Esther C 12, 14-16, 23-25
Matthew 7:7-12
Francis Martin has written,
“Today the Word of god instructs us on the efficacy of intercession. In the first reading we learn that the secret of intercessory prayer is an honesty and purity of heart before God.
“In the gospel we hear Jesus urge us to ask, seek, and knock urgently, counting on the mercy of God.
“There is a mystery about intercession. Even if we do not pray very much, when we are in need our instinct is to turn to God and cry out to him.
“When things are going well and we have the leisure to reflect on the reality of the prayer of intercession and petition, we wonder why there is such a deep instinct in the human heart to pray: surely we are not going to force God to change his mind.
“But when are we closer to the truth? Is it when we call out to God and somehow hope for a change and even experience his action in our lives, or when we think that asking God for things is in bad taste and we ought only to accept whatever comes?
“Since the answer to this question lies in the heart of God, our best approach is to listen to the Word of God and then reflect on what we have learned.
“We are told in the Scriptures to ask God for things, confident that God will never refuse to hear us—and confident too that he will give us what is best. God wants to have a dialogue with us and to be intimate with us. This is a mystery of love and freedom.
“In thus asking for things of God, we are not to treat him as a benevolent stranger but as a Father. We are not thus “forcing” God; we are interacting with his freedom, which surrounds our own and protects it.
“God's freedom is beyond our understanding, but this much is clear: he can yield to our requests, even stir us up to ask, without compromising his freedom.
"God wants us to pray, to ask, and to intercede, first, so that we will grow in intimacy with him and, second, so that he can accede to our requests.
“Because intimacy takes time, he sometimes does not answer our prayer right away, so that we will continue to come to him and get to know him.
“Thus we see that our basic instinct to pray to God in need is wiser than our rationalizing about God's sovereign will and freedom. This is precisely because, in his sovereign freedom, he wills to be asked and to answer our prayers.
“He delights in interacting with us. We do not force him; he wants to do what we ask, because he wishes more than anything else to be in a relationship of love and trust with us.”
Posted by John
at 12:01 AM CST
Updated: Wednesday, March 8, 2006 2:53 PM CST
