HOMILY FOR THURSDAY OF THE 1ST WEEK OF LENT.
THEME: Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find.
BY: Fr. Diotacious Chikontwe SMA.
*READINGS OF THE DAY*
Esther 4:17
Psalm 137:1-3,7-8
Matthew 7:7-12
*LITURGICAL COLOUR*
PURPLE
*FROM OUR FIRST READING*
The prayer of Queen Esther in today’s first reading is a very powerful prayer of someone in mortal peril, especially the final petition of her prayer, ‘come to my help, for I am alone and have no one but you, Lord’. She is a powerful woman, a queen, but at this desperate moment in her life she recognizes that she is completely powerless and totally dependent on the Lord alone for help. There can come a time in all of our lives when we recognize that if the Lord does not help me no one will. These are moments when our total dependence on the Lord for our personal survival is crystal clear to us. We come before the Lord in our poverty, our vulnerability, and in desperation we cry for his help.
RELATED: HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY OF THE 1ST WEEK OF LENT.
*FROM OUR GOSPEL READING*
In the gospel reading, Jesus encourages us to petition God, not just when our need is desperate but at all times. He literally says, ‘Keep on asking… keep on searching… keep on knocking’. Our prayer of petition will not always be responded to by God in the way that we hoped.
*CONCLUSION*
Our prayer of petition will always open us up to the Lord’s working in our lives. In that sense, when we ask, we will always receive and when we knock the door will always be opened. God gives what the gospel reading calls ‘good things’ to those who petition him in prayer. In today’s responsorial psalm, the psalmist prays, ‘On the day I called, you answered; you increased the strength of my soul’. When we petition God out of our need, God will always strengthen our soul. In the words of Saint Paul, we will be strengthened in our ‘inner being with power through his Spirit’.
The Lord be with You!
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