The Power of Persistence Prayer: The Secret to and the Depth of Asking, Seeking, and Knocking (TA)

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The Power of Persistence Prayer: The Secret to and the Depth of Asking, Seeking, and Knocking

The Lord be with you. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke.

Jesus said to his disciples, suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, friend lend me three loaves of bread for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him. And he says in reply from within, do not bother me. The door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed.

I cannot get up to give you anything. I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence. And I tell you, ask and you will receive. 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. What father among you would hand his son a snake, when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion, when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?

The Gospel of the Lord.

Homily

Following up on yesterday’s gospel reading in which the disciples turned to the Lord and asked him to teach us how to pray, the Lord continues in a sense that instruction today. Yesterday he told them what to say in giving them the words of the Our Father. Now, however, he continues his instruction with a lesson on how to pray.

Prayer: More Than a Matter of Having the Right Words

And it’s very important to see the connection between the two things. Prayer is more than a matter of having the right words. It is a matter also of acting according to the right spirit. And the first thing, then, that the Lord is going to encourage his disciples to root within themselves is a certain holy and confident persistence in their praying.

And this is very much the echo of what we heard in our responsorial psalm. The verse we repeated, blessed are they who hope in the Lord. And the psalm builds on that statement explaining that hoping in the Lord is a matter of rooting oneself in something. he psalm continues that one who avoids wrong company and chooses the right company of the law, the word, the will of God, and makes it a point to sit there.

And with others who likewise make it a point to plant themselves there, the psalm says, Is that one who is well rooted.

The world we live in is often rootless. And what happens is we move from thing to thing, event to event, experience to experience. But nothing is persistent. Nothing remains. And it is often the case, we see it in many, that attempts to do good are by fits and starts, and when obstacles arise, or difficulty arises, or we simply grow tired, we lay those things aside.

Rooting Ourselves

We ourselves can be spiritually rootless. Or worse, we can root ourselves in the wrong place. We fill our days and our time with things that do not really give life, but we live there. And so, the psalm is saying, to truly hope in the Lord requires one to do something. And that is to root oneself in his word, to root oneself in his will, to meditate on it, to come to know it.

Because that is the basis of real hope. That is the basis of real confidence. That is the one whose life will become fruitful. And it is fruitful because of that rootedness. Which the psalm then compares to a tree planted by a flowing water. A tree that always has access to nourishment and life. It will grow tall.

It will be fruitful. Note how wonderful that is. And the Lord now is taking that idea in our gospel today of a proper confidence in the Lord and wanting to encourage this with his disciples. So, it is not simply, say these words, like there’s some magic formula. Now the Lord says, let us look at how to pray.

Petition: Asking for Something

And here the Lord is focusing on a very particular kind of prayer, the form of prayer that we call petition, asking for something. That is a necessary element of a healthy prayer life. It is not the only element, but it is a necessary one. And this idea of asking rests on a couple things. I’m asking for something because I don’t have it.

I’m asking for something. Two. Because I desire it. I’m asking for something. Three. Because I need it. And so, note the disposition of lack, desire, and need. And when we recognize that, we also understand that that’s fundamentally true about human nature and human life. We are not complete in and of ourselves.

We are fragile. And we are weak. We live in a world that is bigger than we are. And there is much that we need. There is much that we desire. And there is much that we simply do not have. But the second part of asking is I need to know where to go to ask because it doesn’t do any good to ask for what I need from someone who doesn’t have it.

Hope For the Right Things

It doesn’t do any good to ask for what I desire from someone who cannot fulfill that desire. It does not do any good to ask for what I need. From one who doesn’t have it himself.

And so now we see the side of God on that equation. That one who has what we need. The one who can give us what we do not have. That one who can fulfill our desires. It begs the question then of making sure that we truly know what we need. That we desire the right things. That when we look at what we don’t have, we make it a point to ask for something that is of real value.

This then goes back to our psalm. That one who will rightly hope in the Lord is the one who will rightly hope for the right things. The correct things. The life-giving things. That’s why rooting ourselves in his word and his will is so very important. Because it helps to form our desires. It teaches us what we truly need.

Persistence . . .

It shows us what we really don’t have and should have. And so it’s in this context of asking for what we need, desire, and do not have, that now Jesus is speaking to his disciples. And he’s encouraging them to a certain persistence in prayer. In other words, asking may be a matter of asking more than once.

And again, he’s naming a tendency in our hearts. We get down on our knees, we pray, we ask for something, we don’t feel an immediate answer, we say, I guess it’s not coming, and we’re done. And so the Lord now begins using these examples. He takes the issue of earthly friendship. And says, which one of you, suppose a man has a friend.

And it’s the middle of the night, but he has another friend who just showed up at his house, catching him by surprise and he has nothing to offer. So note, this man says to himself, but I do have a friend who’s a pretty good guy and he has what we need. So let me go and ask. And so he leaves his house. He goes to his friend’s house.

. . . in Prayer

And he bangs on the door so loudly he wakes him up. And on the one hand we sit there and say, that’s really rude. On the one hand we sit there and say, look at how inconvenient that is for the poor guy in the house. And the Lord is deliberately giving us that kind of an example. And why? Because sometimes we get in our own way with prayer.

Ah, I can’t ask God that. This isn’t a good time. And what are we? I can’t go to my friend’s house in the middle of the night. I can’t ask now. So one of the things the Lord says is it’s always a good time to go and knock on the door. It’s not a bad time. But sometimes when we knock on the door, we get a negative answer.

The Secret

And you, you can almost hear this conversation as the Lord describes it. Are you, are you, are you serious? We’ve just gone to bed, the house is all locked up, and you’re banging on my door because you don’t have bread. So, no, go, go bother somebody else. Note the negative answer. Note the negative answer. And the Lord, in speaking that way, is also reminding us, sometimes when we pray, the INITIAL RESPONSE is not positive.

That doesn’t mean the Lord wants us to go away. Note what Jesus says. If it’s not because he’s such a good friend, if you keep banging on that door and don’t let him get any sleep, oh, he’ll give you the bread. And here the Lord is saying there is a certain persistence that is required at times in prayer.

Sometimes the Lord, out of his friendship with us, answers us quickly, answers us readily. Sometimes the Lord, to test us, to encourage us, to purify our desire, is slow to respond. But when he’s slow to respond, it doesn’t mean he wants us to stop knocking. It means He wants us to keep turning toward Him, but even as we do so, to change our relationship perhaps with what it is we’re asking about.

Ask, Seek, Knock

And it may be that what I’m asking for is good, but I’m asking wrongly. It may be that what I’m asking for is good, but I misunderstand where its goodness is. And if the Lord gives it to me quickly, I will not be able to use it well or value it rightly. And so the Lord says, keep knocking. But then he continues out of that with the statement of ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be open.

And note those verbs, ask, seek, and knock. It’s not enough to simply desire good things, the Lord is saying, if that desire doesn’t move us to ask, to seek, and to knock. Here the Lord is saying the spiritual life requires a necessary degree of initiative and activity. It’s not sufficient, the Lord is saying, to simply sit still and say, God will bless me when he’s ready.

Note that Jesus doesn’t say, just get comfortable and just wait and God will take care of you in time. Rather, the Lord is saying there has to be a certain initiative in the spiritual life. There has to be a certain movement in the spiritual life. And so again, we must learn to desire the right things, but in desiring them, we need to begin Seeking after them and in knowing what it is we’re seeking, we begin to ask for it.

And a necessary part of that asking is the knocking. How wonderful that is. But note that it’s all predicated on something that’s beyond mere spontaneity. And this is a trap that we often fall into with prayer. It’s not that spontaneous prayer is bad. It’s that when prayer is only ever spontaneous, it is often shallow.

Grace and Blessings

I ask for something that I think I need right off the top of my head. That’s not bad. But the question is, do I really need that? Or is there something better that I should be seeking and asking for? This is why scripture encourages us regularly to reflect on what is really good. So that out of that reflecting, out of that considering, out of that rootedness in the word that the first psalm speaks of, I am seeking the right thing, seeking the real thing, desiring what is truly life giving.

So that as I am asking, I am not merely asking for a grace and a blessing, but I am asking for that kind of grace and blessing that I know is good to sustain my life, or the life of another. Note how wonderful that is. It’s not that the other form is horrible, but it doesn’t go very far. Ask, seek, and knock.

Seeking and Finding

And note, it is seeking that leads to finding. The one who seeks goodness is the one who will find it. The one who simply waits for goodness to show up is going to be waiting for a long time, without luck. Moreover, the one who knocks is the one who will receive, who will have the door opened. The one who doesn’t, and sits there saying, sooner or later God will show himself to me, is going to be sitting for a long time.

But the one who knocks will be received into the presence. The door will be opened. And note that image of the door opening. That’s what allows a meeting between persons to occur. If you knock, the door is opened. And it’s not just that the gift you’re seeking, the loaf of bread, is handed to you through the doorway.

You actually meet the person who is giving it to you. To meet the Lord one must knock and when one is in his presence one should feel free to ask for what is good and what is right. And so at that point then the Lord says now let’s look at the asking and he uses another example. He says suppose your child or your grandchild came up to you and was hungry.

When the Lord Grants Request, . . .

And says, could you make me a sandwich? Could you give me something to eat? And you went out and you found a rattlesnake and you said, here you go, buddy. Jesus says, would you do that? And we laugh and we’re horrified and we shake our heads and say, Oh my God, no. And he says, and suppose after the sandwich, the little one says, and could I have something sweet for dessert?

You say, sure, I can take care of that. And you have a scorpion and you say, here you go, this is really sweet. Would you do that? And again, we’re shocked and we say, of course not. That’s, that’s cruel, that’s crazy, that’s destructive. There’s no way I would do that to somebody I love. I don’t think I’d do that to somebody I hate.

And then Jesus says, then give God credit.

He uses that example to provoke that reaction. There’s no way I would give something poisonous to a little one whom I love. And Jesus says, then why do you assume that God would do that to you? Why do you assume that God doesn’t have good gifts for you? Why do you assume That you know better how to care for those you love than God does.

. . . One Enters Into . . .

So note what he says. If you who are evil, if we who are selfish, indifferent, lazy, vain, proud, all these negative adjectives. If we who are all of these things are capable of basic goodness. And if we who are so inconstant and so imperfect are still capable of real acts of love for those for whom we care.

Jesus says, how much more capable is God? How much more willing is God? And so note what the Lord is saying here. This is the ground of the confidence. The infinite goodness of God. Why do we ask? Because we need. Why do we ask Him? Because He’s good. Therefore, because He’s good, we can have a certain confidence.

And it’s confidence precisely in the goodness of God. And so now the Lord says, you know, we always spiritually second guess ourselves. We turn to the Lord, we open our hearts, we cry out in our need and when we’re done, the second guessing begins. Who am I to think that God will do that for me? Did I say the prayer the right way?

Sometimes we get back on our knees and we’re not sure we worded it correctly, so we say it a second time. As if God doesn’t understand. As if it’s a matter of getting the secret code right. Sometimes we just say, after everything about me and everything I’ve done, why do I even expect anything? You know what happens?

. . . His Presence

Or maybe, maybe the Lord’s not interested. We second guess that all the time. It’s very common. Our spiritual life often works that way. I turn to the Lord, and I almost regret my turning to Him. as soon as it happens. And Jesus is saying, let’s back away from that. Let’s back away from that because you’re thinking of God as if he’s just another regular person.

Indifferent. Inconstant. Not always ready to pay attention or to respond. And that’s not God. If you know how to care for someone you love, Give God credit for doing that too. And so now the Lord says, ask, ask rightly, but ask with confidence. Ask knowing that if you are capable of giving your children what is good for them and not what is bad, God is even more so.

And Jesus concludes then by saying, and how much more abundantly would God give the Holy Spirit? to those who ask how remarkably specific that is. And in doing that, the Lord is also saying, this is the kind of asking. We begin not simply by asking for what we need to get through the day. That’s not a bad thing to do.

We begin by not simply asking, for what a friend of ours needs. That’s good, but we don’t begin there, Jesus says. We begin by asking for what is right and good for us spiritually. And as we do that, and receive that gift, and grow in that gift, all of the other forms of asking become purer, become more rightly directed, become real vehicles of blessing.

The Bread of Life

How wonderful that is. How wonderful that is, because here in this place, we who are the sons and daughters of the infinitely good Father are gathered here. And we’re here because we are in need. We’re here because we have desires. We’re here, in fact, because we’re hungry. Note how wonderful the Lord is, because we’re to come forward.

And we’re going to stretch out our hands, aren’t we?

And we’re going to receive the bread of angels, the bread of life. The Lord doesn’t put a snake in the hands of His children. And the Lord doesn’t hand a scorpion over to those who need His goodness. The Lord gives infinite goodness to His children when they come forward, knocking on the door of His grace and stretch out their hands to receive.

And so Jesus is also saying to us, remember this, remember what happens at Holy Communion. If you, who are evil, know how to give what is good, how much more so is God willing to give what is best to those whom he loves? Amen.