Persistence in prayer

October 11, 2018
Thursday
27th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Gal 3:1–5 Gospel: Luke 11:5-13

Jesus said to his disciples, “Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to his house in the middle of the night and says: ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine who is traveling has just arrived and I have nothing to offer him.’ Maybe your friend will answer from inside: ‘Don’t bother me now; the door is locked and my children and I are in bed, so I can’t get up and give you anything.’ But I tell you, even though he will not get up and attend to you because you are a friend, yet he will get up because you are a bother to him, and he will give you all you need.

“And so I say to you, ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For the one who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to him who knocks the door will be opened. “If your child asks for a fish, will you give a snake instead? And if your child asks for an egg, will you give a scorpion? Even you evil people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more then will the Father in heaven give holy spirit to those who ask him!”

D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life Experience)

In a clash between persistence and obstinacy, persistence prevails. This is what today’s Gospel is about. The person’s reluctance to rise up in the middle of the night to respond to his neighbor’s urgent need ripened into obstinacy. This answer is most likely: “Don’t bother me now; the door is locked and my children and I are in bed, so I can’t get up and give you anything.” Still the persistence of the one knocking at the door prevailed.

If you know what it is to be disturbed in the middle of the night when you are already sound asleep you will appreciate the power of persistence which brought this person to his feet to serve his neighbor in need. If this sounds too good to be true, today’s Gospel is an assurance that for God it is the most normal thing to do. Jesus said, “Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find; knock and it shall be opened unto you”. God will never turn us down if we but turn to him even in most bizarre circumstances. But we must be persistent.

The kind of persistence that opens God’s heart is one fueled by the attitude of dependence and sustained by filial confidence. On the one hand the attitude of dependence makes a person persevere in his prayer before God because he has no other God to seek help from. On the other hand confidence makes a person stand before God without fear of being rejected because he knows that God is a loving Father. Such kind of human persistence works powerfully on God. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.

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