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 him a snake instead? And if your child asks for an egg,
will you give him a scorpion? If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”
Reflect:
If the “friend” in the parable found it hard to get up and share a few pieces of bread at
the middle of the night, imagine the sacrifice made by the one who had come seeking bread! He
wasn’t asking for bread for himself: he was interceding on behalf of another who came to his
house in the middle of the night, seeking shelter. “Ask and receive, seek and find, and knock
and enter” that Jesus talks about today has great actualizing power when we ask, seek, and
knock on behalf of the needy. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church observes, “Since Abraham,
intercession - asking on behalf of another - has been characteristic of a heart attuned to God's
mercy. In the age of the Church, Christian intercession participates in Christ's, as an expression
of the communion of saints […] The intercession of Christians recognizes no boundaries” .
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