Thursday in the First Week of Lent, February 25, 2021

Matthew 7:7-12

Jesus said to his disciples: “Ask and it will be given to you; 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. Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asked for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asked for a fish? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him. Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.”

In the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, we see how much more eagerly Almighty God is to answer our prayers than even we are to ask for what we need.  He is like a shopkeeper standing in front of his store, calling out the bargains he has for his customers, practically cajoling them into coming in.  It is almost pathetic to see him this way, the infinite God, bowing before his creatures as a servant ready to do their will.  And yet, that is the power of love — to make us servants of one another.  

But what are we to pray for?  We pray for our necessities, especially for our spiritual necessities.  We pray for the grace to become saints.  We pray for the grace to help others to become saints.  We pray to know the Lord Jesus more and to experience the boundless cascade of his love.  The Lord tells us to pray perseveringly: “Pray, and do not grow weary” (cf. Luke 18, 1).  St. Paul adds to this, “Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5, 17).  How do we do this? We can pray at specified times throughout the day, as priests and religious are to do; we can pray during times when we find ourselves free from obligations; we can pray simple prayers like aspirations, over and over.  We can imitate some of the desert fathers and mothers who lived apart from the cities in solitude, and repeatedly pray from our hearts, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”  Making a holy hour or even half hour allows us to ask for what we need, as well.

One thing we ought to keep in mind is that prayer transforms us, even beyond the graces we gain for ourselves and for others through it.  By gazing at the Lord in prayer, we become like the One on whom we look.  That is why praying before the Blessed Sacrament is so highly recommended to us.  We can think of it this way: when we go outside in the summer and lay in the sun, its rays change our appearance.  If we bask in the invisible light of the Blessed Sacrament, he will change our interiors.

“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.”  This is such a simple phrase that a child can understand it.  And yet many adults can not or will not.  The Golden Rule, as we call it sometimes, is a measure (hence, “rule”) with which we determine how we should act towards another human being.  We apply it as a critique to an action we are contemplating. If the action most probably would have a truly good effect, then we should consider doing it.  At the same time, we must figure whether the good action done for a stranger, say, would prevent us from carrying out a responsibility to a friend or family member. The Golden Rule, as the Lord teaches us, respects the order of love he has established for us.