Homily: Thursday of the 1st Week of Lent - Ask, Seek, Knock

During Ordinary Time, our Gospel readings typically are taken in sequential order.  During Lent, our Gospel readings are organized more according to the different Lenten themes: fasting, conversion, liberation, penance, almsgiving.  Today’s Gospel from Matthew comes at the tail-end of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus encourages his disciples to ask, to seek, and to knock with the expectation that God will respond.
Those are some pretty big promises, aren’t they?  “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”  It sounds as if the Father will give us virtually anything we ask for, regardless of what is best for us.

But, notice: Jesus doesn’t say, “ask, and you will receive anything you ask for”, “seek, and you’ll find anything you are looking for”.  Jesus isn’t saying, if you haven’t won the lottery yet then you haven’t prayed hard enough.  Or, if you haven’t beat cancer yet, you haven’t prayed hard enough.

Rather, he’s making a more important promise.  The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ great teaching on the kingdom of God.  So the object of the asking, and seeking, and knocking is something very particular—but in the end the most important thing—eternal life.

These promises are made to every person in every age.  It is a promise to the young person who is lost amidst all of the competing voices of our culture—that he will find God if he truly looks for him.  It is a promise to the sinner that he really can turn his life over to God.  It is a promise to the Christian that he can grow in holiness if he seeks it.

These are powerful promises to reflect upon during Lent.   As we spend time reflecting on our sinfulness and selfishness, our failures to love, and be the people God made us to be, we hear this promise, that God leads us out of the darkness of ourselves when we turn to Him for the glory of God and salvation of souls.