All I Ask of You
I was pretty sure that Andrew Lloyd Webber had written the ultimate All I Ask of You song for Phantom of the Opera. But that was well before I ever heard the refrain from a hymn by Gregory Norbet, OSB.
It was many Septembers ago at an evening of renewal for area CCD teachers. I was not exactly happy to be traveling to Streator that night. I was even less enchanted when I perceived this would be a “touchy/feely” kind of get together. Not my favorite, to say the least. In those days, I was especially good at protecting my heart from feeling too much. Strong emotion was something I generally avoided. It could lead to losing control (i.e., tears, anger, fear) and was to be avoided at all costs.
However, something began to change that night when my heart and voice entered into the group prayer response of All I ask of you is forever to remember me as loving you. This wasn’t a big Saint Paul knock-me-off-my-horse moment of revelation. And yet, I couldn’t get that sentence out of my head.
As I joined in singing that refrain after each petition, something happened in my heart. It began to open and listen in a new way. I thought about Jesus saying to me, directly to me, “all I ask of you, Mary Carpenter, is forever to remember me as loving you.” Love is the important thing. And Jesus’ love is personal and forever.
Love is all Jesus really asks of any of us. If we can truly believe this, we will live our lives differently. If we accept that Jesus greatly desires for us to know his love, we will desire in return to live our lives with that belief at the forefront. Hearts and lives can be changed.
More recently, I have been thinking about what my family and friends might remember about me after I leave this earth. There is no specific information or memory I can recall that would be of any great importance. It all comes down to my hoping their memories will be of how much I loved them. And even more importantly, how it felt to be loved by me, who was loved by God!
These days I am working on making a conscious choice to be more and more susceptible to Jesus, a wonderful kind of vulnerability.
Love. That’s all He asks of us? Really? That’s ALL??
That’s everything.
My prayer this week: Ephphatha. Be opened. Just as Jesus opened the ears of the deaf man in this Sunday’s Gospel, may our hearts be opened to the One Who is Love and to loving in return.