Thursday in the 27th Week of Ordinary Time, October 12, 2023

Luke 11, 5-13

Jesus said to his disciples: “Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,’ and he says in reply from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’ I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.  And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

After teaching his disciples to pray, the Lord Jesus lays out the need for persistence in prayer and his assurance that the prayers of believers will be answered in the way which is most favorable for their salvation.

“Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him.”  Something to keep in mind as we read this example Jesus gives us is that no one traveled at night except in time of crisis.  It was simply too dangerous due to the lack of light and the activity of thieves.  This idea is confirmed by the fact that the man in bed in his house was not expecting visitors or he would have provisions stored for them.  This leaves us free to suppose an emergency had arisen.  Thus, the man who was traveling at night had no chance to provide for himself on his journey and so he would have been hungry and exhausted from his journey.  “Three loaves of bread” indicates that the man is  passing on further as soon as he has eaten and rested a little.  He would eat one loaf now and two over the course of his journey to his destination.

“Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.”  Literally, “Do not offer me trouble”, as if to say, Do not involve me in your troubles.  In the average house of that time and place, the family would have slept in one room and so one person getting up and moving around would have awakened everyone else.  Bread and other food was not ordinarily kept after meals because there was no way to preserve them.  But flour would have been kept in jars with lids on them.  The man’s wife or eldest daughter would then have been pressed into service to make the bread quickly, making the dough and then putting it directly on the fire.  The request for bread, then, meant a lot of trouble.  “I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.”  The man with the visitor knows that he has no one else he can wake up to help him and he cannot go back empty-handed to his distressed guest, so he does not let up and continues to pound on the man’s door, threatening to wake up the whole village.  Simply out of his own self-interest, the importuned man gets up and rouses his household to help.  The Lord’s point is that if a neighbor can be urged against his will to lend assistance, how much more our loving Father will send aid in time of need.  In truth, the Father is more willing to give us aid than we are to ask for it.  And how many times have we said to ourselves, I do not need to pray for this; I can handle it myself.

“Everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”  Now, what does the man in the Lord’s example ask for?  He asks for bread for his famished friend so that he can go on.  The Lord especially wants us to ask for that which we most need on our journey in this life: the grace to do his will.  The Lord’s “bread”, as we noted yesterday, is to do the Father’s will: “My bread is to do the will of him that sent me, that I may complete his work” (John 4, 34).  This must be the food of his followers as well.  The work that we do, sharing in our Lord’s work, is to labor for the salvation of souls, through our prayers, good example, good words, or through missionary work overseas.  To this end we pray for good health and other necessities.  Our Father in heaven will answer us favorably.  But how will he answer us?  “What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?”  When we dictate to God exactly what he is to give us and the manner and time of its delivery, we are asking for snakes and scorpions, for we hardly know what is good for us.  But our Heavenly Father knows exactly what we need, when we need it, and how we should receive it.  He may give us the opposite of what we asked for, but we can be sure that this gift is far greater than the thing we thought we wanted.

“If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”  That is, If even those of you who are wicked know how to give good gifts to your children,  etc.  Even the wicked know what their children need.  How much more intimately does our Heavenly Father know us, who created us and watched constantly over us?  “The Lord is my Shepherd and I shall lack for nothing” (Psalm 23, 1).