We want you to do for us whatever we ask of you

This simple statement by James and John in today’s Gospel (Mark 10:32-45) expresses perfectly the attitude that many of us often have as we approach the Lord in prayer:

We want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.

It is easy to imagine our Lord smiling gently but gravely in response.

You do not know what you are asking.

Our attitude at prayer should not follow the example of James and John (as human as it is), but rather the example that Christ himself gives us near the end of this Gospel (14:36) as he speaks to the Father from his heart:

Not what I will
but what you will.

May this be our attitude in prayer
and in our daily lives may our attitude also be Christ’s,
as he tells us at the end of today’s Gospel.

Whoever wishes to be great among you
will be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you
will be the slave of all.
For the Son of Man did not come to be served
but to serve
and to give his life
as a ransom for many.

May we do what God asks of us.