“Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh, receiveth: and he that seeketh, findeth: and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Or what man is there among you, of whom if his son shall ask bread, will he reach him a stone? Or if he shall ask him a fish, will he reach him a serpent? If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more will your Father who is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him?”
To love someone without knowing them is foolish, and so knowing the Beloved, requesting His Spirit, and asking of Him what He already wishes to give is here laid out. Because the ways of God go beyond what can be attained by human reason and effort, “For as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so are my ways exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:9), the Lord looks to draw out your best by making you seek Him. Asking is done by prayer, and knocking by putting your hands to good work, and through these you will open yourself the understanding when you seek by exploring the Scriptures and the writings of the saints. The Our Father and the Psalms are prayers given by God that teach you how to pray and what to ask for, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1) and cover the entirety of human need and experience. The Almighty Trinity longs to furnish you with good things: “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head,” which is Christ, “is full of dew, and my locks of the drops of the nights” (Song 5:2), which represent the outpouring of love and spiritual graces He longs to open to you. When you ask Him for the things that are pleasing to Him, conversion and perfection of souls, for the ability to love, a heart that shares with His heart, “My son, give me thy heart: and let thy eyes keep my ways” (Proverbs 23:26), this will be eagerly heard and given: “Thy almighty word leapt down from heaven from thy royal throne” (Wisdom 18:15); “And this is the confidence which we have towards him: That, whatsoever we shall ask according to his will, he heareth us” (1 John 5:14). It could also be said that asking, seeking, and knocking refer to faith, hope, and love, for when you ask for His love, it will be given you, and this will ignite a desire for Him that causes you to seek His Heart and His ways: “O how I have loved thy law, O Lord! It is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 118:97). When you seek, you will find in yourself a heart that loves and the grace to walk the narrow path of love, and this allows you to knock on the Heart of Christ and enter in, basking in His love; this is to enter the holy of holies: “Having therefore, brethren, a confidence in the entering into the holies by the blood of Christ; a new and living way which he hath dedicated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh” (Hebrews 10:19-20). By this you will come to possess and be possessed by your Savior: “I to my beloved, and my beloved to me” (Song 6:2). With what eagerness should be the seeking then! When love jettisons all other loves from you and you seek with total self-abandonment, then you distill love down to its most pure essence, which is God: “God is love” (1 John 4:16). If you feel unworthy, Jesus emphasizes that, no matter whom, sinner or saint, His merciful love is open to the one who simply asks. Everyone that asks for His love receives it, everyone that seeks Him in love and truth will find it, and everyone that knocks on the door of His Heart will find a place to dwell and a fire at which to warm their cold soul: “Come to me, all you that labor, and are burdened” with seeking love where perfect love is not, “and I will refresh you” with the sweet dew of love: “He shall come down like rain upon the fleece; and as showers falling gently upon the earth” (Psalm 71:6). He will refuse His Heart to no one, in fact seeking them before they seek Him: “Go ye into the highways; and as many as you shall find, call to the marriage” (Matthew 22:9). Ah, the love that sits in the Sacred Heart, waiting to be poured out like a thundering river to the one that will come to drink! “The stream of the river maketh the city of God joyful” (Psalm 45:6). He then moves into looking at the gifts parents give their children. Rather than being filled with nervousness and despair about asking for the good things of the Lord, run to Him as an eager child, climb up on your Abba, and ask plainly for what is righteous and good: “Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just: let the earth be opened, and bud forth a saviour: and let justice spring up together: I the Lord have created him” (Isaias 45:8-9). What is pleasing to the Lord is given with haste: “And the word was pleasing to the Lord that Solomon had asked such a thing. And the Lord said to Solomon: ‘Because thou hast asked for this thing… I have done for thee according to thy words, and have given thee a wise and understanding heart” (3 Kings 3:10-12). If you ask for the bread of love; of a heart that nourishes others with love, He will not give you a stony heart. If you ask for the fish of faith and wisdom, He will not give you the serpent of deception and fear. Because people are fallen, and don’t know how to give as perfectly and as lovingly as your Abba, they are called “evil” in comparison with the extraordinary love that they can receive. O Theophila, if you were to go to your dearest family members and closest friends and ask for love, would they not be stirred to show you in many ways how loved you are? How much more so He who holds the world in His hands? “How great are thy works, O Lord? Thou hast made all things in wisdom: the earth is filled with thy riches” (Psalm 103:24). The Lord Himself exhorts, “Give to him that asketh of thee and from him that would borrow of thee turn not away” (Matthew 5:42) and does as He teaches. Now, a gift asked for is withheld when it is not to the benefit of the one asking, but He will give a better gift to the one that goes to Him, for He keeps that which is less that He may give that which is greater. Therefore, He may keep temporal requests from you that He may draw you into seeking love, wisdom, and His Heart. These are the greatest gifts you can ask for, and He will give them with haste when you bring this to Him.