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.
Today’s Gospel reading from Luke follows immediately after Jesus teaches the disciples the Lord’s Prayer. In praying, Jesus tells his disciples, be persistent. The parable that tells about the man who goes to his friend’s house at midnight for three loaves of bread describes approaching God in prayer. Because every moment on earth may be our last, it is always the midnight hour when we approach God, who is always ready to receive the ones who seek him out.
Not everything I ask God to give me will be given to me. In the parable, Jesus makes clear that what we pray for that is in accord with the will of God will be given. The friend will give his persistent friend three loaves of bread, which he will in turn share with his friend who is on a journey. In seeking God, the will of God will be found; in knocking, the door will be opened; in asking, God will give every good thing there is to receive. In the Our Father it is the same perfect unity and abandonment to the will of God. “Thy will be done” and “give us this day our daily bread.” Help me discern, Lord, whether what I ask you in prayer is one with your will.
God, teach me today to know your will. I know you want me to know your will, not because it shackles and confines my will but because to do your will is to live in the truth and freedom of your divine love. When I say I want to do your will, let it not be as if I am fulfilling another’s human wish. Let me see instead that your will is woven into the very fabric of existence. Your will simply is; it is the way things work on earth as in heaven—a mystery. Job said it best: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be hindered. I have dealt with great things that I do not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I cannot know.”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
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