YEARN TO KNOW GOD

“I gasp with open mouth in my yearning for Your commands.” –Psalm 119:131

During Mass, are we concentrating on the next sale at work or the ballgame that evening? (see Am 8:5) Amos urges us to listen intently to the Word of God, for a time is coming when there will be a famine for hearing the Word of God (Am 8:11). Those who live in countries where they are persecuted for their faith in God understand all too well the spiritual starvation in such a famine.

We must work at listening to God. Listening to the Lord sacrificially is a good thing. Still, God wants more from us than sacrifices (Mt 9:9, 13; 1 Sm 15:22). We are His beloved. He wants a more intimate relationship with us. For if we sacrifice for God, yet have not love, we gain nothing (1 Cor 13:3).

God wants us to yearn for His Word (Ps 119:131) with a yearning far deeper than that of a beloved longing to hear from a separated lover. The Lord wants us to listen to His Word and “long for” it (Ps 119:40), so we may not just know what is good, but also listen so as to know Him (Phil 3:8-10) and to love Him with our all (Lk 10:27). Our sacrificial service to Him and others will then flow out of a response to His amazing love. With the psalmist, tell God: “My soul is consumed with longing for Your ordinances at all times” (Ps 119:20). Yearn for His commands (Ps 119:131).

PRAYER: “Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening” (1 Sm 3:9).
PROMISE: “I have come to call, not the self-righteous, but sinners.” –Mt 9:13
PRAISE: St. Junipero spent thirty-four years building up the Church in California