AND I TELL YOU, ASK AND YOU WILL RECEIVE

Gal 3,1-5; C Lk 1,69-75; Lk 11,5-13
11 OCTOBER

To understand well, according to divine light, the teaching of Jesus, it is good to relate it to the request made by Solomon to his God and Lord. He did not ask for special goods. He asked for the source and the font from which springs every true good that is Wisdom. We know the king’s prayer to ask for Wisdom.

God of my fathers, Lord of mercy. you who have made all things by your word And in your wisdom have established man to rule the creatures produced by you, To govern the world in holiness and justice, and to render judgment in integrity of heart: Give me Wisdom, the attendant at your throne, and reject me not from among your children; For I am your servant, the son of your handmaid, a man weak and short-lived and lacking in comprehension of judgment and of laws. Indeed, though one be perfect among the sons of men, if Wisdom, who comes from you, be not with him, he shall be held in no esteem. You have chosen me king over your people and magistrate for your sons and daughters. You have bid me build a temple on your holy mountain and an altar in the city that is your dwelling place, a copy of the holy tabernacle which you had established from of old. Now with you is Wisdom, who knows your works and was present when you made the world; Who understands what is pleasing in your eyes and what is conformable with your commands.

Send her forth from your holy heavens and from your glorious throne dispatch her That she may be with me and work with me, that I may know what is your pleasure. For she knows and understands all things, and will guide me discreetly in my affairs and safeguard me by her glory; Thus my deeds will be acceptable, and I shall judge your people justly and be worthy of my father’s throne. For what man knows God’s counsel, or who can conceive what our Lord intends? For the deliberations of mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans. For the corruptible body burdens the soul and the earthen shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns. And scarce do we guess the things on earth, and what is within our grasp we find with difficulty; but when things are in heaven, who can search them out? Or who ever knew your counsel, except you had given Wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high? And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight, and men learned what was your pleasure, and were saved by Wisdom (Wis 9,1-19).

Even if Jesus leaves the heart free so that it asks all material and spiritual good to the Father, he suggests in a very “delicate” way that the true good always to be asked of the Father is the Holy Spirit, that is the Eternal Wisdom that assists God in all his works. Even Christ Jesus, in his mission as Saviour and Redeemer of man, is perennially assisted by the Spirit of the Lord. The Holy Spirit is wisdom, intellect, counsel, fortitude, science, piety and fear of the Lord. With him that governs our life, everything will be transformed for us into good. With him, we do not need anything.

And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,’ and he says in reply from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’ I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence. “And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

Without the wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit, man consumes his energies in vain. After having worked, having laboured and having consumed all his energies, he puts the good earned in a laundry bag, ruled by people who in their folly only know how to enlarge the holes, rather than close them. At the end of his life, without the Holy Spirit, he will end up in the sack of Hell’s fire, from which no one ever goes out. Nothing is more necessary to man than the Holy Spirit. It must be asked insistently.

Wise Virgin, Angels and Saints, obtain for us the Holy Spirit without measure.