Ask, Seek, Knock

As little children our parents not only taught us how to pray, but had a selection of prayers to pray.  And again in catholic grade school or RE, we were given even more prayers, with the suggestion that we 'make up' prayers, as if we were simply conversing with God.  As time moved forward, our best intentions in regards to our prayer life fell aside.  We became sort of like the apostles today who in their travels with Jesus began to know they needed a firm foundation in Jesus, and the Father in heaven.  So, teach us to pray.

Jesus would again and again challenge the disciples (that would be us) with the Kingdom of God.  The Kingdom for Jesus had a sense of urgency to it.  We are reminded from the prophet, and the Gospel of Matthew, that the Kingdom is not in a far off place, but the Kingdom is here and now.  Venerable Bede reminds us that, "Our Lord and savior wishes us to attain the joy of the heavenly kingdom, and so he taught us to pray for it, promising to give it to us if we did so. Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you."

Bede goes on to reflect, "We should consider most attentively and seriously what these words may mean for us."  This text warns us that it is not the "idle and freckles," that have the door opened for them;  there has to be this process of  prayer, reflection, and meditation.  Even more so, as St Paul suggests, we are to be a people who embrace right living, charity, chastity, the nurturing of our own dignity, and responding to the dignity of others.  Very much the psalmist our prayer life comes out of a heart that desires God above all things, struggles with Sin and Evil, and is affronted upon hearing about brokenness and evil.

The Vatican documents which discuss the Church, suggest that if we want a better world then we have to pray, allow inspiration, and not close down the Word of God.  We really have to work at being holy as our Father in heaven is holy.  Persistence and faithfulness are two tall orders here.

From the cross, in pain and suffering, Jesus cried out, "My God my God why have you forsaken me."  In the middle of pain and suffering we need to have the confidence and faith to cry out to God, and expect transformation.