Thursday of the First Week of Lent 2023
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Ask and it will be given to you;
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.
-Matthew 7:7-8
On this Thursday of the First Week of Lent, the liturgy offers us a lesson on the necessity and power of prayer.
The story of Queen Esther—part of which is recounted in the First Reading—is a moving tale of a queen who saves her people from extermination through her faith and prayer. Although it is one of the often-overlooked texts in the Old Testament, the Book of Esther reminds us that when we face great trials, great hope is also demanded. Prayer grounds that hope not in some vague sense of optimism about the future, but in the awareness of God’s presence with us here and now as we navigate the storms around us.
Reflecting on the relationship between hope and prayer, Pope Benedict XVI offered these insights: “Prayer nourishes hope because nothing expresses the reality of God in our life better than praying with faith. Even in the loneliness of the most severe trial, nothing and no one can prevent me from addressing the Father "in the secret" of my heart, where he alone "sees", as Jesus says in the Gospel (cf. Matthew 6: 4, 6, 18)” (Homily for Ash Wednesday, 2008).
We hear Jesus speaking to us of prayer and God’s generosity in the Gospel proclaimed today.
Reminding us that God’s fidelity and love exceed even that of the most attentive parent, we are invited to seek, ask, and knock with confidence: “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him” (Mt 7:11).
“Consider the promises of the Gospel; prayer – trust – faith: those promises and that faith which are always powerful because they are divine and eternal; that prayer and that trust, which make smooth and easy what seems impossible, opening heaven from whence are drawn incredible proofs, which the whole world of unbelievers will never overthrow.”-Blessed Francis Mary of the Cross Jordan, Spiritual Diary (18 March, 1901)
The Gospel goes on to remind us, however, that our attitudes and actions must mirror the generosity of God. Because we receive the benefit of God’s boundless love and mercy when we call out, we are also asked to show the same generosity in our response to the petitions of others (see vs. 12). Or, to say it another way, others have the right to expect from us what we are able to expect of God.
Here, our prayer and the works of mercy come together, with each giving shape to the other.
Prayer, Pope Francis has pointed out, is ultimately born from humility and faith. We stand, as it were, with both hands raised to heaven asking for what we could never provide for ourselves. But the faith that is expressed in prayer—as we see in the story of Queen Esther—is a “protest against a pitiful condition the cause of which we do not understand. Lack of faith,” Pope Francis continues,” is to limit ourselves to endure a situation to which we have become accustomed. Faith is the hope of being saved.”
The Season of Lent invites to be intentional in cultivating humble, faith-filled prayer. Our bona opera of fasting and almsgiving unite with our prayer as we then share with others the blessings that we receive: "Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets” (Mt 7:12).
Bestow on us, we pray, O Lord,
a spirit of always pondering on what is right
and of hastening to carry it out,
and, since without you we cannot exist,
may we be enabled to live according to your will.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-Collect for Thursday of the First Week of Lent
