Thursday of week 27 in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Luke 11:5-13“Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” These words of Jesus teach us that the courage to ask comes from trust. We hesitate to ask when we are uncertain about the person before us: Will I be welcomed? Will I be understood? Will my need matter? But Jesus invites us to approach God differently, not as strangers trying to persuade a reluctant God, but as children approaching a Father who already loves them. The man in the parable keeps knocking because he trusts that the door can be opened. How much more confidently can we knock at the heart of the Father. Yet trust does not mean that God will always give us exactly what we request or in the way we expect. Jesus takes us deeper: “How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” The greatest answer to prayer is ultimately God giving us God Himself. Sometimes we ask for a situation to change, while the Holy Spirit changes our heart; we ask for a difficulty to disappear, while He gives us strength to pass through it; we ask to understand, while He gives us the grace to trust without understanding. Persistent prayer therefore is not an attempt to wear God down, but an expression of a relationship that refuses to stop trusting. The message of Christ invites us to ask boldly, search patiently and knock persistently because we know the One on the other side of the door. When we trust the Father’s heart, we are no longer afraid to place before Him the deepest desires and needs of our own. Let’s reflect: Do I have the courage to ask God openly and persistently for what is in my heart, trusting not only in what He may give me, but above all in the goodness of the Father who hears me?
Don Giorgio