Daily Reflection Thursday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

In yesterday’s Gospel, Jesus taught his disciples the “Our Father” which, of course, contains the petition for daily bread. Today, Jesus moves logically to a story about a neighbor who comes seeking bread for a guest at midnight.

         Jesus teaches persistence in prayer. If a grumpy neighbor will listen to an inconvenient request, how much more will a loving God listen to the needs of his children? We also hear about what a father will give to his child. If an ordinary father will only offer good things to his children, how much more will our Father in heaven give us?

         We might well ask, however, if God is so loving and caring, why do we have to persist in asking? In fact, why do we have to ask at all? The reason, it seems to me, is not that God has to be persuaded like a weary parent in the supermarket with a child begging for treats, but that persistence in prayer is for our benefit.

         There are a several of ways of praying persistently. We can keep begging God to give us something we want or think we need. We can also sometimes try to bribe God by promising to say novenas, rosaries and the like as if we can somehow say to God or his saints, “Look what I’ve done. Now, don’t you owe me?” Another way is to ask God, subtly or not-so-subtly, to bend to our will and not God’s.

         The kind of persistent prayer that Jesus is talking about is quite different. Notice in today’s Gospel that he presumes that we’re asking for the gift of the Holy Spirit, “how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

To ask for the Spirit is to ask to have the same Spirit that inspired Jesus in his life and work. It seems to me that, whatever form our prayer takes, it should ultimately lead us to ask that we might be more like Jesus so that we may grow in the likeness of the Father.

         Day by day, day by day

         Oh, Dear Lord, three things I pray:

         To see thee more clearly

         Love thee more dearly

         Follow thee more nearly

         Day by day.