10th of March

Gospel text

(Mt 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 asks for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asks 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.”

The Application

If Jesus asks us to pray or ask his Father, it is not because our request or prayer is right or according to the divine will. He tells us that our Father is full of goodness and generosity. Since He is full of love and mercy, we can trust Him. So, Jesus invites us to discover the divine goodness and to recognise it. Only if we discover this divine genrosity, we could make this sincere prayer of Esther and experience the divine support.

The second point I would like to share with you is do we really recognise our need and the necessities of life? It is not fair to ask the president of a country for a sweet. We need to ask God for something worthy of Him. What are those things that we discern as worthy of God and that we can ask Him for? I personally ask God Himself for me. If God is there with me, who will sand against me!

Action of the day: Be wise in your demands.

“For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds”

Fr. Joaquim MESEGUER García

(Rubí, Barcelona, Spain)

Today, Jesus reminds us of the need and power of prayer. We cannot understand our Christian life without being related to God, and in this relation, prayer takes a central place. While we live in this world, we Christians find ourselves on a pilgrimage road, but our prayer gets us closer to God, opens up the door of his immense love and brings forward the Heaven delights. This is why, our Christian life is a constant request and search: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Mt 7:7), says Jesus to his disciples.

At the same time, the prayer gradually turns a stone heart into a flesh heart: “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” (Mt 7:11). The best summary we can ask God can be found in Our Lord's Prayer: “Your kingdom come and your will be done, on earth as in heaven” (cf. Mt 6:10). We, therefore, cannot ask just anything in our prayers, but something, which is really for our own good. If nobody wants to hurt himself, we should not want any damage for others, either.

We, sometimes, fail to see God's concern for us, for we find our prayers seemingly unanswered or may even feel God does not love us. In such moments, it will do us good to remember this advice from Saint Jerome: “It is certain God gives to he who asks, that he who seeks finds, and that he who knocks will be opened: It is clearly seen that he who has not received, who has not found, who has not been opened, is just because he did not know how to ask, how to seek nor how to knock at the door.” Let us, therefore, ask God, in the first place, to give us a loving heart just like that of Jesus Christ.