TODAY'S WORD

By


Fr. Aloysius Santiago sdb
Rector and Parish Priest
Don Bosco Shrine
Lingarajapuram, Bangalore

Matthew 7:7

Ask, and it will be given to you;...


TODAY'S REFLECTION

The first reading is one of the great prayers of petition in the Jewish Scriptures. 

Esther prays to God out of a sense of deep distress and isolation, ‘Reveal yourself in the time of our distress… for I am alone and have none but you, Lord’. 

It is often when our need is greatest that we petition God with the greatest urgency. 

The really difficult moments in life reveal to us our vulnerability, our need for help beyond ourselves. 

In the gospel reading, Jesus encourages us to petition God, not just when our need is desperate but at all times. 

He literally says, ‘Keep on asking… keep on searching… keep on knocking’. 


Our prayer of petition will not always be responded to by God in the way that we hoped. 

Saint Paul pleaded with the Lord repeatedly to take from him what he calls a ‘thorn in the flesh’. 


His prayer was not answered as he had hoped; he was left with his ‘thorn’. 


Yet, his prayer was not in vain either. Through petitioning the Lord Paul came to realize that God was working powerfully through this thorn in his flesh. 


God’s power was being made perfect in weakness, as Paul said. 


Even when our prayer of petition is not answered in the way we want, it is never in vain. 


Our prayer of petition will always open us up to the Lord’s working in our lives. In that sense, when we ask we will always receive and when we knock the door will always be opened. 


God gives what the gospel reading calls ‘good things’ to those who petition him in prayer. 


Lets us be sure like the psalmist that  ‘On the day I called, you answered; you increased the strength of my soul’. 


When we petition God out of our need, God will always strengthen our soul. In the words of Saint Paul, we will be strengthened in our ‘inner being with power through his Spirit’.


Have a beautiful day seeking the intercession of Sr. Rani Maria and Sts. Caravario and Versiglia, the Salesian Martyrs, China