I would give my children anything they need, anything that is good for them, so long as I had it in my possession. In fact, parents often err on the side of excessive generosity, giving to their children things that they do not need, do not deserve or cannot handle responsibly. We have to be careful not to give too much to our children, because we love them and we desire to keep them from all unhappiness.
We take pride in this generosity and we know how ready we are to help them with anything they need.
When we think of prayer, however, we seem to imagine that God does not love us as much as we love our children. We imagine that God would not respond as generously as we would. This is a principal reason why we struggle to pray.
We don’t believe that God is as good as we are. We may say we do, but our actions reveal our true thoughts.
In this morning’s antiphon, we read the words of Jesus, who corrects this error in us. The words of the antiphon are taken from Our Lord’s words in Matthew 7, where He teaches:
Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh, receiveth: and he that seeketh, findeth: and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Or what man is there among you, of whom if his son shall ask bread, will he reach him a stone?7:10. Or if he shall ask him a fish, will he reach him a serpent? If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more will your Father who is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him?
Matthew 7:7-11
Whenever we pray, we should consider how we would respond if one of our children so prayed to us–and then remind ourselves that God is more generous than we are.
God bless,
William C. Michael, Headmaster
Classical Liberal Arts Academy
