Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Often in today's Gospel, I get stuck on the person behind the door, who says no to his friend. Why not share what you have to give? But even more than this, today's Gospel, when focused on the man who is knocking, tells us a lot about prayer. We are told that when we ask, seek and knock, there will be an answer to our pleading - an answer to our prayer. Today's gospel speaks of hope, as does our psalm. "Blessed are they hope in the Lord." We are told to hope in the Lord. But hope often requires us to ask for help, hoping we find the answer we need.
But asking for help is not always easy. Pride gets in the way. It is pride that often stops us right as we are about to knock on the door and ask for those loaves of bread. The question, "Do I want my neighbor knowing that I have no bread?" haunts us. "What if I look like I don't have it all together?" God never told us to be perfect, have everything you need and be ready for every situation. This would be an impossible command. But God did tell us to hope in Him, to trust Him.
We are supposed to be responsible, yes, but there are times where we will need to ask for help. We will need to swallow our pride, turn to a neighbor and admit that we need help. At a deeper level, we all need to be able to swallow our pride and admit to God - I need help! We need to take our needs to prayer - to ask God for help, because we certainly cannot do it all alone.
Will we always be given exactly what we ask for? Certainly not. But in simply asking for help, there is a humility involved, that brings grace into our hearts. The more we admit that we cannot do it all alone, we cannot make it in this world without asking God for help, the more in tune we become with the many, countless ways that God provides for us, each and every day. God's help does not always come in the form of burning bushes and seas parting. Sometimes it is the simple hello from a friend, the $20 someone hands you just because, the hug from your child, the coffee someone brings you to work at the end of a rough week, that God tells us "I love you. I will take care of you. Hope in me."
As someone who likes to be in control of my life and my day, I struggle with asking for help - from those around me and from God. My prayer today for myself and for all of us, is that we may all be humble enough to stop and pray - and to sincerely talk to God about where and how we need help. In simply admitting we need help, we admit that we need God. Sometimes that's the hardest part. Amen.
- Amanda Grimm