Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
This Sunday’s Gospel is packed with so many gems that tell us what kind of God we have and how he feels about us. Since day one in the Garden of Eden, the Enemy has been trying to convince us that God is a distant tyrant and lawmaker, a controlling master who withholds from us all the things that could make us happy. But Jesus’s words in this week’s Gospel paint a dramatically different picture. When his disciples ask Jesus how to pray–how to talk to God–he replies that we should call him “Father.” We are so used to this mode of addressing God that we can forget what a stunning and humbling title that is. Jesus doesn’t say that we should approach God groveling and apologizing, calling him “master” or “sir” or “your majesty,” but that instead we should crawl into his lap and call him our Father.
He then goes on to share the parable of the persistent petitioner who keeps asking his neighbor for a loaf of bread. In my own prayer, I often feel like I am that neighbor—a pesky nuisance who keeps knocking at God’s door, asking over and over for the same longings of my heart. But Jesus tells us that our persistence doesn’t irritate God, it provokes his generosity—the same way that the cries of a child summon the loving arms of their parents. Sometimes we can be afraid to even ask God for what we want or need, deciding in advance that it must be beneath his notice or beyond his help. But today Jesus encourages us: ask! Seek! Knock! Not only is God closer to us than we know, but it is his pleasure to provide for us.
Sometimes the answer to our prayers doesn’t come in the form or in the timing that we expect. But let today’s Gospel be a comfort to us; a reminder that we have a good Father who holds nothing back from his children, who does not trick us or ignore us or laugh at our prayers. And as fathers often do, he knows better than we do what will make us truly happy. One of my favorite quotes from St. Therese is, “To limit your desires and your hopes is to misunderstand God’s infinite goodness!” So let’s keep bringing our desires to the Father, trusting in his providence and his tireless love for us.
Jule Coppa, Penn Campus Minister
