A God of Questions?: Weekly Message for 02-13-2024

Dear Friends,

The Lord, it would seem, loves to ask questions.

After Adam and Eve’s sin, they hear the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the evening; fearfully, they hide themselves among the trees that were God’s gift to them. And the first words from the Lord are a question: “Where are you?” This pattern of questions is repeated throughout the Old Testament (think, for example, of God’s conversation with Elijah in 1 Kings 19 or his conversation with Jonah after Nineveh’s expected obliteration fails to materialize).

In the first chapter of the Gospel according to John, the Word Incarnate is once again walking among his people. Unlike Adam and Eve, who hid themselves, Andrew and John begin trailing Jesus. Jesus turns, sees them following him, and asks a question: “What do you seek?” And Jesus will repeat this pattern of questions throughout the gospels.

Why does Our Lord love to ask questions?

He is not, of course, fishing for information. Divine Omniscience needs no update. The Lord does not need questions, but we do. These open-ended questions invite us to pause, to reflect, to enter into our own hearts and acknowledge what we truly want, what we truly fear, what we truly feel. And then — and this is crucial — we can share that with the Lord. He wants us to share that with him. Every thought, every feeling, every experience can become a stepping-stone to prayer.

When I stop and listen, what question is the Lord asking me right now? What does that bring up in me, and what’s it like to share that with the Lord?

St John Paul II famously said, “Jesus Christ is the answer to the question posed by every human life.” How wonderful that the Lord uses questions to encourage us to pour out our hearts to him (Psalm 62), the Way, the Truth and the Life.

God bless,

Fr. John Pietropaoli
Two Priests and a Mic podcaster