Homily for Thursday, 26 February 2015‒ Thursday of the First Week of Lent

Readings of the day: Esther C:12, 14-16, 23-25; Psalm 138:1-2ab, 2cde-3, 7c-8; Matthew 7:7-12

For what do we often ask of God or of other people? Perhaps ultimately we ask to be loved; respected; accepted for who we are. God naturally loves us; accepts us for who we are, while challenging us, especially through this Lenten season, to turn from sin and grow and be renewed in our love for God and for one another. God’s love for us is self-evident, even if readings like those we hear today necessarily remind us of the love of God for us. Our readings also call us to deepen our love for one another: “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets,” Jesus says. This is our faith’s “Golden Rule.”

We ask God and one another to love; to respect; to accept us. In faith we are invited and challenged to love; respect; to accept others and to love God in return: “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.”

And yet our readings also encourage us to ask God and one another for what we need, and to expect confidently that our needs will be met. But what are these needs we are encouraged to ask God and one another to meet? Do not many of us have some, often healthy, aversion to asking for too much, especially of God? Should our prayer not be less of petition; of asking for things, but of gratitude and sometimes penance? Perhaps, but today’s readings show that petition to God and to one another can be effective and appropriate in many circumstances.

We hear of Queen Esther in our first reading. Esther grows up in the court of the Persian Emperor, who has turned against the people of Israel, who are under Persian rule. Esther and her people of Israel find themselves in mortal danger, and so Esther prays to God to spare her life and the lives of her people.

The cause for petition to God in Matthew is not as dire as in Esther. Jesus invites us to ask anything of God as we need it: “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.”

But then what happens when we ask something of God, or another person, and we do not receive what we have asked or prayed for? Is God answering our prayer then? Does God care? Is it possible to pray for something wrong or untimely?

I answer yes to all three questions… But I think our readings challenge us not to view God’s answer to our prayers of petition as some kind of magic: I ask and, “Poof,” I receive! More importantly, our petition and God’s answer to it changes us; renews us. “Ask and you shall receive.” And if we allow ourselves to be changed by our petition and God’s response, we may just become more able to live by Jesus’ Golden Rule: “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.”