Thursday in the 27th Week of Ordinary Time, October 10, 2024

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?”

It is worth noting that when the Lord teaches on the subject of prayer, he tells us to be urgent and persistent about it — and he himself seems to practically beg us urgently and persistently to pray.  It should seem quite enough that our God offers to hear our prayers and to help us, but here he is, pleading with us to pray to him.  We can see this in the parable that opens today’s Gospel Reading.  The friend receives a visitor on a long journey in the middle of the night.  The visitor is exhausted and very hungry.  The friend, who was not expecting him then, had nothing in the house, which is not hard to understand given the difficulties of food storage at that time.  But there is no salted fish, no bread, no fruit.  Desperate, he goes to his neighbor and implores him for some time before he gets up and helps him.  Now, that is how we might think God would act with our prayers, but Jesus says, This is how a human would act, but, out of love, God will “rise up” quickly and assist you.  Jesus portrays God in the friend: it is God who is banging on the door of our souls to rouse us up so that we might receive his gifts.  It is God who is urgent and persistent, far more than we are in the desperate straits we find ourselves in.  And so the Lord tells us: “Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”  The Greek verbs here are in the present imperative, commanding us to keep up the action.  The Lord speaks of  simple and direct actions: ask, seek, knock.  If we do so we will receive, find, and be welcomed.  

And what shall we receive from God?  The exact thing we asked for or the thing we meant to ask for?  “What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish?”  If a human father would take care to give his child something far better than what he asked for, how much more our Father in heaven will give to his adopted children for whom he sent his only-begotten Son to die.  He will even give us the Holy Spirit, by whose graces we may live holy lives and attain heaven.