Matthew 7:7-12, the Gospel Reading at Mass on Thursday of the
First Week of Lent
In
another Gospel [Jn. 11:42], Christ
said: Father, I know that you always hear me.
In
today’s Gospel, he teaches us to have the same outlook in asking, seeking and
knocking at the door.
He
stands with us and for us before the Father, and he binds his voice to ours in
saying: Father, WE know that you always
hear us.
Christ
says our heavenly Father is always ready to give
good things to those who ask him.
There
are good things.
There
are better ones.
But
there is the best of all.
God is
the best of all.
How
much more will God give himself to those who ask him?
The
first and everlasting good that God gives is HIS VERY SELF in his Spirit of
self-sacrificing love.
Those
who yearn to love by self-sacrifice as God does— they pray truthfully when they
say: Thy kingdom come; thy will be done.
God
fulfills every prayer that lines up with his will.
He
fulfills every prayer that seeks HIM because it is his will to give HIS VERY
SELF to us.
He
never fails to fulfill such a prayer.
He
fulfills it right away, even if we are not aware of it and must work to grow
into it.
In his
Eucharist, God gives himself to us.
However,
his gift to us shall not bear fruit unless we imitate it.
In his
Eucharist, Christ himself prays to the Father for us.
In the
Eucharist, we have the Father answering Christ’s prayer for us.
Give us this day the food that is greater
than life itself!
In his
Eucharist, Christ gives and feeds us his own everlasting oneness with his
Father.
It is
ours, and we, for our salvation, need to be faithful to it.
The
draw of sinfulness stands in the way.
So we
work to begin to do now what heaven will fulfill for us: to open ourselves fully in handing over our
whole being to receive the fullness of God in everlasting glory and joy.
Turn. Love. Repeat.
