind that God’s first language is silence. We must listen. We must be willing to listen. The Spirit speaks to our conscience through scripture and through the events of daily life. Reflection on those two sources of personal encounter and the dismantling of the emotional programming of the past, prepare the psyche to listen at a more refined level of attention.”