Gospel of 25 February 2021
Thursday of the First Week of Lent
Matthew 7:7-12
Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find
Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him. Is there a man among you who would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread? Or would hand him a snake when he asked for a fish? If you, then, who are evil, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
‘So always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that is the meaning of the Law and the Prophets.’
Reflexion
It’s no wonder why so many people often complain that their prayers remain unanswered. Could it be that they are praying for what they think they ought to want, rather than what they actually need?
In the first reading, we hear the prayer of a desperate woman, a queen no less. Faced with the threat of genocide of her entire race, Esther supplicates God on behalf of her people. She recognises her unworthiness to act as a representative of her people and in her hands, the fate of her people hang in a balance. But she utters these words, confident that God will answer her prayer. Unlike so many others, she does not attempt to change the mind of God. She cites God’s promise to her people as the foundation of her convictions. She is merely asking something which she believes is what God has already willed.
In today’s Gospel our Lord assures us that just as we know how to give our children what is good when they come to us with requests, so God will give good things to those who ask. Part of this process is a transformation of our desire so that we come to want what is truly good, what is truly best for us and for our neighbour. The problem isn’t that we are aiming too high, asking God for something beyond His means; the problem lies in aiming too low. We set ourselves up for failure when we suffer from low expectations of God and what He wants for us. He wants to give us heaven but we grovel for petty things.
Prayer isn’t attempting to change the mind of God, but is allowing God to change ours. Remember the prayer which our Lord taught us which has this petition: “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Not my will be done but God’s will.
Prayer is also not an attempt to gain God’s attention; it is a work of grace in us that expresses our share in the life of God. All true prayer is offered through our identification with Christ, through our sharing in His Sonship as adopted children of God. If we are praying in Christ then, no matter how trivial or distorted our desires might be, we will slowly be made like Christ and begin to love what He loved, and want what He wanted. If our will is fully united to the will of God, then what we want and desire is what He wants and desires. That is how when one asks it shall be given, when one searches he will find and when one knocks the door will be opened to him.