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Gospel: Matthew 7: 7-12
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Ask and it will be given to you;
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.
Which one of you would hand his son a stone
when he asked for a loaf of bread,
or a snake when he asked for a fish?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your heavenly Father give good things
to those who ask him.
“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.
This is the law and the prophets.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Why is it that we don’t always get what we pray for?
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In today’s Gospel, Jesus says clearly, “Everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
Yet some prayers go unanswered.
Why is that?
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Context is everything.
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This Gospel passage comes only a few verses after Jesus gives his disciples the Lord’s Prayer, a prayer we’ve all prayed thousands of times.
“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
That’s key.
Jesus links today’s promise – ask, seek, find – to the Lord’s Prayer. Meaning, Jesus will give anyone who asks the grace to do God’s will here on earth, just as it’s done in heaven.
God may not give me a Ferrari, even if I pray for it. But he will give me the grace to resist temptation; to endure dry periods of prayer; to grow in humility and patience; and to embrace this penitential season of Lent.
“Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asked for a loaf of bread?” Jesus says.
“If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.”
God will never give us anything evil.
But sometimes when we don’t get what we pray for, it doesn’t mean that God isn’t listening or that he doesn’t care; he simply has other plans – better plans – for us, which often make sense in time.
May the Lord give us the grace to accept his will, whatever it may be, today.
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