The Secret Bookcase

The 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s Readings: [Click here]

On my web browser home page, there is a link to all sorts of neat “how-to” articles: how to make mayonnaise, how to wiggle your ears, how to do fancy napkin folding, and tons of other stuff. The list changes every day. The other morning, one of the items I discovered was “how to build a secret bookcase”—you know, like in one of those mystery movies where if you press a panel in the right spot, the bookcase swings away from the wall and reveals a secret room or passageway. The key to making it open, of course, is knowing the exact right place to push.

In many ways, it’s the same in the spiritual life.

Jesus tells us very clearly in today’s gospel: Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Now, I can tell you that I have prayed, and asked for, and sought many things that never came to me. I asked and did not receive. I sought and did not find. I knocked and no one was home. Maybe you’ve experienced this, too.

Well, it finally dawned on me that this asking/seeking/knocking business is just like operating the secret bookcase. The key is knowing where to push.

I read a very captivating meditation earlier this week comparing God’s will to a hurricane. The author commented that in the eye of a hurricane, there is a remarkable stillness even though just a few miles away the wind and rain and destruction are fierce. He said that in just the same way, in the center of God’s will there is also complete calm and peace—more than we could ever imagine—even though life may be very chaotic all around us.

So his point is that we’ve got to do our best to stay exactly in the center of God’s will. That’s where we’ll find safety and peace. And that’s the place where asking, seeking and knocking do definitely pay off.

The million dollar question, then, is how to find this centering point with God. Remember, the Lord is not trying to make it difficult or tricky for us. He wants us to get to this place. So if anything, he’s going to make it easy to find.

In this same gospel today, Jesus shows his disciples one the best ways to get there. He teaches them the “Our Father.” To pray this prayer with sincerity is to praise God’s holy name… to ask that his will be done on earth… to humbly seek God’s forgiveness for our shortcomings… to ask that our physical and spiritual needs be taken care of… to pray for a generous and merciful heart… and to seek God’s protection from evil. If we can get our brain and our heart to that place, that’s the center point where asking, seeking and knocking always work.

On the other hand, if in some flight of fancy we move away into more remote places in the world, we may find ourselves in the midst of a spiritual hurricane where prayers don’t get answered the way we’d like.

It’s interesting that our first reading today from Genesis is the prelude to the story of the destruction of Sodom. From the conversation between God and Abraham, it seems pretty clear that fifty people would have been a relatively small percentage of the people who lived in that city—so the population may have been perhaps a thousand or more. As Abraham continues to badger the Lord, God finally says that even if there were just ten decent people there, he would spare the city. We soon find that there weren’t even that many. It’s very sad how so many people there were misled by their selfishness and drawn away from the center of God’s will out into the dangerous and destructive storm. I guess the lesson is pretty clear that if we aren’t careful and if we fail to live and love as Jesus teaches us to, we can be at grave spiritual risk.

I said earlier that the beauty of the Lord’s Prayer is that it can lead us to that safe place in the center of God’s will. Now, this doesn’t happen by magic. It’s not an incantation—just say the words and you’ll be instantly transported there. It doesn’t quite work that way.

No, when God created us in his image and likeness, he gave us free will and a very crucial mechanism—a divine compass, we might say. That is our conscience. One of the documents of the Second Vatican Council beautifully describes it this way: “Conscience is man’s most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths” (Gaudium et spes, 16).

Conscience, then, is much more than just feelings. It’s more like a sacred computer, which we have to program with good data that comes from prayer, the word of God, holy inspirations, and the witness and advice of others in conjunction with the teaching of the Church. Our conscience is the place where the living God, the Holy Spirit, dwells within us. This is precisely the baptismal spirit that Paul describes in Colossians today—he brought you to life along with him. This is where we find not some hidden panel to swing open the secret bookcase, but rather the place where we’ve got to be in order to successfully ask, seek and knock.

Jesus’ life demonstrates that the center of God’s will isn’t always a comfortable or popular place. It isn’t always a place where the majority rules. But it is definitely a place where love, justice, mercy, compassion, and judgment-free acceptance do rule. And when we make those holy values our own, our asking, seeking and knocking work like a charm.

I pray that each of us may seek and find that sacred and beautiful place in the center of God’s will.