Sisters and brothers in Christ, in Tuesday's reading from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus gives us the Lord's Prayer (or the "Our Father"). I invite you to read my homily on the Lord's Prayer, from the Gospel of Luke, which I preached back in October of 2024. Please click on the link to read: https://dcnphuc2019.blogspot.com/2024/10/homily-for-wednesday-of-twenty-seventh.html. While Jesus teaches us how to pray with the Lord's Prayer, in the Gospel readings for yesterday and today, Jesus teaches us about the effects of prayers.
When the crowd asked Jesus for signs, he responded, saying: "This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah." As you recall, Jonah went through the enormously large city of Nineveh, announcing, "Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed. . ." The people and even the king and his nobles put on sack cloths and proclaimed a fast, praying and hoping that "God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath, so that we shall not perish." God not only heard their prayers, He saw "by their actions how they turned from their evil way" and He did not carry out this plan to destroy them. When the Ninevites turned to God with humble and contrite hearts, they realized their wickedness of their ways and, in a sense, rediscovered God's love, mercy, and forgiveness. Both of these things, God desires so much for each and every one of us.
Then, in today's Gospel, Jesus said to his disciples (and us): "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." God knows the desires of our hearts but he still wants us not only to pray but to seek and knock. In other words, He does not desire "lip service" from us but for us to truly turn to Him with humble and contrite hearts and be changed. When we embark on the journey to seek God in our lives, through our words in times of prayer and with our actions (i.e., going to Mass, doing a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament, etc.), we open our hearts to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is knocking, and invite him into our lives and dwell in our hearts. When we do this, when we actively seek God in our lives, we become docile to the movement of the Holy Spirit; and God is able to reveal His will and plan for us, which is always better than anything that we desire for ourselves.
Therefore, my sisters and brothers in Christ, turn to God with humble and contrite hearts and pray and, while we wait for God to answer our prayers, let us continue to walk in faith, trust in God to hope, and allow God's love and mercy to envelop us. God will answer our prayers according to His will and in His time. Then, when He answers our prayers, it will be better than anything that we could ever desire for ourselves because God is love. Jesus, I trust in you.
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Gospel
Wednesday of the First Week in Lent (Luke 11:29-32)
While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them,
"This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah.
Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,
so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
At the judgment
the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation
and she will condemn them,
because she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon,
and there is something greater than Solomon here.
At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation
and condemn it,
because at the preaching of Jonah they repented,
and there is something greater than Jonah here."
Thursday of the First Week in Lent (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.
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