and I are in bed, so I can’t get up and give you anything.’ But I tell you, even though he will not get up and attend to you because you are a friend, yet he will get up because you are a bother to him, and he will give you all you need. And so I say to you, ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For the one who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to him whoknocks the door will be opened.If your child asks for a fish, will you give him a snake instead? And if your child asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion? If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”
Lectio Divina
READ: Abraham negotiates with God the fate of Sodom. Saint Paul writes to the Christian community in Colossae, saying that God gave us life in Christ, forgave our sin, etc. In the gospel passage, Jesus teaches the disci- ples how to pray and stresses God’s generosity and the impor- tance of persevering in prayer.
REFLECT: Three things may be noted in the prayer that Jesus (thought) taught the disciples: first, it was in a communitarian context that he taught the dis- ciples how to pray. We say, “Our Father” and not “My Father.” This would mean that people in the group/community/Church are in mind. Second, by addressing God as our “Father”, we share in Jesus’ relationship to God as Father. It is through Jesus that we are able to call God “Father”. And third, calling God “Father” brings us to a relationship of sisterhood and brotherhood to the other person who also calls God “Father”. A new and extraor- dinary relationship is formed with this person when we call God “Father”. The key here is the “call”; it is not a simple or meaningless “call” we use, but a profound address to God as our “Father”. When we approach God as “Father”, as Jesus did, then we can truly see the person next to us as a sister or a brother. That is why our prayer for daily sustenance, for forgiveness, and for deliverance from temptation, becomes also a prayer for the sisters and brothers who call God their “Father”.
PRAY: God, our “Father”, help us grasp the profundity, meaning and implications of calling you our “Father”.
ACT: Strive to see the other person as a sister or as a brother.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2019
