Keep Knocking
Oct. 12: 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
Mal 3:13-20b
You have defied me in word, says the LORD, yet you ask, "What have we spoken against you?"
You have said, "It is vain to serve God, and what do we profit by keeping his command, And going about in penitential dress in awe of the LORD of hosts? Rather must we call the proud blessed; for indeed evildoers prosper, and even tempt God with impunity."
Then they who fear the LORD spoke with one another, and the LORD listened attentively; And a record book was written before him of those who fear the LORD and trust in his name. And they shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, my own special possession, on the day I take action. And I will have compassion on them, as a man has compassion on his son who serves him. Then you will again see the distinction between the just and the wicked; Between the one who serves God, and the one who does not serve him. For lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, And the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch, says the LORD of hosts. But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.
Sometimes, it seems like no evil goes unpunished, while doing good goes unnoticed.
But God does notice. He sees that we trust Him, and He has compassion for us. We don’t know when or how, but God will draw a line between the just and the wicked. Rewards and punishments don’t always come when we expect, but we want to be on the correct side of the line when that happens.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
The contrast between good and evil is stark here—the psalmist measure following wicked men against obeying the good God.
These aren’t equal choices, opposing forces that balance each other out. God is eternal, sin is a waste of time.
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?"
Like with today’s Psalm, 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. As Malachai said, “the LORD listened attentively; And a record book was written before him of those who fear the LORD and trust in his name.”
Just because He hasn’t answered yet doesn’t mean He hasn’t heard your knock, so keep knocking.
Sorry for the long quote, but even though it’s 150 years old, I felt he explained it better than I could.