A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. Jesus said to his disciples, ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. For the one who asks receives.
The one who seeks, finds. The one who knocks, enters. Would one of you hand his son a stone when he asks you for a loaf of bread, or would you hand him a poisonous snake when he asks you for a fish? If you, with all your sins, says our lord, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will your heavenly father give good things to anyone who asks Treat others the way you would have them treat you. This sums up the law and the prophets.
And this is the gospel, the good news of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. The first reading today is Esther and her prayer to the lord in her great distress. The readings we had of oration, the response to oil psalm emphasized, lord, all I have to do is to ask you and you'll answer my prayer. Then we come to this excerpt from saying today's gospel reading, and lo and behold, what could our lord keeps repeating.
If you knock and it'll be open, run after it, you'll you'll catch it. He uses all of these figures of speech. Seek and you'll find it. If you know how to give what is good to your kids, don't you think God Almighty knows as much as you and will do the same for you, his children? The only thing wrong with this, it doesn't seem to work out.
Doesn't seem to work out. Now I've had a lot of trouble in my life with prayer, and anyone who's tried is going to have trouble with it on all levels philosophical, theological, pragmatic, experiential, utilitarian, you name it, and it's it's troublesome. I never will forget one Sunday, well, I happened to be in the company of some Christian scientists. Very fine, serious, responsible people. And we got into this discussion on prayer.
First of all, why should I have to tell God anything? If God's all knowing, why do I have to tell him anything? It's ridiculous. Secondly, how can prayer be efficacious without upsetting the universe? You know, you you're acquainted with all those arguments.
Arguments. Well, we we had a very pleasant, gentlemanly, and ladylike discussion, and we ended up in a very fine, friendly manner. Of course, we got no place. As far as I'm concerned, I can argue this thing philosophically, but I know I'm not going to get any place. Because I can't answer that question.
If God knows everything, why do I have to tell him and beg him to give me my daily bread? You're not going to come to that conclusion on philosophical grounds. I assure you, you are not. Now there are other kinds of prayer. We're talking here about the prayers of petition.
There's no question of that. We're not talking about prayer in the sense of worship, adoration, prayer of repentance. No. No. We're talking here about the give me prayer.
Lord, I need you. I'm Esther. I'm in serious trouble. For god's sake, help me. And a knock on the door and the door doesn't open.
I don't receive as far as I can see. And as far as I can see, everything I'm asking for, it's got to be what God wants. And yet nothing happens. No doors open, nothing happens. I don't think you can discuss prayer.
This is just my opinion. I I mean, I can argue with you all day, and I like to argue. But when it comes down to honest to God pursuit of truth, leaving aside all the polemics and the fun of a debate, and that is fun. It's as good as a game of checkers, you know, or playing crap or something. It's just about the same.
But when you come down to an honest to God pursuit of truth, you rest your case on our Lord's words. The only argument that I know is worth it, well worth anything, is our Lord's own words with the Lord's prayer. He gave us that prayer, and he gave it because someone asked him to asked him to teach us to pray. Now if you'll notice how that prayer builds up, it doesn't begin with, Lord, I'm in desperate need. I need this.
I need that. I want this. Oh, no. Our father. Our father.
And in Latin, you see, the the our isn't there. It's paternoster. God, our father. God comes first. And in the at the end of the prayer, give us this day our daily bread.
God knows I need my daily bread. Why do I have to ask him for it? Because Christ told me to do it. And that's the best answer I know. And as far as I'm concerned, on an honest to God basis of the pursuit of truth, it's the only answer.
He told us to do it. We're commanded to do it. Now, coming back to this situation about the doors not opening and our prayers not being answered, and this in the face of our Lord's explicit statements. He said, if you had the faith of a tiny mustard seed, you could move a mountain. Well, I've never tried to move mountains.
I can't even get results sometimes with an anthill. Nothing moves. Nothing happens. I of course, you all know the answer to this, this is the easiest part about it. There's no problem here.
The problem of unanswered prayer is no problem. Because prayer goes back to the fact, fact, the actuality, in the existential order that we have a heavenly father. And if you know how to give good gifts to your kids, give God the credit of knowing how to give good gifts to you. Now, of course, the problem is who's going to be the judge of what's good? Here's a spouse, wife or husband, praying desperately that an the alcoholic spouse will will will straighten up.
Can you pray for anything better than that? Here you have a marriage that's going to pieces, and one or two or both the spouses are begging God to help them to save it. What's wrong with a good marriage? Here's a person in a in grave difficulties at once one sort or another, and let's make it real that it's a real serious moral situation, and they want to get out of it. But we all know how we're pulled by these things.
We wanna do it, but we haven't a gumption. Saint Paul says, the good that I would, I do not. I do not. And the evil that I would not, that I do. Saint Paul said that.
And, of course, you have the same thing in some of the pagan poets. I see the good and approve it and do the opposite. Horace said that. This is not a great problem because if God is your father and a loving father, and our blessed lord certainly pounds that home, that we are not alone, that that we are sons and daughters of an all loving father. Now if you admit that, and if you don't admit it, why do you pray at all?
Then you there's no problem. Because you know enough not to give a poisonous snake to your kids. If he wants you to give him a handful of aspirin, you don't dump out a handful of aspirin and say, here, take it, swallow it, we'll give you a good funeral. Of course you don't. Every parent know well, most parents know enough not to give poisonous snakes to their kids.
Give God credit for knowing as much. We are not the judge of what's good for us. It's impossible. Let's face it. We cannot make a judgment on that.
We're too close to it. We're the problem's too immediate. Remember, the one thing that we have to achieve in this life is salvation. Nothing else. You don't have to achieve anything else.
You could be rich, poor, miserable, happy, any of those things. They are immaterial to your salvation. And that's what's going to be the criterion of what's good for you. What impels you along the way to your salvation? God almighty knows enough not to give a poisonous snake to his child.
In the name of the father and of the son and holy spirit. Amen.