Luke 11:1–13
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial." And he said to them, Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, "Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him." And he answers from within, "Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything." I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. "
Commentary
The disciples had often seen Jesus praying alone. They were anxious to learn some special prayer from him, as John the Baptist had evidently taught his disciples some special prayers. As Jews, the disciples knew the ordinary morning and evening prayers. Prayers before eating were usually aid by the Jews too, and the disciples also would know them. Our Lord’s answer to this request was the prayer we all know as the “Our Father”.
In this prayer, Jesus gave them a formula which contains the essence of all prayer. God is addressed as our Father. He really is, since he made his Don our brother. We praise and honour him and wish that all will honourn him. Then we ask for our daily, temporal needs, and especially for our spiritual needs. We ask forgiveness of all our offences, while we likewise promise to forgive our brothers if they offend us.
Jesus then went onto stress the necessity of perseverance in our prayers. We must honour God daily and pray that all will honour him. We must also keep on asking for our temporal and spiritual needs. This is the meaning of the parable. The Father may delay the granting of our reque3st because he wants us to continue to t trust in him. This very perseverance in our prayer is bringing us closer and making us dearer to God. This is a greater blessing for us than the favour for which we were asking.
As regards requests for help in our spiritual life, we can rest assured that, if God delays his answer, the reason is that he has some more important spiritual gift for us. Our perseverance in prayer will bring it to us. Many great saints often wondered why God did not answer their fervent prayers and remove some temptation, or some lack of virtue which they felt was impeding their progress. They found out later that it was because God was slow in grating their requests that they actually progressed in sanctity.
As far as temporal favours are concerned, we do not always know what is best for us. God does. Of this we can be sure that if our requests for temporal favours are sincere and persevering, we are sure to get an answer. Christ himself says so. The answer may not always be what we asked. If not, it will be something better, something we do not even know we need. God knows it and gives it to us, instead of the less essential gift we were asking for.
Looking back over our lives, many of us can see now how fortunate we were that some of the favours we sought so fervently from God in our youth were not given us. He gave us instead some gift which we had not even thought of, but which changed the course of our lives and saved us from the tribulations, spiritual and temporal, which the gift we were so anxiously seeking would have caused us, if God had granted it.
We are told by Christ, we must continue to ask. He has put us in this world in order to earn heaven. Our life here is of its very nature a journey. All journeys entail some, and often many, hardships. For one on his way home, the journey’s hardships are bearable. For some they may at times border on the unbearable, but such people can turn to their heavenly Father. He has a personal knowledge of, and interest in, each individual’s progress. Ask him to remove the cross, for the time being at least. Loving Father that he is, he will do just that, or he will strengthen the shoulder that has to bear.
Remember out Lord’s advice to us: “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you will find, knock and it shall be opened to you.” Amen.