Thursday – 27th Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel – Luke 11:5-13

A Cry in the Night

Shepherds Field, Bethlehem

All of us who are parents can identify!  You are asleep, deep and dream-filled sleep.  And then the quiet is broken with the sudden cries of your 5-month-old child.  No matter how tired you are, how comfy-cozy you are, you answer the call.  You get up, you go to their room and do all you can to quiet their cries and soothe their distress.  You do it out of love, out of concern for them.  Yes, there are certainly times we do it out of persistence but, in the end, we do it out of love.  And we know we would not sleep well at all until their needs are met.

That is what we hear in today’s Gospel – Answer the door!  Whether it’s because of their insistence or your love for them, respond to the needs of others!  And if we don’t get the message, then look at it from the other person’s point of view.  Knock and it will be opened, ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find.  Jesus is giving comfort to those in need, promising them that their knock will be answered. 

And He is challenging us today – to open that door knock, to answer that request, to be Christ to someone in the hour of their need.  He reminds us that very often the prayers of one person are answered by the actions of another!  That is how God works!

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