Galatians 3:1-5
Luke 1:69-75
Luke 11:5-13
When a parent gives something to their child, they are showing their love. They provide for their children because they love their children. It is the tendency of fallen humans to be selfish, to hold onto what is good, but this tendency is broken when a parent looks at their child. Suddenly, the desire to be generous is overwhelming. Every parent wants to give their children the whole world. A man might be selfish and mean and ruthless, but still have big plans for all that he could provide for his son.
This is one of the great dangers of our current culture of birth control. Becoming a parent changes a person for the better. They suddenly have to think beyond themself. As people delay having children into their twenties, and into their thirties, and into their forties, they extend their own childhood, their own period of self-concern. Consider the parable of Jesus today. Who is the person who persistently asks for something until we get out of bed to get it? It is not our neighbor. It is a child who will not stop crying until they get what they need. No one knows persistence like the parents of a newborn. They learn generosity through suffering because no matter how much they hate getting out of bed, their love for their child will make them answer their cries.
That is how we are supposed to be with God. As a newborn calls out to its mother for food and comfort, so we should be in prayer. God has amazing gifts to give us, but he cannot give them to us until we ask. If we ask once, perhaps we do not even know what we are asking for. When we ask twice, we begin to feel the need. But only after we have asked again and again, persistently, will we begin to know what we are asking for, and only once we know that longing are we ready to receive the gift. God will not leave us emptyhanded. God has promised to provide for us, and he will do it. He is a father who keeps his promises. He promised to send a Savior into the world who was powerful enough to free us from our enemies, and he did. He promised to send his Holy Spirit on the Church, and he did.
Daily Homilies
