Persistent Prayer, God the Giver of Good Gifts, The Golden Rule
In today's Gospel, Jesus deals with the Lenten theme of prayer and promises us that if we keep asking, we shall receive; and if we keep seeking, we shall find; and if we keep knocking, the door will be opened to us. The reason why our persistence is successful is that God knows how (and loves) to give good gifts to his children when they do not grow weary in prayer.
(Sometimes, we think something would be good for us; but God knows it would not be, so he does not give it to us, even though we have persisted in prayer concerning it. This sort of thing can cause us to become disappointed and angry with God. In times like this, our only recourse may simply be to trust that God knows what is best and has our best interest at heart, even though we do not know why he withheld something from us.)
Jesus ends today's Gospel with the Golden Rule: "Do to others whatever you would have them do to you." What does this have to do with prayer? Maybe Jesus wants us to see that we do not always follow the Golden Rule, so that we will cry out to him in persistent prayer for the grace to follow it, because this is one of the gifts God will not refuse us.
This Lent, let us pray, as Queen Esther did in the first reading, from morning until evening, for the grace to treat others the way we want to be treated; and let us pray with the full assurance of faith that God will grant our request. This is one favor he cannot refuse.
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