Gospel: March 13, 2025

March 13, 2025 (Thursday)

1st Week of Lent

Psalter: Week 1 / (Violet)

Ps 138:1-2ab, 2cde-3, 7c-8

Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.

1st Reading: Esther C:12, 14-16, 23-25

Gospel: Matthew 7:7-12

Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, receives; whoever seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Would any of you give a stone to your son, when he asks for bread? Or give him a snake, when he asks for a fish? However bad you may be, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him! So, do to others whatever you would that others do to you: there, you have the law and the prophets.

See Also

Syrian refugee family prays for Pope who brought them to Rome

Reflection:

“God lives in us.”

Queen Esther pleads with all her heart for the Lord’s help. She and her people are in mortal danger, and only God can save them. The Lord responds to Esther’s earnest plea and ends Haman’s plot to eradicate all the Jews of Persia. And yet, we might have prayed earnestly to God and the prayer seems to go unanswered. We might have prayed countless times for an end to the wars, for an end to corruption or for the healing of a loved one, but no answer seems to come. Drawing from Saint Paul, the French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin reminds us that God is not just out there, but that we live in the divine milieu, that we live in God and God lives in us. And so, while we cannot comprehend how the suffering we or others experience fits into God’s plan, we are to remember that we are all part of that bigger picture which God paints and in which God can draw goodness and beauty even out of evil and sorrow. So, while we challenge injustice or suffering, we also wait on God patiently when we cannot change the situation, trusting in his providence.