Continue Knocking

Oct. 10: Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s Gospel reading is quoted in Padre Pio’s Novena to the Sacred Heart, which he prayed every day—

When we first started telling people that Amelia was sick, we received many prayer cards and books with Padre Pio. That’s where I discovered this prayer. I don’t say it every day, but I have prayed it quite frequently over the last couple of years.

Reading 1

Gal 3:1-5

O stupid Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? I want to learn only this from you: did you receive the Spirit from works of the law, or from faith in what you heard? Are you so stupid? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Did you experience so many things in vain?—if indeed it was in vain. Does, then, the one who supplies the Spirit to you and works mighty deeds among you do so from works of the law or from faith in what you heard?

The question is whether or not the Galatians must follow the Mosaic Law. Paul emphasizes that they are not Jews, and therefore not subject to the particulars of Second Temple Judaism. They received the grace of God by Christ, through Paul’s preaching. There’s no need to add the extra requirements of the Law of Moses.

Responsorial Psalm

Lk 1:69-70, 71-72, 73-75

R. (68) Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.
He has raised up for us a mighty savior,
born of the house of his servant David.
R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.
Through his holy prophets he promised of old
that he would save us from our enemies,
from the hands of all who hate us.
R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.
He promised to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant.
R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.
This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
free to worship him without fear,
holy and righteous in his sight
all the days of our life.
R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; He has come to his people.

Instead of a psalm, today’s song is from Luke’s Gospel. Zechariah had been struck mute for not believing Gabriel, who told him his wife elderly Elizabeth (Mary’s cousin) would become pregnant. Gabriel had also instructed him to name the baby John (the Baptist).

So, Zechariah has been mute for about nine months. Immediately before this passage, Elizabeth told her relatives that the baby would be named John. They objected that she had no relatives named John, since it was traditional to name the baby after someone in the family. That’s when Zechariah spoke up, declaring the baby’s name would, indeed, be John.

As all are amazed, Zechariah sings the passage above.

I think the timing is curious. He was punished for unbelief, but I’m sure Elizabeth’s pregnancy convinced him fairly quickly. Baby bump, morning sickness, all the stuff. Yet, he wasn’t cured of his muteness until John was born. Why?

I think it’s because of his declaration of faith. He said it out loud, in front of everyone. The crowd told him and Elizabeth to disobey Gabriel’s (and by extension, God’s) command to name the baby John. But Zechariah stands up for his wife, his son, and his God. That’s what he needs his voice for.

Alleluia

See Acts 16:14b

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Open our hearts, O Lord,
to listen to the words of your Son.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Prayer is not a one-way street. It shouldn’t be all asking and petitioning; we need to listen to what Jesus has to say, too.

Gospel

Lk 11:5-13

Jesus said to his disciples: "Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,' and he says in reply from within, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.' I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.

"And I tell you, ask and you will receive; 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. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"

Comparison does not mean equivalence. God is not a tired friend, or even a human father. Jesus concludes this passage with, “How much more will the Father in heaven give?” God loves us more than any father could, which for those of us with good fathers know, that’s a lot.

So don’t take the first parable to mean that if we persistently ask God for something, He’ll give it to us out of annoyance. We are supposed to follow the model of persistence, of not giving up.

Albert Barnes wrote¹ of this passage: “This is to be applied to God in no other sense than that he often hears prayers and grants blessings even ‘long after’ they appear to be unanswered or withheld. He does not promise to give blessings ‘at once.’ He promises only that he will do it, or ‘will answer’ prayer. But he often causes his people long to wait. He tries their faith. He leaves them to persevere for months or years, until they ‘feel’ entirely their dependence on him, until they see that they can obtain the blessing in no other way, and until they are ‘prepared’ to receive it. Often they are not prepared to receive it when they ask it at first. They may be proud, or have no just sense of their dependence, or they would not value the blessing, or it may ‘at that time’ not be best for them to obtain it. But let no one despair. If the thing is for ‘our’ good, and if it is proper that it ‘should’ be granted, God will give it. Let us first ask aright; let us see that our minds are in a proper state; let us feel our need of the blessing; let us inquire whether God has ‘promised such’ a blessing, and ‘then’ let us persevere until God gives it.”

In the original Greek, “ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” is better translated as an ongoing process, not a one-time thing. Keep asking, continue seeking, persist in knocking. We must persist in faith.

Just because He hasn’t answered yet doesn’t mean He hasn’t heard your knock, so keep knocking.

1. Sorry for the long quote, but even though it’s 150 years old, I felt he explained it better than I could.