A.S.K. Ask, Seek, Knock

27th Week in Ordinary Time - Thursday (11 October 2018)

Galatians 3:1-5

Luke 11:5-13

“For the one who asks always receives.”

Today's gospel lesson is one of perseverance in prayer. Jesus gives an interesting scene of a man coming to a neighbour in the middle of the night looking for some food to provide hospitality to an unexpected visitor. The neighbour is not willing to get up and disturb his wife and children who are sleeping with him (which would be very common in a one-room house). Jesus says that if the man persists, the neighbour will eventually disturb himself and get up and give the man all he needs, simply to get some peace even if it is not for love. If a neighbour will listen to an inconvenient request, how much more will a loving God pay heed to the needs of his children? As a loving Father doesn't He know all our needs?

The point here is not convincing God into doing something, but it is one of a stark contrast of one who is concerned and interested in us and in all our needs more than we ourselves could be concerned about ourselves. God is more intimate to us that we ourselves are to our own selves. Prayer is not about changing God's mind, but about coming to know His mind and living according to it. It is not about manipulating God or put him under some kind of obligation by asking him repeatedly. So, if I do a nine-day novena and say certain prayers each day, I may expect that God or some saint somehow is under an obligation to give me what I am asking for. (In some kinds of novenas or other devotional exercises there are people who tell us that “satisfaction is guaranteed.” This, in fact, a superstition – if not heresy.) Prayer is not at all about obtaining favours from a “Santa Claus” God, but it is about relationship and life itself. Only as children we can pray properly, which also includes intercessions and requests.

In another example Jesus asks if a father would give his child a snake instead of a fish or a scorpion instead of an egg. If even a very ordinary father would not think of treating his children so callously, “if you, with all your sins, know how to give your children good things, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

Then, you may ask: if God is such a loving and caring parent who will only give “good” things to us, why do we have to persist in asking? Why do we have to ask at all? The reason is not because God needs persuading (like the sleepy neighbour in the first parable of today's gospel). Persistence in prayer will only show how related we are to God. It is for our benefit. The more I pray, the more I know how deep is my relationship to God, and in prayer I may be surprised that what all I need is always and already granted. This is why Jesus says, “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.” And in another place Jesus affirms whatever we ask in his name has already been granted. In fact, the more I pray, the more I wake up to reality and God who is found in me and in this reality.