Episode Transcript
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Welcome to the Blessed Sacrament Homilies podcast, where our mission is to help everyone recognize and experience the presence of God. We hope you are nourished and encouraged by the Word. Thank you for joining us.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: The Lord be with you and with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. Glory to you, O Lord. Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, lord, teach us to pray. Just as John taught his disciples.
He said to them, when you pray, say, father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, do not subject us to the final test.
And he said to them, 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 the visitor 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.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Last week we had the example of Martha as the proper way to pray.
She was upset about something, it was gnawing at her, and she took it to Christ, who then had the opportunity to teach her where she was seeing things incorrectly and to offer her love and guidance.
Today we have the disciples asking Jesus how they should pray.
And he takes it a step further, remembering that I said last week, good prayer is based on honesty because it's a loving relationship that we're sharing in.
And Jesus continues that theme a little bit here, for he reminds us that prayer is about a relationship.
It's not just about us asking for things.
It is about us being in loving connection with God.
So when we do bring things we are struggling with to God.
We also remind God that we're willing to do some things in return.
Not because we need God to be appeased, but because we love God as well.
So we want to show God that.
So in a way, our prayer is a contract.
We each have mutual benefit in that relationship.
And notice he says here the part of the Lord's Prayer I think we often pass through without thinking about God, forgive me, but by the way, I'm going to forgive all those people I need to forgive.
Well, now let's change that part of the prayer. I don't like that very much.
It's easier to expect God to forgive me. It's a lot harder for me to forgive others.
And at its heart, what this is about is being good stewards of everything we've been given, including, by the way, our very lives.
So that when we look to God for assistance and help and hope, we in turn remind God that we are going to take what we've been given and share it back with the world.
Abundance.
That's what a loving relationship is like.
Any love, any friendship we have with another that is all one sided eventually fails.
It can't work.
But when relationships are based on giving to one another, they can last for all eternity.
