The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
I have always had a hard time asking for things.
I’m the type of person who will find a way to get what I need by myself or go without it because if I have to ask, it will simply inconvenience someone else. Because of this, today’s Gospel has always been particularly hard for me. I’d ask myself questions like, “You mean I’m supposed to actually ask God for the things that I want? What if they seem insignificant? On the other hand, what if they seem outrageous and bold? Surely God doesn’t have time for prayer requests from little old me?”
It wasn’t until I heard someone (much wiser than I) share that if we don’t ask God for the desires of our heart, we can never truly receive them as a gift.
You see, the Father wants us to call out to him. We hear how the Apostles were begging for Jesus to teach them how to pray because they longed to be in relationship with God the Father just like He was. They wanted their petitions to be heard by the Father, yes, but they also wanted the receptivity and trust that Jesus had. The kind of surety that God was going to grant them everything they needed.
This beautiful exchange of gifts between us and the Father is what we are being called to, brothers and sisters. This vulnerable moment where we say to the Father, “here is my heart, Your will be done”. The Lord knows how frightening that is for some of us, but these words should give us comfort: “And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you”.
These words are not empty promises, my friends, they are words of consolation and hope that the God who loves us is waiting to give good gifts to His children, if we would simply ask.
Susie Lopez is a life-long Texan who enjoys training for marathons, baseball games, bacon, and jamming to 80’s songs in H-E-B. She works for a Catholic apostolate, the St. John Paul II Foundation, where she gets to serve the Church with her Martha-like gifts and talents, while slowly becoming more like Mary. Come say hello on Instagram!