Homily for Thursday of the 1st Week of Lent
Theme: SEFICACY OF PRAYER
By: FR GERALD M. MUSA
Homily for Thursday March 10 2022
Esther rose from zero to heroine. She was an ordinary Jewish girl who was selected by Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes 1) to be a Queen. Thereafter, there was an order issued for the extermination of all Jews. Mordecai, her uncle asked her to use her position as queen to save her people. The entire Jewish community fasted and prayed for three days, so that she could meet the king and seek his intervention. She pleaded with God in her prayer saying, “…Help me who am alone and have no helper but you…” Her prayer and audience with the king saved the Jews from extermination. Prayer is a trustful relationship with God, who is a loving father that always gives us what is good at the appointed time. Jesus says, “For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:8). During a spiritual encounter, Catherine of Siena heard God saying to her: “It is I who gave you the hunger and the voice with which you call me. Never lower your voice in crying out to me to be merciful to the world. I give to those who ask, and I invite you to ask. And I am very displeased with those who do not knock.” Do we always pray with confidence and trust to God our loving Father?
ESTHER 14:1,3-4,11,13-14; MATTHEW 7:7-12; Thursday, First Week Of Lent