When we were four or five years old, we made our list for Santa Claus and Mom took us to the shopping mall to sit on Santa's lap. We gave Santa our Christmas list, sure that he would give us everything that we wanted.
Five or ten years later, we made our list again, but this time we took it to God rather than Santa — “Lord, please make me pass this test.” “Lord, make so-and-so like me.” “Lord, clear up my acne.” We were sure that God would answer our prayers, because Sister told us so.
Then at age twenty, we prayed that the boy or girl of our dreams would fall in love with us or that we'd get a good job with the right company.
After marriage, we become so busy with family, children and career that we ignored God.
By the time we hit mid-life, we're raising the kids, we have a nice home and our careers are on track. Then a crisis hits and we finally reconnect with God, but we still go to Him with the ten-year-old's understanding of God, expecting God to answer our prayers exactly as we want and on our timetable.
Sadly, some of us never talk to God except when we want something. We go through the motions of faith, so that we can come running to God when problems come. Of course, God will give us what we want, because we always get to church.
Most American Catholics have put to rest their myth about Santa Claus, but they often cling to childish descriptions of God. The biggest fallacy is that God answers our prayers just as they want them answered. Very often, that is the real reason why they worship God and go to church. And if God disappoints them and doesn't save their child from leukemia, then forget about church.
One prominent American businessman abandoned his faith and bashed the idea of God because he believed that God didn't answer his prayers when his elderly mother was dying. Sadly, he is not alone.
The great myth that many Catholics have is that God is somehow Santa's first cousin, ready to give us whatever we want. It is a child's image of God that we've kept with us for thirty or forty years.
We come from a mercenary world and a consumer society, so we look upon reward from God as a freedom from sickness and disease or disaster.
In the Gospels, reward has more to do with openness to God, an ability to receive God and become like God. The rewards we look for are not in this world, but from the heart of God.
Thus St. Theresa of Avila tells us that prayer is wanting what God wants, but we often turn the tables and think of prayer as getting God to do our will.
This is said clearest in Luke: “And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the holy Spirit to those who ask him?” (Luke 11:9-13)
God is never outdone in generosity. Expect great things from the Lord, but look to what you expect. Union with God is the ultimate goal, what we should really want. God answers our prayers by giving us a great capacity for Himself, which is that goal.
(This article courtesy of the Catholic Review.)
